ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230109
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-11 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS STAFF WRITER 'I'm a bah-humbug'
PEMBROKE - Just because a man looks like Santa Claus doesn't mean he's a
jolly old elf.
Dave Vicenzi of Pembroke is certainly no elf. He's not especially jolly, either.
"Actually, I'm a bah-humbug," snorts the 49-year-old owner of a combined business called New River Canoe Livery and Dave's Famous Italian Subs.
"I think Christmas is just too commercialized. It starts in October and goes until January. It's an economy, not a holiday. And it's just getting worse year after year."
"Christmas is snow and Christmas carols - the things you remember from being a kid," Vicenzi laments. "Today, there's 50 million gifts under the tree and none of 'em mean anything."
The brown-eyed Vicenzi, who describes himself as "a loudmouth Italian, that's for sure," said it wasn't until his beard turned silvery that he finally got some respect for his Clauslike appearance.
"Back in the '70s when I started growing this beard, I'd be hitchhiking and people would throw beer cans at me."
These days, he gets mistaken for a number of Christmas characters, not just Santa.
"I was walking through Food Lion when a little girl looked up and said, 'Look, Mommy! There's one of the Wise Men," Vicenzi said. "Then there was a little boy who asked me if I was Jesus."
"I must be moving up!"
It can be annoying
FLOYD - If folks refuse to believe Dale Dickson when he tells them he's Santa Claus, he might just produce the papers to prove it.
Dickson was married Dec. 30, 1976 - at North Pole, Alaska.
Now divorced, he's the father of six daughters. With their urging, he recently grew a ponytail to go with his snowy beard.
"My girls were always teasing me, telling me I didn't have enough hair to grow one," he said with a grin.
Dickson, 53, lives in Floyd County where everyone knows him as the "rabbit man."
"I raised rabbits for 35 years," he explains.
He grew up in Christiansburg, however, and joined the Air Force following his graduation from Christiansburg High School in 1962. He served in Vietnam and traveled all over the United States during his military career.
He remembers the exact day he decided to sprout his whiskers.
"It was July 1, 1977 - the day of my discharge," he recalls. "That was the first morning I hadn't shaved in my life."
"People are always telling me I look like Santa Claus - and Kenny Rogers," he says.
The resemblance, he adds, can be annoying.
"Women, especially, are beard pullers," he says. "They'll ask if it's real and get hold of it. I have to tell 'em to keep their hands outta my beard!"
Dickson has never had a desire to peddle his services as a Santa.
On Christmas Eve, however, he puts on the Santa suit he bought some time ago and fills a bag with candy. Then, he and several of his daughters whirl through local stores, passing out treats to the children they see.
"I've never gotten into the commercial part of Christmas," he says. "The five minutes I spend passing out the candy is worth more to me than hours in front of a camera."
'Mama! That's him!'
FAIRLAWN - "I can remember very well many a time going outside when I was a child on Christmas Eve, watching the skies and listening for sleigh bells."
B.W. Hedge of Belspring, a tiny community in Pulaski County, is 64, but he hasn't forgotten what it was like to anticipate the arrival of Santa Claus.
"I would worry, 'Will he really have time to get around to all the houses?'"
Hedge, retired from a 36-year career as a circulation manager for The Roanoke Times' New River Bureau, has been mistaken for the big guy more than once.
He was walking through Kroger recently, wearing a red shirt, when he noticed that two little boys kept eyeing him.
"Mama! That's him! That's really him!" they whispered urgently.
Hedge was flattered.
"It makes me feel good because I love children," says the grandfather of three. "It's a compliment when children call me Santa."
Once in a while, Hedge says, he's been called upon to help keep young whippersnappers in line.
He's tried to oblige.
"The manager of the gas station kept telling me he wanted me to meet his two sons because they were being mean," Hedge recalled. "Sure enough, I stopped at the gas station one day when they were there. Their daddy had told me to get on 'em about a race track they had torn up as soon as they got it."
"Well, both boys blamed each other," Hedge said, "but I kept after 'em. Finally, one boy had had enough. He said, 'Now, Santa, you keep talkin' about that race set that my brother tore up. What about that bicycle I asked for that you didn't bring?'"
Hedge's eyes sparkled with amusement.
"I guess he told me!"
Important role in life
FLOYD - Cara and Erika Williams make pretty, delicate tinfoil snowflakes for their father.
"My kids have been Santa's helpers for a long time now," says Tom Williams.
When little ones are gathered around him, listening intently to his soft voice, Williams hands out his daughters' "magic snowflakes" and tells the children to put them on their Christmas tree and make a wish for someone else.
"It should be a long-lasting wish," he advises. "Make a wish for good health or happiness."
"When Santa comes on Christmas Eve," he explains, "he'll look to see if your snowflake is on the tree. If it is, he'll make a wish for you."
Williams has a very clear vision of this thing he does.
"Santa is here to teach about love, about giving, about benevolence," he says.
Williams, who lives with his family in the Indian Valley community of Floyd County, is performing Santa at the history museum in Roanoke's Center in the Square this year. Last year, he was Santa at New River Valley Mall.
The musician-storyteller-teacher realizes he may be fulfilling the most important role of his life when he's dressed all in red.
"You really need to love children to do this well," he says. "I want to treat the last child I see today just like the first one. They're all special. They're each uniquely special."
You won't hear this St. Nicholas asking children what they want for Christmas. You won't hear him asking if they've been good boys and girls. You won't even hear him utter one single ho-ho-ho.
"Children are very honest for the most part and they really are curious. They want to know everything. They want to know who my parents are and how old they are," he says. "I tell them they're very, very, very, very, very old.'
"They want to know why I'm not fat and I tell them I used to be really heavy but Mrs. Claus and the doctor said that I shouldn't be so heavy, so I'm trying to watch my fat intake."
Because he tries to answer their questions honestly, Williams is rarely stuck for an answer.
Of course, there was that one time when a little girl asked him if he slept with his beard under the covers or outside the covers.
Williams scratched his head.
"When I'm asleep," he finally replied, "I don't know where my beard is!"
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Alan Kim. 1. Tom Williams. 2. B.W. Hedge. 3. Daleby CNBDickson. 4. Dave Vicenzi. color.