More on Dutch Christmas
Dear Bay Weekly:
Nice article on “The Last Day of Christmas” [Dock of the Bay: Vol. X, No. 2, Jan. 10-16].
The the Dutch Saint Nicolas traditionally arrives by steamboat and then travels on via horseback and brings presents, which he and helpers toss through the chimney.
As a child I always wondered how they were never burned, when the coal stoves we used at that time were pretty hot and the stove pipe pretty narrow. As my dad worked at an airplane factory, for kids of workers there Saint Nicolas arrived by plane (Fokker Friendship), and we received a box with gifts in one of the huge production hangars. Good memories.
Later I got to play the role of the saint several times, both at a school and one time for the organization where I worked, where I had the pleasant task of quizzing my new manager, who started fresh on that day, whether he had been at his best behavior that year.
These days everyone [in Holland] has some form of central heating and steamboats are gone, but the celebration is still on.
The one thing that your writer got wrong is the date of the celebration, which is actually December 5.
— Alphonsus J. Marcelis, Washington, D.C.
Two Views on BWI
Dear Bay Weekly:
I could not understand the lambasting editorial “BWI: Turning Travel Into Torture” {Vol. X, No. 1, Jan 3-9]. My family, which includes a five year old and a 12 year old, and I have traveled using BWI airport no less than seven times since September 11.
We traveled via Southwest and United airlines. We spent no more than 40 minutes in any security line that “looked” like it would take forever, and all airport personnel and airline personnel were extremely helpful. Southwest was the quickest line we waited in. The airport was far from maddening or difficult.
On one trip we went to the airport two hours early, as suggested, and spent one hour and 20 minutes sitting at the gate because things went so smoothly.
I do not remember anyone having to jump into or out of a moving automobile. My wife was even allowed to park for 10 minutes during a pick-up on one trip.
World over, people for years have traveled through security like we are experiencing today. Airports here in the U.S. have and will continue to improve their operations as quickly and as “smartly” as possible in a nation that travels more than any other by air.
The longest wait we had was in Chicago’s O’Hare airport. That’s where I grew up, so I know all the tricks!
— Tom Wakefield, Crofton
Dear Bay Weekly:
Isn’t it incongruous: BWI was previously named Friendship Airport!
— H.W. Feder, Crofton
Up with the Ravens; Down with Burton
Dear Bay Weekly:
Bill Burton must be eating too many catfish or mud carp because Baltimore is a great football team that won the world championship for the state of Maryland. A great accomplishment. It appears to me that Mr. Burton is not a true Marylander and should move to Washington, D.C., and support the Redskins, because the good people of Baltimore and Maryland do not need his negative comments about our great football team and the great owner Art Modell.
I would hope that in the future Mr. Burton will stick to writing his Mickey Mouse fishing stories. When Marylanders go fishing, they go to Florida, anyway. Why doesn’t he write about fishing in Florida?
— Ricky Walega, Glen Burnie
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