The nearly empty streets of Columbus took on a kind of serenity Christmas morning as thousands of people exchanged gifts and celebrated the holiday within the warmth of their homes. Banks, government offices and most businesses remained shuttered, except for a handful of restaurants and convenience stores.
But anyone in search of bait was in luck.
One of the few “open” signs illuminated on this overcast morning beckoned patrons to Bulldog Bait & Tackle, a small, cabin-like shop off Victory Drive in Rotary Park. Inside, owner F.D. Williams sipped coffee and waited to serve the loyal fishermen he fully expected to take advantage of a day off.
“We’ve got light bills to pay, you know. Phone bills to pay,” Williams said. “This time of year, there ain’t much income coming in. It’s been really tough -- but we’re still here.”
To pass the time, Williams watched television, read the newspaper and chatted with co-workers Marie Cady and V.W. Lawhorn.
“He’s the reason we are working on the holidays,” Cady said, nodding at Williams. “We haven’t had a single customer yet. But we’ll get a few here and there, and after lunch is when they’ll come out and come fishing.”
The bait store employees weren’t the only ones on the clock this holiday.
Patrolman Max Todd of the Columbus Police Department drew shifts on both Christmas Eve and Christmas this year.
“It’s a regular work day to us,” Todd, 26, said as he sat in his cruiser.
Todd usually spends half of Christmas Day with his family and the other half with his girlfriend’s folks. But not this year.
“It’s hard to get this day off because people put in their request quite a ways in advance,” he said. “I’m just passing the time right now. It’s a pretty quiet day.”
Michelle Postma, a 20-year-old student at the University of Georgia, said her family also adjusted their Christmas plans this year around work.
“My family went to Colorado to snowboard for the first time, but today we’re not really doing anything because my dad’s working,” she said during a break from riding her bicycle. She called the family trip “delightful.”
Some were also on the job across the river in Phenix City, but it was very much a day of relaxation for 12-year-old Jacob Benton and 10-year-old cousin Gage Thames. Both boys spoke exuberantly of their good fortune and a generous Santa Claus. Thames unwrapped a Nintendo Wii with five games, while Benton received a new black dog, Lucy, clothing and a new bicycle, a replacement for one that was recently stolen from his Seale Road home.
“It was great, even though me and my dad got into an argument about socks,” Benton said.
Meanwhile at Central Laundry on 14th Street, Thomas Eckstein struck up a conversation with two strangers. All three men expressed some disillusionment with the commercialization of the holiday and agreed their morning was better spent in the laundromat.
“It’s supposed to be celebrated as the day Jesus was born,” said Ed Brawner Jr., a minister with Bethany Christian Outreach who supervises a drug rehabilitation program. “There shouldn’t be this much pressure on people to buy gifts.”
Eckstein, a mechanic, acknowledged his Yuletide enthusiasm has diminished, but for good reason.
“Three years ago when my mother died, she died on Christmas Eve,” Eckstein said, removing his final load from the dryer. “I’m getting better though. I actually put a Christmas tree up this year.”
