An Army of Normal Folks - Pat Koch: The Chief Elf of Santa Claus, Indiana (Pt 1)

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Pat Koch and an army of figurative elves respond to upwards of 30,000 letters per year that are addressed to Santa Claus and miraculously arrive in their town of Santa Claus, Indiana. No one is paying them to do this, they're just normal folks doing the right thing because they can. And Pat is officially the "Chief Elf" of the town!Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When my kid was five years old from Memphis back when one of them was five, if they wrote a letter to Santa Claus and put a stamp on it, does it just get to you guys somehow? Does the post office honor that tradition? How does it work? That's how it works. No kidding. It works if it says the guy in the big red suit, if it says North Pole. You know, it's that Christmas season.

If we could be that way all year long, wouldn't it be wonderful? I mean, everybody along the way will add an address. We'll add PO Box 1, Santa Claus, Indiana. This past season we called from Thanksgiving to Christmas over 23,000 letters. Twenty-three thousand letters that have to be answered? Yes, yes. And some years it's thirty thousand. Welcome to an Army of Normal, folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal folks, I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy.

I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in inner city Memphis and the last part unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about our team. It's called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits talking big words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of normal folks, us, just you and me deciding, hey, I can help. That's what Pat Cook, the voice we just heard is done. Pat is the chief elf, believe it or not, of Santa Claus, Indiana,

a town that somehow got that name and somehow gets tens of thousands of letters addressed to Santa Claus every single year. And Pat and her army of elves have carried on a legacy of responding to each of those letters every Christmas. I cannot wait for you to meet Pat right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. The big take from Bloomberg News brings you what's shaping the world's economies with the smartest and best informed business reporters around the world.

Western nations like the U.S. and Europe. Mexico will likely have its first female president. And then you have China. And help you understand what's happening, what it means, and why it matters. He'll get his yo-yos to Europe in time. But the longer this drags on, the more worried he's getting. They knew that they needed to do this as fast as they possibly could to get a drug on the

market as fast as they could. I'm David Guret. I'm Sarah Holder. I'm Solea Mosin. We cover the stories behind what's moving money in markets. Basically everyone was expecting, if not a calamity, certainly a recession. But the problem is that that paperwork, as our reporting showed, is fake. Someone who's covering the market, I'm often very worried about an imminent collapse.

I'm thinking about it quite often. Listen to the big take on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Solea Mosin, and I've covered economic policy for years and reported on how it impacts people across the United States. In 2016, I saw how voters were leaning towards Trump and how so many Americans felt misunderstood by Washington. So I started The Big Take DC. We dig into how money, politics, and power shape government and the consequences for voters.

It's an election year, so there's a lot of focus on the voters that TikTok is reaching. The initial reaction is like, oh, things are looking so resilient. I don't want to be too pessimistic, but I just don't see the political will down in Washington right now to change their tune. I think the American electorate has been signaling that it expects a rematch of the 2020 election. These are unprecedented times. With new episodes every Thursday, you can listen to The Big Take DC on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or whatever you get your podcasts.

I'm Hannah Storm and my podcast, NBA DNA with Hannah Storm, digs deep into the history of professional basketball, along with my own as one of the first female sportscasters. Now let's get you up to speed on what else happened around the NBA today. We talked to all sorts of people I interacted with from Dr. J to Charles Barkley and recap iconic moments. Yes, he's got it. Here he comes. Rock the Charles Barkley and recap iconic moments. Yes he's got it. Here he comes. Rock the baby to sleep and slam dunk. As well as some of the wild stories behind the scenes. We were like what? What are we in for? The scoreboard crashes before we even tip a game off.

Today the NBA is a global sports and entertainment giant. Players are multi-million sports and entertainment giant. Players are multimillionaires and cultural icons. And these stories are about how we got here, both on and off the court. And what's next? Listen to NBA DNA with Hannah Storm on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode is really going to be fun. It is after having conversations about some really deep subject matter with addiction and unwed mothers and tattoo removal and a lot of heavy heavy stuff we've talked about over the last few weeks. I'm really looking forward to to our chat today. We're talking with Ms. Pat Cook from Santa Claus,

talking with Ms. Pat Cook from Santa Claus, Indiana. Pat's story goes way back and is really interesting. And Pat, I just wanna thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, thank you. I'm glad to be here. Love to talk to people. Love to talk about the town. I really, I'm so in love with the town

and with the wonderful people who bring joy to so many kids. Well you know my first exposure to Santa Claus Indiana is just a street sign really. I think there's an exit somewhere in Indiana there's an exit on the interstate that there's a sign that says Santa Claus Indiana if I if I'm not right, isn't that right? Yes. Yeah, so I was driving down the interstates going to sell lumber up in Elkhart, Indiana on the way from Memphis. On my first trip up there 20 something years ago.

And I remember passing that sign. And of course I giggled to myself like anybody might giggle. Who would name a town Santa Claus, Indiana? And, you know, it just, it was kind of a warm chuckle and to be speaking with you now. So first of all, tell me about you. Tell me about when you were born and tell me about, you know, how you got to Santa Claus,

and just give me a little background on the pat world. Okay. I was born Patricia Anna in a little German town called Maria Hilf, which means Mary help, very Roman Catholic part of the world, very German. Was born August 14th, 1931. 1931? You're at least 40 now. I am, yes. A little bit over.

1931. Pat, you put the year out there. That's, I'm 69, 79. How old, that's 90 something, you're 93 or so. I'm 92 and a half. Wow, that is amazing. And I'm gonna tell you something, you know, an army of normal folks is audio only, so people don't get to see you, but Pat, you are handling 93 like a champ. You look great. You don't look 93.

I don't know what 93 is supposed to look like, but that's not it. Oh, that's right. I don't know either. I don't know how I'm supposed to look or act. So I just do me. No, I'm very fortunate. My mother was a beautiful, lovely woman

who lived to be 98, had beautiful white hair, grew up there and to the Benedictine sisters from Ferdinand, Indiana, who have a great beautiful monastery there, only about 15 miles away, were the teachers in the grade school, grades one to eight. So grades one to four were in one room and grades five to eight were in another room, and we got an absolutely wonderful education. We learned to read, write and spell. We learned to pray. We learned to sing in German and Latin.

And I'm very grateful, grateful for that wonderful education. How to write cursive, imagine that. And then I went to Dale High School, which was also about 10 miles away. And it was actually just a, it was not a Catholic high school. That's some other people from other religions and other walks of life. Small town Dale, great basketball team loved high school, loved every bit of it. Cheerleader on the student council, all that stuff got involved, had bunches of meetings, had a lot of it. Cheerleader on the Student Council, all that stuff, got involved, had

bunches of meetings, had a lot of fun. Loved my high school years. My mother and father, they sort of let, I only had one brother and he was three years older than me, so he graduated from high school and joined the Navy and left home. My dad had, it's hard for me to tell this whole story, but my dad had been in the Navy for 14 years and had left the Navy early because he had had, he and my mother had had my brother and he went back to Mariah Hill

and saw the beauty of a small town and decided to leave the Navy and come back to Moriah Hill. And that's what he did in 1930. So I was born then the year later. He had had a roadhouse in Chicago during Prohibition. Wonderful, great stories they told about getting their beer kegs at night in the dark of night with men with guns. I had a childhood of being in, my father built the first tavern that they built called the Diamond Tavern. I have pictures of myself in front of that. I don't know if that burned or if it, I don't know if he, if they just demolished it or what, but then he built the Chateau because he had been in France during World War I

and he loved the Chateaus. It was a beautiful brick structure which looked like a Chateau. So I grew up in a bar, pool, room and dance hall. And that was a lot of fun. I bet it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. I learned to play pool at a very young age.

My mother took me to tap dancing lessons. I learned tap dance. So in the dance part of the room, of the chateau, I would dance. So people would throw quarters and nickels at me. So I was an entrepreneur from the very beginning. Of course, I lived through World War II. I was born in 31, so you're talking 41, 47, 46.

Saw the soldiers coming home, sitting at the bar having a beer, and then seeing a flag in the window, meaning a gold star mother, and we lost a lot of young men, a lot of young men. So I grew up during that, but that was my high school days. So except for being aware of rationing gas, rationing sugar, rationing coffee, we had to, my father then went to work in Evansville as a shipyard supervisor because in Evansville, Indiana, they made the LSTs on the Ohio River. You know what the LSTs were?

They were what? My first question to you. LST, don't tell me, I really want to guess. LST were, no, I don't know. It doesn't sound like an overly large boat. So maybe recon boats? LST stands for Landing Ships Tanks. Really?

And they were very large. They were made so that they had a huge, there is one still in Evansville that's on display and is a historical LST. And, um, my father accompanied them to New Orleans and handed them over to the Navy. Are they the boats with the, with the big thing that the troops get in them, they go to assault a beach, the front flops down and everybody runs off the front.

They were at Normandy. They were at Normandy. They were at Iwo Jima. Yes. Everybody that's watched a World War II movie has seen those. And your father oversaw the manufacture of those. Yes. And my mother, Kristen, won.

No kidding. That is... Wow. What a history. Yes. a christened one. No kidding. That is, wow. What a mystery. Yes. So the war came and dad was in Evansville. And so my brother, my mother and I were running the chateau

and we had to close, I think it was 10 o'clock. It had to be dark. I know that. But so I spent more time in the after school, I'd be in the chateau. And it was an interesting, interesting way to start your life. Then I went to Dale High School and somehow or other, the sisters had put into my being a love for education,

a love for learning, a love to read, I love to spell, I love to do English. Didn't like math very much, but so I really wanted an education after high school. Now that I was a girl, you know, in 1948, I graduated from high school at the age of 16 because three of us either did grades two and three at one year or we skipped. We don't know. The other girl has passed away. The other boy is a priest in a nursing home and he doesn't know either. But we were all three good readers, good spellers. I don't think we learned much math. But anyway, I graduated age of 16 and I thought I want to go to college. Well, my mom and dad had both had six grade educations.

Really weren't very interested in that. So I worked for a year to be a little older to be able to apply to a nursing school. And I tell this story to young women and boys too, but for some strange reason, first I went into the principal's office and said, I'd like to go to college. Because four boys in our class had gone to college. No girls. IU, they went to Indiana University.

And I said, I'd like to go to college. And my wonderful principal, who was a good man, said to me, why would a girl want to go to college? That was the end of my quest for college, and I really didn't think I had a chance, but I wanted an education. So I went to Dale, got on the Greyhound bus by myself, which I have no idea how I did that. Went to Evansville, Indiana where the sisters, daughters of charity, I don't know Bill if you know they're the ones with the big wings.

Yeah, the big hats. The big hats. They were in charge of that hospital. And I enrolled myself in nursing school. That was my beginning to, I guess, my life. And now, a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first, if an army of normal folks has impacted you or inspired you to take action, I really want to hear about it. Write me anytime at bill at normalfolks.us and I'll respond. I want to hear about it. We'll be right back.

The big take from Bloomberg News brings you what's shaping the world's economies with the smartest and best informed business reporters around the world. Western nations like the U.S. and Europe. Mexico will likely have its first female president. And then you have China. And help you understand what's happening, what it means, and why it matters. He'll get his yo-yos to Europe in time. But the longer this drags on, the more worried he's getting.

They knew that they needed to do this as fast as they possibly could to get a drug on the market as fast as they could. I'm David Dura. I'm Sarah Holder. I'm Saleh Emosin. We cover the stories behind what's moving money in markets. Basically everyone was expecting, if not a calamity, certainly a recession. But the problem is that that paperwork, as our reporting showed, is fake.

As someone who's covering the market, I'm often very worried about an imminent collapse. But the problem is that that paperwork, as our reporting showed, is fake. Someone who's covering the market, I'm often very worried about an imminent collapse. So I'm thinking about it quite often. Listen to the big take on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Solea Mosin, and I've covered economic policy for years and reported on how it impacts people across the United States. In 2016, I saw how voters were leaning towards Trump and how so many Americans felt misunderstood

by Washington. So I started The Big Take DC. We dig into how money, politics, and power shape government and the consequences for voters. It's an election year, so there's a lot of focus on the voters that TikTok is reaching. The initial reaction is like, oh, things are looking so resilient. I don't want to be too pessimistic, but I just don't see the political will down in Washington right now to change their tune. I think the American electorate has been signaling that it expects a rematch of the 2020 election. These are unprecedented times. With new episodes every Thursday, you can listen to The Big Take DC on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or whatever

you get your podcasts. I'm Hannah Storm and my podcast NBA DNA with Hannah Storm digs deep into the history of professional basketball along with my own as one of the first female sportscasters. Now let's get you up to speed on what else happened around the NBA today. We talked to all sorts of people I interacted with from Dr. J to Charles Barkley and recap iconic moments. Yes, he's got it. Here he comes. Rock the baby to sleep and slam dunk.

As well as some of the wild stories behind the scenes. We were like, what? What are we in for? The scoreboard crashes before we even tip a game off. Today, the NBA is a global sports and entertainment giant. Players are multi-millionaires and cultural icons. Igadala to Curry, back to Igadala, up for the layup. Oh, blocked by James. LeBron James. Players are multimillionaires and cultural icons. And these stories are about how we got here, both on and off the court. And what's next?

Listen to NBA DNA with Hannah Storm on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The first year of nurses training had made a lot of friends had a lot of fun. Big town of Evansville, Indiana, which is on the Ohio River, boating out to Duck Island, doing a lot of fun stuff, but loved nursing. The beginning of the second year of nurses training, a very charismatic priest named Father, I knew his name, I forgot it, in a big long black cassock with a belt of leather and in sandals came in to give a retreat and talk to us about

our religion and about being Catholic and that sort of thing. And he was so wonderful. He talked about serving and giving and not thinking of self, but thinking of others. And I was hooked. And so I went home and told my mom and dad that I wanted to be a sister, and I wanted to be the kind of sister

that ran that hospital, because they were fun, they weren't boring, they were fun, they laughed, they joked, they were very professional, they were very smart, they were very educated, and that's what I wanted to be. And so I had to wait a year till I was almost 18, got into the Daughters of Charity and was sent to St. Louis to what they call the postulancy.

And that was three months. And then a year in seminary at the mother house, beautiful, beautiful building. A year of almost complete silence. We talked only at recreation, which was twice a day. Big change from this girl that was having a lot of fun nurses training, dating, doing all the things young women do.

But I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was peaceful. I felt like I was becoming someone I wasn't before. So at the end of that year and three months, almost a year and a half, I received the habit, which was the big hat and the beautiful blue outfit and was sent to Hotel Dew, House of God in New Orleans to complete my RN. And then was sent to Loyola University part-time to get a bachelor's degree. So I spent about five years in New Orleans, loved it, wonderful town. You know, the people loved the Sisters. They had been in that hospital.

They had Charity Hospital, which was a very poor hospital that took in very poor people. And I did my pediatric experience there. Psychiatric hospital also belonged to them. So it was just a wonderful experience. But then I had a wonderful, the Daughters to Charity, the head of the hospital was called the Sister Servant. I think that's an amazing title.

Servant, you know, she was the servant of the hospital, the servant of the sisters, the servant of the patients. And she was such a role model to me. I just admired her. She was once again, smart, fair, tough, absolutely knew her business knew how to she said to me one time something I never forgot. I'm not running a person at popularity contest, I'm running a hospital. And she did

that. And so at some point after the five years there, I got word that I was to go to St. Louis University to get bachelor's degree in nursing full time. Did that full time love that loved it love going to school love stayed at the mother house where there was prayer and beautiful chapel. After that mission, which was me, I was sent to Chicago, St. Joseph's Hospital in Chicago. Whole different world, whole different world. I was still, you know, 18. I know, I was older than that. I was 20 by that time. And that hospital, the sister servant, was not like the one had been at New Orleans. We worked so very hard, moving beds, emptying garbage, doing laundry. There wasn't as much time for fun, if that's the right word. In New Orleans, Sister Carla said, let us go out in a car driven by somebody to look at Christmas lights. We went out to Lake Pontchartrain and jumped in the water. Things that gave us courage again to keep on going.

But that wasn't the case in Chicago. And one night I got a call from somebody and I know not who, I can't remember that like it happened, that my father had had a heart attack at the American Legion, which he found it because he was a veteran in Santa Claus, Santa Claus American Legion. And they said my father had had a heart attack

and they had brought him home. My mother was ill, my brother was in the Navy. And I was never, the daughters of the charity were never allowed to come back home after they entered the order. It was a rule that St. Vincent Paul made because he went home to his father and mother one time and then he hesitated to go back to his parish.

So he said, you will not return home ever. So I was not ever supposed to go home, but I said, I've been taking care of all these people in New Orleans and in Chicago, and I should be able to take care of my mother and father. They were alone. My mother wasn't well. And so I did that.

I left. Probably one of the hardest things I ever did in my life, really. It was just very difficult. I loved the daughters. I loved nursing. It was a great life. It is amazing to me that from 16 to 20, you lived more life than some people do by their 30s. That's true. I came home on the train from St. Louis to Washington, Indiana. It was February and it was snowing like crazy. I was wearing a, it was I think Squaw Valley. Remember Squaw

Valley Olympics, right? Skiing. Yeah. And I had on a cap because we had practically no hair under all of that. Had to go find some clothes, didn't have clothes, didn't know what size I wore, didn't know anything, didn't know about a hamburger, didn't know much. But got on that train and my mother said, I can come get you and dad come catch you. So we're going to send Bill. Bill was Bill Cook, K-O-C-H. His family had a business in Evansville, and his father had come to Santa Claus, Indiana, after he retired with a heart attack, to find out that there's nothing in Santa Claus, Indiana,

for children. And he had nine children, and he was a very good grandpa dad, wonderful man, very smart, Cook family is very smart. And so he went to Santa Claus Indiana and said, I have to do something, there should be something here for children. So he built a very small theme park called Santa Claus Land, and it was built for small children.

At that time, his son Bill had been in the Navy, graduated from the Naval Academy, come back home, started to get into the family business in Evansville, decided it wasn't for him and asked his father if he could come to Santa Claus and take over that little park. And his father told me that he didn't think it would make anything, it was just gonna be

a little kiddie park. And so he came there in 47, I'm pretty sure, because grandpa started the park in 46. And so the man that my mother sent to pick me up at the train station was that Bill Cook. Who ends up being my husband. So you grow up, your father's a World War I vet,

then he's building the boats that we use to go to Normandy. And he would dream up. You want to learn and go to college, you end up becoming a nun, then you leave being a nun to take care of your Elling parents, and you end up, and lo and behold, Santa Claus, and end up marrying the guy

that picks you up to take you to your parents house. What a crazy story. So, so let's talk. We were married 40 years. He was 16 years older than me and well Natalie sitting here they're very smart so my kids are really smart because I'm married a smart man. But I think they have a pretty smart mom too. It was a great marriage because if you can't tell I'm the people person. He was the engineer, graduate naval academy, numbers guy, planner, dreamer. I was the down to earth let's get this work done. We were a great team. That's an awesome story.

We'll be right back. The big take from Bloomberg News brings you what's shaping the world's economies with the smartest and best informed business reporters around the world. Western nations like the US and Europe. Mexico will likely have its first female president. And then you have China. And help you understand what's happening, what it means, and why it matters.

He'll get his yo-yos to Europe in time. But the longer this drags on, the more worried he's getting. They knew that they needed to do this as fast as they possibly could to get a drug on the market as fast as they could. I'm David Dura. I'm Sarah Holder. I'm Saleh Amosin. We cover the stories behind what's moving money in markets.

Basically everyone was expecting, if not a calamity, certainly a recession. But the problem is that that paperwork, as our reporting showed, is fake. As someone who's covering the market, I'm often very worried about an imminent collapse. I'm Solea Mosin and I've covered economic policy for years and reported on how it impacts people across the United States. In 2016, I saw how voters were leaning towards Trump and how so many Americans felt misunderstood by Washington. So I started The Big Take DC.

We dig into how money, politics, and power shape government and the consequences for voters. It's an election year, so there's a lot of focus on the voters that TikTok is reaching. The initial reaction is like, oh, things are looking so resilient. I don't want to be too pessimistic, but I just don't see the political will down in Washington right now to change their tune.

I think the American electorate has been signaling that it expects a rematch of the 2020 election. These are unprecedented times. With new episodes every Thursday, you can listen to The Big Take DC on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or whatever you get your podcasts. I'm Hannah Storm and my podcast, NBA DNA with Hannah Storm, digs deep into the history of professional basketball, along with my own as one of the first female sportscasters. Now let's get you up to speed on what else happened around the NBA today.

We talked to all sorts of people I interacted with, from Dr. J to Charles Barkley, and recapped iconic moments. Yes, he's got it. Here he comes. Way rock the baby to sleep and slam dunk. As well as some of the wild stories behind the scenes. We were like, what? What are we in for? The scoreboard crashes before we even tip a game off. Today, the NBA is a global sports and entertainment giant.

Players are multimillionaires and cultural icons. Igadala to Curry, back to Igadala, up for the layup. Oh, blocked by James. LeBron James. And these stories are about how we got here both on and off the court. And what's next? Listen to NBA DNA with Hannah Storm on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So you're in Santa Claus and Santa Claus the city. Who names a town Santa Claus? How did that happen? Well, you know, I started in a museum. So in the museum, you have to come see us. There is the document, 1856. There was a postmaster in Fulda,

and he decided that this little town, that my grandmother called Santa Fe, Grandma Apollonia always called the town Santa Fe. And I thought it was she was wrong, that in my day we didn't correct our grandparents. So she was right, it was Santa Fe. And we have a plot map of the town of Santa Fe, very rural, but it was laid out in streets. It had a creamery, a school, a doctor, an inn, residents, and it was a very small town. So the guy from Fulda, the postmaster,

thought they need a post office. And he applied to Washington City, it says up at the top of the document, for a post office and gave the description. And whoever looked at that said, choose another name than Santa Fe. I don't know if they weren't very smart or if they didn't see the two Es or what happened,

but there was already a post office called Santa Fe in Indiana. So someone who I can't find out wrote Santa Claus at the bottom in black ink. There were no computers. So it's just it said Santa Claus and that somebody marked through that and somebody wrote seed lick or sad lick over here. That was crossed through and then somebody wrote Santa Claus with an E, which is not correct. But the magic of that whole thing is that the postmaster who asked for that town to get a post office called Santa Claus was named Nikolaus Fisher.

– You've got to be kidding me. Like Saint Nick? – Yep. It's a little bit. – That is irony of irony. And so all this happened in the mid 1800s. Yes, 1856. Right now. Yeah. Unbelievable. So now because of the United States Postal Service, this little town in Indiana, Santa Fe becomes Santa Claus so they can get a post office. But later when your dad's there, letters start arriving. We are told that letters were arriving in 1914, but we can't find any document about that. But we do have a history of the line of postmasters and we do have the original post office

building which was a log building and I have that moved on the grounds of the museum. It is there, very small log covered over now, the logs covered over. But it was a very small building with a logs covered over. But it was a very small building with a fireplace and no bathroom. So I'm sure there was an outhouse, probably a spring, I don't know. But that's how they lived. So yes, then dad when he came home in 30 and built the diamond tavern and then the chateau, you know, he was very interested in the town and he would go visit the postmaster at that time, Martin, James Martin. A lot of people from that area were from Alsace, Lorraine, which was sometimes under the French, sometimes under the German. So they were actually Martin, but it got changed to Martin in the United States. And my dad saw how many letters they

were getting that were from children to the town of Santa Claus. And with his love for now, didn't put in the piece of why my dad really got interested in helping kids and being Santa Claus. When he was in the Navy and he was 19 years old, he was on a ship called the USS New York in Brooklyn Navy Yard.

And they decided to have a Christmas party for children. They called them disadvantaged children. And they were preparing for the party and somebody in command said, we need a Santa Claus, what will we do? Somebody else said, there's a guy down in the engine room that says he's from Santa Claus, Indiana. Why don't we ask him? That was my dad. That's hilarious.

Isn't it? And I have the picture of him on board ship in the worst outfit you ever saw in the life. The worst beard you've ever seen, this artificial beard, but the kids all around him just so excited and so happy. And he told me, and it's in literature, that he made a vow to God that if he lived through the war, he would be Santa Claus. And ends up living in Santa Claus. In Moriah Hill, but spent most of his time in Santa Claus.

And that's when he saw the postmaster being inundated with letters and said, I have to do something to help these. This postmaster is so busy, he can't do all of this. So he started picking up letters and putting them in his car, taking them around to schools, to the Sisters of Ferdinand. There was an Abbey at St. Minard, typing class at Dale High School.

Whoever could answer letters, got letters. You know, it just became his passion. And then he just started being Santa Claus more and more and more, and being more involved in that with going to, he was a big Legionnaire so he would go to Legions for Christmas parties and wait, he went, he was in parades in New York, Miami. He just flew in a helicopter to Indianapolis, out to an Obie show. He became famous really. He was on so many programs, but he was such a veteran,

he was such a caring person. He was such a, he loved kids. And he was Santa Claus then from 1931 until 1984 when he passed away, 53 years. Things are so much different today and handedly I've raised four kids and it seems like with more and more TV, more and more social media and more and more exposure, kids expectations and wishes and dreams are vastly different today when I was only a kid. And I'm sure I was vastly different than two generations before me.

Do you have a sense of what a kid's letter back in the 1930s and 40s to Santa Claus, what they asked for? Yes, my father saved them. I have them at the museum. Amazing, what do they say? Give me a couple of examples of your favorite. Oh, I'll tell you, this letter comes from Catherine. And Catherine says that she's writing

for her brothers and sisters. She asks for gloves for John Mittens first. I can't name the children, but it was gloves, underwear, mittens, socks, shoes. And then she says, mama's fat, but she doesn't want anything. And then she names all the children and they were like 12, 11, 10, nine, eight. And she says, and the others are dead. And she says, I'm writing this for them. And then so if you could bring them something,

I would be so happy. And that letter is in a book that I have co-authored. That's letters to Santa from 1930 on. They're written on all kinds of paper. They're all like that, asking just for the things they need. Food, clothing. And then it actually when you see the letters, it's almost history because you can see how changed eventually now it's computers.

And well, and I wonder when you think about that context and people today that say they're broke or they're poor. They really have, they really are losing sight of what people only a couple of generations back really suffered in our country. Yes, but I think some people today are suffering like that because they don't have the means that they would like to have. My grandmother, who I stayed with when my mom and dad would be at the chateau, she spoke German and she would walk out in the garden with her in the 1940s. And she would say, es ist nie mulcheno. That translates not well to, it is no longer nice here.

So grandma, who at that time probably was in her 60s, thought it wasn't nice in the 40s. And I think that's culture, or that's just the way it is. Things change. And I don't like that much change, I know that. And he said yesterday, no, last night I was at a book club and this woman said, children have no respect these days. And I stopped and I said,

there are some children who don't have respect. But two weeks ago, I was at the local high school, lucky to be there. When the sophomore girls from the two high schools in our county, North South Spencer and North Spencer, came together in a wonderful program called ASPIRE, and it was done by the Chamber of Commerce and some other organizations, that they would bring in professional women to talk to these young women in sophomore classes in our high schools, to give them an idea of what they could do, that they can do things, that they can get an education. And those young people, this was a whole high school gym full of young women,

were so respectful, so, so they listened, they were, they took part, they moved around from table to table to talk to a doctor, to a chiropractor, to a hairdresser, to a mother, to a chef, all these different people so they'd get an idea of what they might want to be. While I talked to some children, there was one who wants to join the FBI. There was one who wants to be an engineer. There was one who wanted to be a mother. And those young people, there are still those young people in the world, and we just hear about the bad ones. I love that perspective.

And that concludes part one of my conversation with Pat Cook and you don't want to miss part two that's now available to listen to as the chief elf will warm your heart even more. Together guys, we can change the country. But it starts with you. I'll see you in part two. I'm Solea Mosin, and I've covered economic policy for years and reported on how it impacts people across the United States. In 2016, I saw how voters were leaning towards Trump and how so many Americans

felt misunderstood by Washington. So I started The Big Take DC. We dig into how money, politics, and power shape government and the consequences for voters. With new episodes every Thursday, you can listen to The Big Take DC on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you what's shaping the world's economies with the smartest and best informed business reporters around the world. We cover the stories behind what's moving money and markets. And help you understand what's happening, what it means, and why it matters every afternoon.

I'm Sarah Holder. I'm Saleh Emosen. And I'm David Gura. Listen to the big take on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to season nine of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I've got some big news to share with you in our season premiere featuring the one and only Chris Jenner. Oh my gosh, congratulations. That is very, very exciting. And that's just the beginning. We'll also be joined by podcast hosts Jay Shetty, Hillary Clinton, Renee Flemming, Liz Cheney, and many more.

So come on in, take a break from the incessant negativity for a weekly dose of fascinating conversations. Some of them, I promise, will actually put you in a good mood. Listen to Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.