CHRISTMAS EVE IN TIMARU

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23083, 23 December 1944, Page 4

CHRISTMAS EVE IN TIMARU

Crowds Throng Streets The carefree atmosphere of the old peace-time Christmas Eve was more in evidence last night than in the previous six years. Factors favouring this increased amount of gaiety were the more plentiful supply of Christmas goods and the unusually mild night after a considerable amount of rain. Early in the evening car parking places were filled and every side street added its quota to the stream of pedestrian traffic in Stafford Street. The footpaths on both sides of the road were crowded with streams of people, which overflowed on to the roadway. In some of the main stores, it was necessary to move along with tire crowd, and assistants had a strenuous time coping with the demands of the many customers. That delight of schoolboys—the penny cracker—whose “bang” used to be so disconcerting to the elderly, was noticeably absent this year. Its place was only partly filled by “gazookas," and there were plenty of these on ths streets. An innovation was the plenteous use of confetti, which gave Stafford Street the appearance of a “white” Christmas. Season’s Greetings The spilling of confetti over one’s shoulder by a stranger—especially if she was youthful—was taken in good part and there were no noticeable objections. People were bright and cheerful, and on every hand the exchange of the season’s greetings could be heard. “And a Happy New Year" wjs said this year with a deeper significance than the peacetime greeting. This time it was associated with hope and belief that the New Year would bring once more “peace on earth”—at least in Europe. With such a crowd in the main street there were many meetings of old friends who had not seen one another for a long time. Even the policeman’s cold “move on, please,” could not stop their conversation, which was continued on the edge of the pavement. During the evening the Salvation Army Band played, also the Harmonica Band, escorted by a retinue of admiring boys. Even after the shops had closed, there still remained a crowd in Stafford Street and it was not until a late hour that the street was really deserted. Stafford Street was closed to vehicular traffic from 7 p.m. to 10.30 pm., during which hours the buses departed from and arrived at King George Place. Credit is due to the police and the Traffic Department for the capable way in which the traffic was handled during the crowded period.