ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 24, 1996 TAG: 9611250173
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SHELBIANA, KY.
SOURCE: Associated Press
CHILDREN IN RURAL Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia don't have much, but they have a little more after the ``Santa Special'' rolled through their towns.
You'd think living beside a busy railroad line would be a headache. But 7-year-old Alexandra Little didn't seem to mind.
The ``Santa Special'' pulled up right in front of the Shelbiana girl's home Saturday. The little girl with flowing blond ringlets walked right up to the train and put in her order - a Barbie Dream House.
``I'll see what I can do,'' said Frank ``Santa'' Brogden, a retired Eastman Chemical executive. He gave her a doll and a stuffed Dalmatian with a Santa hat to tide her over until Christmas.
Saturday's trip was the 54th running of CSX Transportation's Santa Special, which kicks off the Christmas season in central Appalachia in the same way the Macy's Parade starts it for New York. The Kingsport, Tenn., Area Chamber of Commerce has sponsored the train as a way to thank the region's residents for their business.
Grannies in shawls and rosy-cheeked youngsters gather at tiny towns and remote crossings as the train winds its way each year through the coalfields of eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.
Children with plastic shopping bags line the 110-mile route and scramble for a bit of the 15 tons of toys, notebooks, cookies and other treats Brogden and a team of volunteers throw off the back. Parents and grandparents, many of whom met the train as children themselves, stand by with video cameras to capture the joy.
Dillon Adams, 7, caught up with Santa in Elkhorn City, an old railroad town on the Kentucky-Virginia border. He snatched up a pair of slippers, then quickly dropped them when he saw they were for a girl.
``I couldn't fit them,'' he said slyly, then decided to pocket them for a cousin.
The route goes through stunning mountain scenery - and deep pockets of poverty. Most who ride and help toss gifts are buffeted by waves of emotion.
``It's just an unusual feeling,'' said Janyce Dudney of Kingsport. ``It's happy, it's sad, it's exhilarating, it's fun. I'm really glad that I've gotten to be able to experience this.''
Tennessee Gov. Paul Patton, who grew up in the area and whose father worked for the old C&O Railroad, was riding - and seeing - the Santa Special for the first time.
``It's just one of those things I didn't do when we were raising our children here,'' said Patton, a former coal operator whose home is in Pike County, where the train begins its annual journey. ``We've been deprived.''
Patton, his wife, Judi, and their two grandchildren - Paige, 6, and Chase, 11 - helped throw gifts from the train in Shelbiana and Elkhorn City.
``Oh lordy,'' Patton yelled. ``That was fun. I enjoyed that.''
Gov. George Allen met the train in Virginia.
Some adults get more worked up than the children in the dive for presents. Brogden had to admonish several grown-ups to let the little children get something, but he couldn't begrudge them their enthusiasm.
``I believe that we're all kids at Christmas,'' he said. ``And all of us, if we believe in loving and giving and sharing, believe in Santa Claus.''
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines KEYWORDS: 2DAby CNB