Word: offing
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Dates: during 1970-1970
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EUGENE AUGER always wanted to be Santa Claus, even when he was a young businessman selling cars, real estate and insurance in Stockton, Calif. Today he is a sick old man of 76 with a failing heart and a blood condition that has already caused the amputation of one leg...
Auger was 49 when a heart attack forced him to retire in 1943. He left Stockton, bought a long, narrow 51 acre strip of land running between the shore and the coastal highway south of Santa Barbara, and started to work on his town. He built a roadside assortment of...
There was a sign near the highway, "Santa Claus, [elev.] 9 feet, pop. 108," and a post office substation where extra workers were hired to handle up to 10,000 pieces of mail that passed through each day during the Christmas season. Auger's wife took out the last...
He sold Santa Claus to a local businessman who hired a high school student to wear the red suit and white beard during the tourist season. Santa's Kitchen, formerly a children's restaurant, now sports a swank cocktail lounge called the Reindeer Room overlooking the ocean. The...
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