CONSIDER A GIFT * HANUKKAH STORY * BILL AS SANTA * Bill's Coffeeshop Newsletter * Nov. 26, 2010

REMEMBER HUNGRY AND
HOMELESS AMONG US
As you head home to your family and friends for holiday celebrations, please keep in mind the people among us who are hungry and homeless. They are in each of our communities, from Sioux City to Iowa City from Decorah to DesMoines.

If you take a walk around Iowa City early in the morning, you are likely to meet people without a home trying to keep warm in stairways and parking ramps, The same is true in other communities around Iowa and beyond.

Groups like the Catholic Worker, Rescue Mission, and the Salvation Army have been providing food and shelter for individuals and families all over the US for many years. There are also locally-grown groups such as the Crisis Center in Iowa City and The Banquet in Sioux Falls. A gift to one of these agencies is especially helpful during the holiday season.

CONSIDER A GIFT OF
LISTENING, TOO
Nourishment comes not only from food. It also comes from being recognized, acknowledged and listened to. Bill Sackter had a gift for this. In the coffeeshop and on the bus, he listened to all who wanted to be heard. His example is something we can learn from in our own lives.

There are so many opportunities for us to listen. They often come when we least expect or when we do not feel "ready."

Anna taught me that. She first called me when I was a newspaper reporter. It was the second day of Hanukkah and she was terribly depressed. She missed her family and friends and wasn't able to get to the synagogue anymore.

Why did she call me? Her reply: I get your paper and thought you might listen. It wasn't exactly an opportune moment (my deadline was two hours away) and frankly I didn't know what to say.

But she didn't want me to talk, she wanted me to listen. So I listened. After an hour or so, she said thank you, Happy Hanukkah, and goodbye.

The next year she called again during Hanukkah. You listened to me last year, she said, so I figured you probably would again.

These calls became a Hanukkah tradition. After several years, she told me that she had been so depressed the first year that she'd been considering turning on the gas and killing herself. "But I didn't because you listened," she said.

Anna died a natural death more than a dozen years after her first call. But her lesson about listening has stayed with me. I suppose our opportunities to listen aren't usually so dramatic. But one never knows.
     -- Tom Gilsenan

HANUKKAH BEGINS
DEC 1. AT SUNDOWN
Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light, begins Wednesday, Dec. 1 at sundown. The eight day festival commemorates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem in the second century BC. For more about this festival, click on this link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah

HOLIDAY MEMORIES OF BILL

Excerpted from "The man who would be Santa," a chapter in the biography of Bill Sackter written by Tom Walz. Called "The Unlikely Celebrity," the book is available at Uptown Bill's in Iowa City or from your favorite independent bookstore.

Bill Sackter clearly had a special charm that drew people of all ages, races and social classes. His inner self flowed with such innocence that children followed him as they might the Pied Piper. In the place of a flute, Bill played the harmonica.

I suspect it was these personal attributes that made Bill so suitable for the role of Santa Claus. In most respects, Bill was the perfect Santa, except perhaps for the fact he was Jewish. When he was in his late 60s he was the right age to play December's mythical hero. His short, roly-poly body could not have been better crafted for the part. Also, his beard was long and unruly, and touched with the right shade of gray. He loved to laugh. He had eyes that twinkled; he had feet that could not stop dancing (or prancing); and he had a spontaneous ho-ho-ho that made up about five percent of his vocabulary.

WHAT IF WE NAMED HIM TOM

Tom Gilsenan has written a holiday story each year since 1999. Several have appeared in the Coffeeshop Newsletter. This story was first published in 2007.

"I'VE BEEN waiting for you," the young woman said as I walked into the coffeeshop. She got up from the booth and continued: "They told me you'd stop back in before you went home,"

It was a few days before Christmas and I was checking back in at the coffeeshop after a long day. It wasn't an unpleasant day, just a very long one. I'd been in the coffeeshop all day and had taken a break in the early evening to run a few errands.

"You probably don't remember me," the young woman said. "I'm Maya; you interviewed me for a story when I was in high school."

"You're right," I said. "I don't remember you. I'm sorry. But it's been a long time since I worked at the paper."

"Yeah, it was 10 years that you interviewed me," she said. "After I graduated, I went to California for awhile. It was just like in those stories you write:   Young person goes to San Francisco to find peace and love.

"Anyway, I met a guy on the beach in Santa Cruz. We moved in together. We fell in love," she said, then hesitated. "At least I did.

"And when I finally came back to Minneapolis, he came back with me. That was about two months ago. It was fall then and I was so happy.

"But a week ago we got into a fight about the holidays. It was something silly, but in the heat of the moment I got up and stormed out. I drove around for a few hours, enough time to cool off.

"I went home, thinking we could work things out. But when I got there, Bill was gone." Tears started streaming down her face. "I haven't seen him since. It's been almost a week; he hasn't called or anything.

"HERE IT is Christmas. I feel so awful. But I was just so tired and angry that night.

"I've going crazy ever since. I thought of going over to my dad's, but this whole thing is just too much like what happened to him. My mom walked out at Christmas – and never came back. I heard she's in Arizona or something now."

"Oh yeah, I remember that," I said. "It was quite a missing person story for awhile. But I didn't connect that with you. So that was your mom?"

"Yes," she said quietly.

"Does Bill know about your mom and all that?" I asked.

Oh yeah," Maya said. "I told him all about that and all the other crazy family stuff, too. I figured he should know before he came back to Minnesota with me."

We were both quiet for a few minutes. I looked down and saw our coffee cups were empty. "How about a refill," I suggested.

"Sure," Maria said.

As I walked back to the booth, I noticed a strikingly handsome young man come through the coffeeshop door. He looked like a surfer, but with brown hair. "Oh my god," Maya said. "It's Bill."

He walked slowly over to our table. He stood next to me and spoke quietly to Maria. "I've been looking all over for you," he said. "I've gone to our house every day. But you weren't there. And I've checked at this coffeeshop a couple of times a day."

Maya said she couldn't stand to be at the house and had gone to stay with a friend. She'd gone back once to get some clothes, but that was it. And she said she was so miserable that she'd called in sick at work for the past four days.

Bill listened and then sat down next to me. He took Maya's hand and said: "I thought the same thing was happening to me that had happened to your dad. You were leaving me at Christmas."

"Oh no," Maya cried. She leaned over the table and hugged Bill. "Can you forgive me?" she asked.

"Sure, if you'll forgive me," he responded.

At this point, I felt I was an intruder. I got up to go, grabbed a couple of bags of garbage and mumbled something about cleaning up. I went into the kitchen and stayed until they left about 30 minutes later.

Then I came back out to clean the tables. I found a note addressed to me in the booth. It said "Thanks and Merry Christmas from Maya and Bill." At the bottom was a PS: "We're having a baby. What would you think if we named him Tom?"

OPEN MIC AND
LEFTOVERS
You're invited to bring Thanksgiving leftovers to Open Mic on Friday, Nov. 26. We'll have a leftover potluck as part of the evening. Open Mic begins at 7 pm. All ages and abilities are welcome to perform. A sign-up sheet is poster on the side of the pop cooler.

MUSIC AT 7 PM
ON SATURDAY
Bree Nettie & Marty Letz perform Saturday evening, Nov. 27 at Uptown Bill's. 7 pm.

BENEFIT CONCERT
COMING DEC. 4
Circle Saturday, Dec. 4 on your calendar. I-Envision, a student group at the University of Iowa, will host a benefit concert for Uptown Bill's that evening. Starts at 6 pm. Featured band: Happygolovely.

HAMPSTER DANCE
RETURNS WITH "P"
One of the little joys of the Internet a decade ago was a website called Hampster Dance. It was a display of animated hamsters dancing to electronic music. When the North Hall room across from Wild Bill's Coffeeshop was a computer lab, Hampster Dance was a favorite among the lab users. Every now and the, the hamsters would even appear on the big projection screen in the front of the room.

But then both the website and the computer lab disappeared. After several comings and goings, Hampster Dance now appears to be firmly reestablished at: www.hampsterdance.com (note "p" in website address). You'll find the original dance, plus an assortment of others. There are even holiday dances.
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Bill's Coffeeshop Newsletter is a virtual extension of Wild Bill's Coffeeshop and Uptown Bill's Coffee House. Published since 2000, the Newsletter is written by Tom Gilsenan, a former manager of Wild Bill's and now director of Uptown Bill's. You can write to him at tomgilsenan@gmail.com

Wild Bill's Coffeeshop is a project of the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa. It has been a part of campus life in Iowa City for more than 35 years. Located in North Hall, the coffeeshop is open weekdays from 8 am. For more information, check the Friends of Bill's Coffeeshop page on Facebook. You can call the coffeeshop at (319) 335-1281. Donations to support the work of the coffeeshop may be sent to: Bill's Coffeeshop Fund, University of Iowa Foundation, P.O. Box 4550, Iowa City, IA 52244. Contributions to both organizations are tax deductible.

Uptown Bill's is the crosstown cousin of Wild Bill's. Now in it 10th year, it includes a bookstore, performance venue and other businesses in addition to a coffeeshop. Located at 730 S. Dubuque, Uptown Bill's is open every day from 8 am. For more information, check the Uptown Bill's page on Facebook. You can call Uptown Bill's at (319) 339-0401. Donations to support the work of Uptown Bill's may be sent to: Extend the Dream Foundation, Uptown Bill's, 730 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Contributions to both organizations are tax deductible.