East County residents hang memories on a string

They spend most of their life tucked away in a far corner of the attic or garage, out of sight.

But in the weeks prior to Christmas, they hang in all their glory, bringing back memories of long ago.

Christmas ornaments.

While some of those ornaments are department store bling, many others represent a favorite story of another time and place. The East County Observer found a few of those stories as we head into the holiday season. 

A teacher’s heart  

Country Club resident Mollie Saia spent 30 years teaching in Maryland before retiring three years ago.

On her tree, she places a set of three bulbs, each with a picture of a Nativity scene. A special-needs high school student gave them to her back in 1998. 

“He became social and knew where to go when he needed help,” Saia said. “He was coming out of his shell.

“He gave (these ornaments) to me with a note,” she said. “(He and his mom) said how they appreciated the time and effort I took.”

Travel bug  

For the past 40 years, Lakewood Ranch’s Marta Calabrese has traveled the world, learning about other places.

Everywhere she has gone, the now-retired Calabrese has purchased Christmas ornaments — a Pinocchio in Italy, a dancing girl in Madrid , a Christ child in a walnut shell in Budapest.

Now she enjoys the memories. She especially loves a set of decorated eggs she purchased during a trip to Prague, Czech Republic. 

“At Easter in Europe, there are window displays and it’s like a mountain of painted blown-out eggs,” she said.

Snoopy sensation

For the past 40 years, Summerfield resident Melanie Murguia has been enamored with Charles Schulz’s comic strip, “Peanuts.”

Now, her Christmas display is Peanuts-centric.

Trying to pick a favorite, she said, is like “picking out your favorite kid — it’s really hard.”

One that stands out is a glass ornament of Snoopy atop his red dog house. She said the glass ones now are harder to find.

“I like the soft sheen and pretty snow effect,” she said. “They’ve gotten away from a lot of the creativity.”

Memories
of a friend 

It was 30 years ago when East County’s Tonya Ditty developed a friendship with a fellow instructor at Sarasota County Technical Institute, Hines Schellenberger. Ditty had met him earlier when she was a student at the school and he was an instructor. She eventually returned to the school to teach cosmetology while he taught culinary arts.

Schellenberger was a German native and Ditty’s ancestors were German. So on a trip to his homeland, Schellenberger purchased three Hummel Christmas ornaments for Ditty.

Schellenberger died years ago, but his memory comes back to Ditty every time she sees those ornaments that sit in a china cabinet behind a closed, locked door.

She lets very few people touch the ornaments for fear one might break.

“I would be devastated,” she said. 

 Family first

Waterlefe Golf and River Club resident Katherine Hubanks’s most prized ornaments are from her first Christmas with her

family.

Born in Germany, she spent her first year in an orphanage in Stuttgart. Her adoptive parents, Joseph and Violet Zelensky, were stationed in Stuttgart with the U.S. Army. She was a year old when they adopted her.

The Christmas tree that year had several German ornaments, including a trumpet, two glass Santas and another glass bell-like ornament. She still has them.

Her favorite, however, is called a “bird in a cage.” It is a clear-plastic house with a windmill inside that turns when warmed up. She always places it by a light so she can watch it turn.

“This was on my first tree,” she said. “This was my first Christmas with them.”