80th Anniversary of The Flying Santa
In recent years, as December builds up to a crescendo for Christmas festivities, Bill Gifford, becomes a modern day Flying Santa. As the pilot of his own 1930 Winkle bi-plane 2-seater, Bill takes off from Bayport Aerodrome on the mainland of Long Island in New York State. The aerodrome is a small heritage airport where local aficionados of historic airplanes house their treasured possessions. Happily ensconced in the cockpit of his vintage bi-plane, Bill flies southwesterly across the Great South Bay and buzzes the Fire Island Lighthouse a few times. Visitors enjoy a sense of anticipation as they watch for the bi-plane to arrive and circle the lighthouse high up in the blue winter sky.
Everyone hopes that this December 2009’s date for the scheduled fly-by will be a crisp and sunny day, with perhaps the gentlest breeze. Lynn Dunlop, Program Director of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society, ruefully recalls that the first such reenactment was to be in 2003, on the 50th anniversary of the Flying Santa’s first and only fly-by at that lighthouse back on December 17, 1953. The 2003 reenactment had to be postponed twice due to snowy weather. It finally took place on January 3, 2004. Each year since that time, the more appropriate December dates have been physically possible.
The original Flying Santa was Bill Wincapaw who, 80 years ago in December of 1929, first buzzed a remote lighthouse in his airplane and began distributing gifts to isolated lighthouse families. The gifts for lightkeepers and their families were carefully wrapped as a parcel and floated down with a handmade “parachute,” targeted to settle near the intended recipients.
Obviously, the continuation of the Flying Santa’s acts of kindness has been through the efforts of more than one pilot and helper. First Bill Wincapaw’s teenage son Bill Jr. joined in. He soon introduced his father to Mr. Snow, one of his high school teachers. Edward Rowe Snow began to assist them. He then continued to carry on the tradition for more than 40 years, only missing one year when he was recovering from injuries he sustained in World War II. Snow’s early assistants were his wife Anna-Myrle and their daughter Dorothy, who readied packages for the yearly Christmas airdrops to various far-flung lighthouses and Coast Guard stations. In fact, Snow claimed that he distributed more than 4000 individual gifts.
Actual deliveries to remote locations have continued to this day, almost as a grassroots effort. Distribution has been by boat, helicopter, and other means, but the enduring image and primary manner of delivery remains the small open-cockpit airplane.
The Fire Island Lighthouse is no longer considered remote and isolated in the purest sense; it has been “bridged” by causeways and bridges to the mainland since the 1960s. However, the uniqueness of such a type of delivery is worthy of being honored in history. And the Fire Island Lighthouse delivery on December 17, 1953 was an easy date to remember because, although it is now well over a century since the Wright Brothers completed their first flight, that date marked the 50th anniversary of that remarkable feat.
That 1953 Flying Santa visit remains significant to the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society, a group that has worked to preserve not only the actual lighthouse but also its history. As mentioned, Christmas 1953 was the one and only visit of the Flying Santa to the Fire Island Lighthouse. As history would have it, it also happened to be the last of six Christmases during Gottfried Mahler’s tenure (1948-1954) as Lighthouse Keeper at the Fire Island Lighthouse. He is now a volunteer for the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society. In recent years Gottfried Mahler has regaled audiences with some first-hand recollections about that exciting incident in 1953. Marilyn Mahler, his wife and former First Lady of the Lighthouse, has then displayed what the original airdrop parcel contained. Most are modern-day substitutions, but two original wooden toy vehicles, a car and a truck, still survive. Other items were crayolas (crayons), a coloring book, candy canes, a boxed puzzle, a deck of cards, a children’s storybook. The 1953 parcel also included grown-up items like mustache wax, scarves, a clay pipe, cigarettes, and the all-important object for Gottfried Mahler’s entertaining story: a penny postcard to send back to the Flying Santa.
Therein lies an account of a series of coincidences. A mere two years later, in 1955, the Flying Santa, who, as it turns out, was also author Edward Rowe Snow, wrote about these historic flights in his latest book, Famous Lighthouses of America. He also quoted from a few of the reply postcards that he received from keepers acknowledging receipt of the Flying Santa presents.
By then Gottfried Mahler was on his next assignment on a Coast Guard Cutter. His aunt lent him that very book for his tenure at sea. He began to read it in his bunk one night and laughed out loud because there on page nine was the information and message from his own postcard: “Fire Island Light, Bay Shore, Long Island, N.Y., 12-17-53: Dear Flying Santa, We have received your package. Many thanks, and a Merry Christmas to you and Happy Landings… The Mahlers and Hodges.”
As for why this former lighthouse keeper was a recipient of an airdrop parcel in a fly-by from the Flying Santa in 1953 – Gottfried Mahler was taking flying lessons and had met the Flying Santa in person at Zahn’s Airport.
Gottfried was a member of the East Islip Early Flyers and was attending Flight School as part of the GI Bill. As Gottfried explained it, he would get a 48-hour leave, go off-island in his skiff, and drive by car to at Zahn’s Airport. Edward Rowe Snow asked if he could drop off anything while he buzzed by to show some people a new airplane. He recalled that Mr. Snow said, “It is a lonely life in a lighthouse. What can I drop you?”
Gottfried’s immediate reply was newspapers - “to catch up on the news” - because he and his family only rarely journeyed to Ocean Beach, the largest community on Fire Island. He recollected that he was all the way at the top of the Fire Island Lighthouse when Edward Rowe Snow surprised him with the first fly-by. When Snow buzzed the tower, out flew not the much-anticipated parcel of newspapers, but shredded newspaper! On the second fly-by, Snow dropped a box suspended from a handmade parachute. Gottfried said he actually ran down the 192 spiral steps of the lighthouse to retrieve it!!
by Cheryl Dunbar Kahlke