‘Saginaw Bill’ wanders into pleasant pandemonium

By John Howell
When Bill Harman of Saginaw, Michigan visited the Batesville Rotary Club’s December 13 meeting, local Rotarians soon discovered that he was not the usual visiting Rotarian. Harman soon learned that he had chosen to visit the local club during an non-typical meeting.
It was Rotary’s annual Christmas party where a group of Batesville Elementary School kindergarteners chosen by faculty are treated to gifts of toys, shoes, clothing — a mix of necessities and fun stuff. During these parties some guy with white hair and beard, red suit and black boots always shows up.
Pleasant pandemonium reigned. Children opened packages and scattered colorful wrapping paper. Then with new toys waiting to be played with, the kids waited semi-patiently while club members tried to determine whether they had chosen clothes and shoes in the correct sizes.
From previous experience hosts finally learned that children receiving riding and bouncing toys want to try them out immediately, so tables were pushed back, exposing a large portion of the Panola Country Club’s dance floor that also served well for trying out bicycles and such.
There were smiles in all directions, not least among them that of Harman, who visited the club while in Batesville working on the Polar Express. Harman is a Rotarian in Saginaw who sought out, as is customary for Rotarians when they travel, the Batesville meeting.
Several wanted to know if he is the Polar Express engineer.
“No, I’m mechanical,” he replied, explaining he makes repairs on and improvises replacements for machinery in the vintage passenger cars that carry pajama-clad families to the North Pole — things like generators and air cooling and heating systems.
Harman said Polar Express people called him because they know about his experience with vintage rolling stock — he owns two old passenger rail cars himself. One of the cars, he said later when he also visited the Batesville Exchange Club’s Wednesday morning meeting, is a lounge car where Canadian Pacific Railroad passengers during the heyday of rail travel viewed the Rockies from upper and lower observation areas, enjoyed libations from its bar or spent the night in bedrooms. Harman currently leases the car to an excursion railroad in Chattanooga.
His second rail car was once also a lounge car, this one on the California Zephyr. However, when Harman bought the car, it had been stripped of its luxury fittings. He said that he is slowly rebuilding the interior but with coach seating.
“The excursion trains prefer coach seating because they can carry more passengers,” he said.
Harman’s plans will keep him in Batesville with the Polar Express until next week. He said he plans to return home December 21.