LITTLE ROCK — Last-minute shoppers lined up at the Walgreens store at the corner of University Avenue and Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock almost an hour before the doors opened Christmas morning.
“We’re stocking eggs, milk and bread as fast as we can,” said Sally Scott, one of the store’s team leaders.
“I drove in from Benton to work and people were waiting in their cars. They asked when we got to the door when we would open up for business.”
With most big grocery stores closed for Christmas, and the weather forecast predicting snow for central Arkansas, Walgreens was a beacon for shoppers needing food staples. Scott and most of the people working reduced hours Tuesday said they didn’t mind being open for the holidays.
“People keep saying we’re sorry you have to be here, but, boy, are we glad you’re open,” Scott said.
All over the state, emergency workers, small shop owners, gas station attendants, airport personnel and dozens of other people postponed their Christmas festivities until Tuesday night in order to make it to work.
Walgreens cashier Priscilla Rainwater joked with a customer who came in to buy Christmas supplies.
“Are you going to bring me a piece of the cake you’re making?” she said, laughing. “I’ll be here until 4 p.m.”
Rainwater wished people a Merry Christmas and asked how their holiday was going. One man handed her a tip and told her to stay warm.
“People really have been so nice,” she said. “They’re just really glad we’re open.”
At Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock, ticket lines were short between flights. Family members huddledat restaurant tables, waiting for loved ones to arrive or spending time with loved ones who were preparing to board flights. Airport workers from the ticket counter to the security booths kept things running smoothly through mid-afternoon.
“This is just my normal schedule, and it happens to be that Christmas falls on a Tuesday,” said Jackie Brown, 27, a baggage handler for United Airlines.
Brown celebrated her daughter’s birthday Monday in Conway, then got up before dawn to make it to work for a 6 a.m. shift.
“It’s been pretty hectic. There was one plane that had to be swapped out for maintenance,” she said about 11 a.m. Tuesday. “It just started raining though, and the weather is what’s really going to affect how things go today. We had one flight already delayed coming into Little Rock.”
Brown and her friend, Candice Jones, 22, said the airline had already booked hotel rooms for employees in case they were snowed in.
“People have been nice so far. There was one man who was pretty upset because the travel agency he booked his ticket with made a mistake and he’s going to have to pick up his luggage in New Delhi,” Jones said. “But other than that, people have been pretty nice.”
In Jonesboro, Anthony Hotchkiss huddled in a small glassed-in booth at the parking garage of St. Bernards Medical Center and welcomed motorists with hearty greetings of “Merry Christmas.”
His festive cheer was a front, though, for his true feelings.
“It sucks,” he said of working security at the garage entrance on Christmas Day. “I don’t like it, but we do get holiday pay.”
Hotchkiss, who has a wife and 15-month-old baby at home, said his shift ended at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
“I’ll get off early enough to enjoy some of the holiday with them,” he said.
Most of Jonesboro was barren Tuesday and the forecast of heavy snow kept many indoors.
Only two cars sat in the Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot on East Highland Drive - a once-in-a-year rarity that regularly sees hundreds of cars at any given time.
The pace was slow Tuesday morning at the Jonesboro Holiday Inn on South Caraway Road, too. Jazzy Christmas music played on loudspeakers outside and competed with the noise of the gusting wind.
Inside, General Manager Gerald Prosise stood at the check-out desk and assisted two visitors who were leaving town before a forecast snowstorm hit.
Prosise said he had no family in Jonesboro and didn’t mind working on the holiday. He shortened work shifts so those who did work that day didn’t have to work as long as usual.
“I switched up and worked today so some of our employees could spend time with their families,” he said. “It helps my employees out.
“I’ll be doing the same thing on New Year’s Day.”
Sitting in a booth at the Citgo station on East Highland Drive and East Nettleton Avenue was Jonesboro patrol officer Larry King, who worked the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said of working Tuesday. “We have younger officers who have kids. I’m taking as many calls as I can to let other [officers] who are working pop in to their homes for a bit.”
King said by 10 a.m. he had already responded to two domestic calls. In one, a woman was angered because her husband didn’t buy their children enough Christmas gifts, he said.
King also responded to a call for a man fighting with his girlfriend after he claimed she took money from his wallet Tuesday.
There were some people who volunteered to work Tuesday in the name of Christmas spirit.
At Goodfellas Barber Shop on Asher Avenue in Little Rock, the shop was teeming with activity. Some workers swept the floor and tidied up while others sorted through boxes of donated toys and school supplies.
For the second year in a row, the shop, along with theNew African Alliance, held a Christmas dinner for the needy, offering free haircuts to men, women and children, many of whom haven’t had the money for things like haircuts in recent months.
“Last year, there was a man who must have been 50 or 60 who just cried,” said Muhammad Rasheed, president of the alliance. “This is more than just a barber shop; it’s a watering hole, a place where people can talk about what they’ve been through, about their lives and just have someone listen.”
Co-owner Donald Teague said they anticipated seeing about 150 people at the Tuesday event.
One of the highlights would be the return of a little girl, Nadia Penn, 13, who sang last year while people waited for haircuts, Teague said.
“She floored everybody,” he said. “That was one of the best moments last year, but the whole thing is really special. All of our people, 12 at this location and seven or eight at our other location, all volunteered to take a shift.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/26/2012