Santa has been a regular at E.M. Heath's for 60 years

CENTER HARBOR — Santa has been arriving at the E.M. Heath Supermarket here faithfully every December for more than 60 years.

That tradition continued last Friday when Santa arrived by fire truck and was greeted by fourth generation of members of the Heath family, Rubi and Jorgia Garrow of Northwood, as their grandfather, Rick Heath, watched proudly.

Santa brought along free gifts for all the children who have their picture taken with him, which were handed out by Meca Atkinson, the Snow Princess. Children were also served cookies and milk during Santa's visit.

Heath says that the tradition dates back to 1948 or 1949, when he was just a couple of years old, and has continued since that time.

''The fire station has always been just up the street and some years, depending on how cold it was, Santa would take a ride on the fire truck down Bean Road or out onto Lakeshore Road,'' Heath recalls.

He says that over the years a number of people have portrayed Santa, including a couple of women, and that old timers around town will recall the efforts of people like Jim Barry, W. Irving Brown and Clyde Brown, as well as Carolyn Schoenbauer, to make the event a memorable one for young people in the community.

''It was kind of fun to watch the children's reaction when a woman portrayed Santa. It seemed like none of them were aware of that. One of the women was very nervous and couldn't do it again, but the other one loved it and wanted to keep coming back as Santa,'' says Heath.

He said that Heath's was originally in the building where Yikes Gallery is now located and that when his parents, Everett and Madeline Heath, moved to town in 1945 they bought what had been an old country store where people showed up with a shopping list and a basket, which was filled by a store clerk.

''After a few years they went to self-service and had four aisles where customers picked out their own goods,'' says Heath, who says that because of the wide variety of general store items that were sold, everything from shovels to seafood, the store was soon billed as "Dealer in Most Everything".

In 1963 Everett's oldest son, Bob joined the family business on a full time basis and the growing company incorporated. In 1969 the Heaths changed their business model by constructing a new building on the lake side of Rte. 25 as home to their first supermarket, while expanding their hardware and clothing lines in the original store.

The next several decades saw many company changes as the Heath's family of businesses grew to include another supermarket in Meredith in the 1970s, two additional hardware stores and a specialty gourmet store.

The 90's saw some corporate consolidation as locations were either sold or closed. Today E.M. Heath, Inc. operates a True Value Hardware store and a full-line supermarket in the village of Center Harbor. Additionally, the company is involved with limited property management.

Also during the 90's some key employees were made stockholders giving them a minority ownership in the business. Today those key employees run the day to day operations while members of the Heath family are members of the board of directors of the corporation and oversee the business.

Rick Heath, who served as a long-time manager of the store, says that he's been involved in real estate for the last 12 years, and is proud of the way the employees have continued the family tradition of a locally-run supermarket, something unusual in a day of large supermarket chains.

He said that his dad's spirit lives on in the business he founded as the company looks to serve the local area residents and frequent seasonal vacationers in a friendly, spirited way while still striving to maintain its small town roots as the "Dealer in Most Everything".

This week through Saturday E.M. Heath Supermarket is donating five percent of all purchases, with the exception of alcohol, tobacco and lottery to the local food pantries in Meredith, Center Harbor, Moultonborough, Sandwich and Tamworth.

CAPTION

Santa Claus has been arriving at the E.M. Heath Store in Center Harbor for over 60 years and last Friday was greeted by a fourth generation of the Heath family, Jorgia and Rubi Garrow of Northwood, as their grandfather, Rick Heath, watched. (Roger Amsden/for The Laconia Daily Sun)