Holiday Pageantry

It is the size of a brick and just as solid, weighing three pounds, filled with nuts and candied fruit galore including pineapple, cherries, walnuts, almonds, lemon and orange peel.

Certainly this Thanksgiving will be unlike anything that any of us have ever experienced. Family will not be able to gather like other years. We may be eating alone or with neighbors.

But guess what? We should be used to it by now since we have been dealing with some mighty weird Covid-19 stuff since March.

Some family members who go to work daily won’t want to take a chance of infecting those who are older and more at risk so they will stay home this year instead of gathering. That category of risky and older includes me! I guess we won’t need two turkeys this year.

And I wonder how many folks will risk shopping on Black Friday? That’s a day I would never go shopping even in normal circumstances. It’s way too chaotic and congested for me. There’s never been anything I ever wanted bad enough to fight those crowds, but I do want to tell you about the craziest Black Friday I have ever had.

It was 1968 and I was President of the first Junior Civinette Club at my high school in Florence, SC, and I was conned by the Florence Civitan Club, the sponsoring organization, to be in their “Miss Claxton Fruitcake” Pageant. Don’t laugh. This event raised big money for the local Civitans, who also sold fruitcake on the streets of Florence all during the holiday season.

On an international level, the Civitans partnered with the Claxton Fruitcake Company in 1951 selling millions of the product to fund projects for the developmentally disabled.

How could I say no to that? When I told my parents about the Civitans request, they laughed and thought it was a joke because as you already know from my previous articles, our family has always been full of pranks. They couldn’t imagine a fruitcake pageant.
Let me set the stage for those of you who have never heard of, or tasted a Claxton Fruitcake. It is the size of a brick and just as solid, weighing three pounds, filled with nuts and candied fruit galore including pineapple, cherries, walnuts, almonds, lemon and orange peel.

Okay, fast forward through buying a dress, getting my hair done into one of those fancy up-dos that were popular back in the sixties, and purchasing long white gloves to add elegance. The biggest challenge was how to dye my white satiny shoes hot pink to match my long evening gown.

Bingo! Pepto-Bismol did the trick perfectly. No kidding.

This pageant ordeal was far more difficult to put together than I thought when I said, “Sure, I’ll do it!” It was my first pageant and I thought it would be fun to meet new girl friends from the other local high schools.

Well, the pageant was held the Friday night after Thanksgiving and lucky for me, there was no talent or bathing suit. It was all based on poise, and personality that the judges got to experience during the interview process early that afternoon. I have to admit I was much more at ease dressed in my comfy casual attire that day than I was later that night in high heels and an evening gown. Not my thing at all, even though over the years, many more pageants followed to accrue scholarship money.

The judges asked me if I liked to eat Claxton Fruitcake, and I had to be honest with them, “No,” I said, “I have never liked any kind of fruitcake. I’m a chocoholic! I would much rather eat a chocolate bar, but I’d be proud to represent the Civitans and their great work in the community.” I also studied up on the early days of the Claxton Fruitcake in case they asked me about it, and they did!

And in case you need any trivia at your holiday gathering, Savino Gillio-Tos immigrated to the United States in 1902. He moved first to New York and worked in the hotel business as a baker before landing a job in Macon, Georgia. From there he chose to settle into Claxton, Georgia, where he specialized in homemade ice cream, pastries, and fruitcakes. In 1945, he sold out to one of his favorite employees, Albert Parker, who chose to specialize in what was truly a novelty, the heavily packed, three-pound fruitcake.

I know, I know. I hear you asking, “What happened at the pageant?” Well, I did win the title of “Miss Claxton Fruitcake,” and “Miss Congeniality,” but best of all, I got to ride in the Florence Christmas parade the following Saturday on a float designed especially for the Civitans, tossing out fruitcakes to the crowd. No, they weren’t the three pound ones because a miss-toss could have killed somebody! These were the new hot off the press one pounders.

Months later, I guess after the word got out that I liked crazy titles, I got a call to be “Miss Falstaff Beer” at the Darlington Southern 500, but that’s where I drew the line even though it came with a $500 scholarship. I hated beer then and still do! No way! Besides, I was President of the South Carolina Catholic Youth Organization and assuredly knew, the two would never mix!

So as you settle down for dessert this holiday season to devour your fruitcake, make sure it’s Claxton! You heard all about it from a proud former “Miss Claxton Fruitcake,” who celebrates her “GRAND” title every year with a giggle, still preferring chocolate!