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Chief elf and gator hunter
© St. Petersburg Times ST. PETERSBURG -- A week before Christmas, the chief elf at the Christmas Toy Shop fretted that Santa might be short some toys for children ages 1 and 2 and for girls 11 and 12. "We've seen a bigger need" for toys in 2002, Ardith Rutland said. And lots of people who contribute to Toys for Tots, which is sponsored by the U.S. Marines, think their donations go to the Christmas Toy Shop. They are separate organizations. She's a hunter and gatherer, collecting twist ties and plastic newspaper bags, rubber bands and paper clips to use for the charity. Not long ago, she stopped her car, disembarked and pulled three broom handles out of a garbage can, potential handlebars for riding toys. "People laugh at me, but if you don't have to buy them," money is available for the toy shop to spend on other things, she said. Rutland was on a different sort of quest in early October, having received a license to participate in the state's annual public waters alligator harvest. She captured a 9-foot-long beast on Lake Manatee, where she and her late husband, Hubert "Bert" Rutland Jr., once had a cattle ranch. "I haven't done anything with it," she said of her prey. She took the meat to a processor, and the head and feet are in cold storage at Boss Hog Ribs in Pinellas Park, her son, Thomas', business. The taxidermist she wants to hire to preserve the gator's extremities has a backlog, and Rutland has been preoccupied with her annual holiday quest. Occasionally, the 71-year-old hints of retiring. No more toy shop? No more gator harvests? "Well, you never know," she said. "You never know."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks 2002: The Year in Review |
