Working on Christmas

Christmas. The schools are closed. The churches are packed. Most families either are at home or away celebrating.

Then there's people like Juan Vazquez.

"They scheduled me," said the 17-year-old as he was handling the counter at Hollywood Theater Christmas afternoon.

A few volunteers, overtime-seekers and unfortunate souls pulling the short straw in their jobs' scheduling spent Christmas day as they would any other day of the week at work... well, working.

Maria Salisbury, a deli manager at the Albertsons at 4950 E. 42nd Street, said she spent the whole morning trying to keep up with chicken orders while giving several pre-ordered platters. She sold out her first batch of boxed chicken minutes after putting it on the shelves, and one customer ordered more than her entire second batch while it was still in the fryer.

By 2 p.m., "most of the platters went out, but I had some last-minutes," she said.

Salisbury said her husband and children were waiting for her to get back home.

"They're going to have dinner ready," she said.

Vazquez and Hollywood Theaters manager Oz Molina said they already did their Christmas dinner the day before. Molina got a new set of golf clubs.

"We'll go home, spend time with family afterwards," Molina said.

As for Vazquez, the Odessa High student said he was fitting in as many hours as he could before school re-started, but he still fit in a holiday breather.

"I got New Year's day off," he said.

Pharmacies, the single Albertsons store near the Music City Mall, the two movie theaters and a handful of restaurants were the among the few businesses open Thursday, along with the hospitals' emergency rooms and the police station.

Molina said he was expecting the theater to be jammed Christmas night. "Bedtime Story" was the theater's most popular flick that day.

At Albertsons, Store Director Kenny Copeland said bread, ice, desserts, cake and milk were in high demand, and to a lesser extent some toys were also selling.