It seemed like a good idea to have a party to celebrate our arrival at the North Pole. We had ours complete with Santa Claus and a North Pole cake.
Since I was one of the larger people on board, I was selected by the crew to dress up in the Santa Claus suit. We used flag bunting for my red blouse and pants. The Pharmacist Mate gave me some cotton for a beard and the cook contributed vegetable coloring for the rosy cheeks.
We called in the Captain and I reminded him of all the garbage he had ejected out the garbage disposal unit (GDU) and berated him for spreading all that waste on my lawn.
Thinking about it these many years later, I realize I may have been the first human on earth to stand at the North Pole in a Santa Claus suit. Certainly the first to stand under it.
We took lots of photographs and eight-millimeter movies that day. The below photo was published in the September1, 1958 issue of Life magazine, just 3 weeks after the trans-polar crossing
