West Orange, though, was left out of the action.  Most of the wild growth was in Orlando and south, along Interstate 4, where Disney World had its main entrance.  Florida’s Sunshine Parkway, built to funnel visitors into central Florida and the East Coast beaches, runs just below Winter Garden; almost anyone who drives to Disney World from the Midwest or the Deep South passes within half a mile of the furniture store.

But almost nobody stops in Winter Garden.  The wall around the Magic Kingdom effectively seals West Orange from the magic and the money.  On Christmas Eve of 1975, as today, Winter Garden, Florida, was an ordinary small town, maybe tougher than most, where ordinary people lived, and died.

*

Zeigler Furniture was one of the first stops for Charlie and Mattie Mays on Christmas Eve.  They had traded there since they were married, fifteen years before.  They were black, and in 1960 Zeigler Furniture was one of the few white-owned businesses in West Orange that routinely offered credit to black customers.

Today Mattie wanted new linoleum for the small rented house where she and her husband lived with their four young sons, in the rural community of Oakland, which adjoins Winter Garden.  They parked their blue Ford van in the lot out front and went into the store, along with Brian Nedd, a sixteen-year-old fruit picker who worked with their crew.

Tommy Zeigler waited on them that morning.  He brought them to the back of the showroom, where rolls of linoleum hung on racks that were bolted to the rear wall.  Mattie Mays chose the patterns for three rooms.

What happened then would become a matter of controversy, as did much else that involved Tommy Zeigler over the coming hours, days, and months.  According to the depositions of Brian Nedd and Mrs. Mays, Zeigler brought Charlie to the storage area behind the showroom.  There Zeigler showed him a used console color TV, which the store was selling on consignment.

Brian Nedd testified that he overheard the conversation.  He said that Tommy Zeigler offered to sell Charlie Mays the television on credit, at a price of $128.  Mattie Mays supported Nedd’s account, testifying that Charlie told her that it would be a surprise gift for the family.  Charlie was supposed to pick up the TV at 7:30 that evening, after the store was closed.

But she learned all that later from Charlie, she said.  That morning she was unaware of the arrangement; she only knew that when Tommy Zeigler and her husband came back from the storeroom, Zeigler told her:  “You will have the surprise of your life.”