A Season of Lights

Here we are, just ten days before Christmas 2019. This year went by quickly. The month sped by like a meteor entering earth's atmosphere. It's amazing how time goes by, especially as you get older. When we were kids the days dragged on. Especially true during the school year but someone seemed to kick the calendar into overdrive during the summer months as though they couldn't wait for us to get back to class. Then adulthood came and things slowed until we found our way.


Clip-art courtesy of clkr.com

One of those things that have always made the Christmas season special is the lights that illuminate the neighborhoods slowly starting a day after Thanksgiving picking up from there, going through "Little Christmas" in January. Being we have to deal with the shortest of days in December, it's great that the Christmas lights make those days a little brighter. Some folks make neighborhoods brighter than others. Their electric bills must make them curse the season but they'll do it again next year, maybe adding even more lumens to the block.

While the lights we have today are nice, but it's my opinion that things were brighter back in the day. At least we've returned to color. A decade or so ago it was a sea of white light from small bulbs, making the blocks look almost like Las Vegas pre-1980s. What happened to color? It's like someone stole it and everyone was competing with the same pale strings around the perimeters of their rowhomes. It was really "production" looking and detracted from the Christmas feel.

Thankfully, color made a comeback and everyone was back to their own individual style.  There are still many who make their decorating jobs look special. But the grand-daddy of them all around here was a man named Frank DeAntonio. It was said that Frank was one of the main decorators at the old John Wanamaker store in Center City, and if so, his work was a testimony to that. Every year, we waited for him to put up his lights and decorations and the block really shined because of it. There were others who did it up brightly and well too, but nothing like he did. I remember Mr. DeAntonio had a small n-gauge train layout in his basement window, totally crafted it himself. A nice winter snow scene with Disney characters and two sets of tracks with the trains going in opposite directions. All the kids loved it, and we would go to his window often to watch.

Mr DeAntonio also had a large snowman between his bedroom windows, just like you'd see at the Christmas Light Show at what was Wanamakers (now Macy's). It's arms would wave up and down in lights, a really nice piece of work. To finish the job, he used large colored bulbs for his lights, nicer than what we were used to around here. This guy knew how to decorate, and his work is missed. Frank DeAntonio is gone now and so are his talents. He was a great guy and always seemed to get a charge in seeing the kids watch his creations. It was said that when he retired the train layout when he got older, he donated it to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. If this is so, I hope they still have it, those kids there would love it as much as we did.



Anthony Stella and his family also brightened up the block with their long streams of large bulbs. He and his brother George who lived next door also brightened the block up. Later on, the neighbors pooled together to string lights over the street for a few years like on many blocks in South Philly. That is until one day a neighbor was cutting the strands when we were coming out the door. He said that no one was pitching in to maintain the lights each year or pay for the power. Nor did anyone help maintain them. If the men of the block worked together, maybe the lights would remain today. But lo, they're now gone and a short-lived tradition died.

SOME THINGS ARE STILL NICE...
   ...The folks on Smedley and Colorado Streets (2700) still do a fantastic job with their lighting. Do they compete? I don't know. Only about a block apart, I guess it's easy to believe that one of the blocks could do a better job than the other. Competition or not, who cares? Both do Christmas lighthing right, and it's really great for the neighborhood. I still see car and van loads of folks slowly driving around Smedley to have a look. The traffic pattern of Colorado makes it a quick trip up and out.

AND YOU MAY REMEMBER...
   ...When kids used to steal the outdoor Christmas bulbs from outside of homes. This was back in the seventies and prior to when twinkle bulbs became the norm. No one ever had a good reason for taking the bulbs. Some would take them for their own homes while others just did it to be mischievous. A few friends and I did it once in our pre-teens and had battles with them, much like we did with the acorns that fell in the autumn from the ancient trees on Oregon Avenue. We wisened-up but it still wan't right. But when you're young and stupid, it was anything goes. Thankfully for most people, stupid doesn't last.