ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 19, 1996 TAG: 9612200051
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA Z. RAUCH STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on December 20, 1996.
Jack and Dee Thompson, winners of the Best Outdoor Christmas Tree
award in the 1996 Festival of Lights Contest, live at 2039 Bridle Lane
S.W. The address was omitted from a story in Thursday's Neighbors
section.
JACK Thompson was sitting at his kitchen table one bright afternoon years back enjoying a cold Fresca when the sunlight came in the window and set the bottle aglow. "It was such a pretty green," he recalls.
Thompson, a retired Shenandoah Life claims adjuster with a history of making something from nothing, saw potential in the bottles. "I thought they would make a pretty tree," he said.
Thompson is the winner of the Best Outdoor Christmas Tree award in the 1996 Festival of Lights Contest sponsored by the Neighbors section of The Roanoke Times and the Roanoke Special Events Committee.
His 13-foot entry is made of more than 800 16- and 20-ounce Fresca and Sprite bottles with a 2-liter tree-topper, some chicken wire, electrical conduit, two light bulbs, and at least two weeks worth of drilling, threading, sewing, washing and assembling.
Thompson got about 100 of the bottles from the Coca-Cola plant in Roanoke. "I guess I've drunk the rest," he said.
The tree, resplendent in its verdure, sits atop a table in the front yard, proudly sheltering the wrapped boxes beneath. Its boughs are purposely unadorned. "Sometimes it looks like a green flame, so green and glowing." said Thompson. "I wanted to stay with the simplicity."
Thompson and his wife, Dee, have been working on the project for years. "I must have washed 500 bottles in the bathtub," she said. She also sewed the tree's skirt from packing material, and helped drill holes in the bottles.
The design is simple, but ingenious. He wrapped chicken wire around a light, tree-shaped frame of electric conduit. The bottles were connected by threading wire through drilled holes. The mouths of the stringed bottles were then inserted into the chicken wire.
"This is the third Christmas it's been this size," he said. His first idea was for a plywood tree with holes to stuff the bottles in. "But I wanted it to be three-dimensional," he said. The first tree he built was a scaled-down version of the winning entry, about 6 feet tall using only 300 bottles.
Thompson, who has on his design resume a dinosaur costume made of used carpet padding, Raid can costumes made from discarded ice-cream containers and award-winning foam glass sculptures that he carved with a bottle opener, is modest about his creations. "I couldn't make a living being creative," he says, "because I'm not creative often enough."
His plans for the award-winning tree: "I don't know that I'll redesign it, but I might make it a little bit bigger."
* * *
Betty Hall, winner in the Best Theme category, is resident manager of Palmer Park Apartments at Columbia and Lela streets in Northeast Roanoke. Her North Pole scene, with a snowman, Santa Claus, his sleigh and his eight flying friends, is nestled between two of nine buildings in the complex.
"We started decorating about three or four years ago," she said, though mainly just with lights. But, this year, "it just kind of got out of hand."
Hall and her husband, Charlie, started in September. "I ordered a pattern for a reindeer and sleigh last year," she said. They planned a scene with Santa, a snowman and four reindeer.
Charlie Hall cut the figures from sheets of treated plywood and painted the snowman. His wife painted the reindeer and Santa's suit.
Thanksgiving week, Betty Hall really got in the spirit. "Well," she recalls saying, "if we're gonna do this, were gonna do it right."
She decided to go ahead and finish Santa's fleet. Four more reindeer would be needed. Neighbors Marilyn Trivitt and Johnny Sutts "helped me in the crunch," she said. Wendy Greer, a tenant who studies art, painted Santa's rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes.
Betty Hall said the complex's tenants are happy with the finished product. "They love it," she said. "It makes the holiday a little bit righter for everybody."
* * *
Reatha Linkenhoker likes Santas, Christmas trees, snowmen, reindeer and the like. She's got them sprinkled all over her back and side lawns. Inside the house she has seven trees: three on the covered porch, one in the living room, one in the den and two in bedrooms.
Twelve waist-high, lighted candy canes line the walk from the driveway to the porch.
"It takes almost two weeks to decorate. I figure out how I want it and take the time to do it," she said. "Each year it seems I add a little bit more."
But Linkenhoker's favorite part of her holiday trimmings by far is the Nativity scene. "We do take time and arrange it the way we think it should be," she said. Her stepson Will helps her get it all together.
Linkenhoker won the Best Religious Display award. Her entry is a manger of sheets of paneling sheltering lighted figurines gathered around the baby Jesus. The Star of Bethlehem, fixed to a tree behind the scene, guides the three traveling kings - one pink, one blue and one green - along their way. Three angels look on, and the animals rest in the hay.
Her manger display sits apart from the other decorations in the yard. "I didn't want to distract from the Nativity," she said.
* * *
Sixteen-year-old Kevin Humphries and his mother, Linda, both Christmas enthusiasts, have a simple agreement. "I do the outside, she does the inside," he says.
The display grows right along with him. "I added about a couple thousand more lights this year," for a total of about 7,500, he said. In the three years he's been decorating the yard, he's grown 3 to 4 inches.
Humphries, a 10th-grader at Cave Spring High School and the winner of the Most Humorous Display award, spent two days assembling his masterpiece. His sister and her boyfriend usually help, he said, but she's away studying at Emory and Henry College. He did get some help this year from his friend, Jesse Bell, 12, and a neighbor, Bill Hicks, an electrician who installed some outdoor sockets.
The display includes many lighted figures: one tree, three Santas, two reindeer, one angel, a snowman and a soldier. Humphries also lined the yard, driveway, house and shrubs with lights.
The hardest part, he says, is "trying to plug them all in without a fuse blowing."
"He's always liked doing this. It's his project," said Linda Humphries. "We go shopping after Christmas and find all the sale items."
What's his motivation? "It gives me something to do," he said.
* * *
Luther and Phyllis Keith must have Christmas in their blood. Their daughter, Judy Ferrell of Roanoke County, had a winning entry in the Festival of Lights Contest last year, and this year they won the award for Best One-Color Light Display.
When Phyllis Keith learned she was a winner, "she called [our daughter] right up," said Luther Keith. "Her sister says she's going to win next year."
The Keiths' all-white light display, mixed with green garland and red ribbon, highlights the lines of the house. They have six wreaths, candles in each window, lighted shrubbery and a Christmas goose flag.
"The last I-don't-know-how-many years I've stuck with just the clear lights" that don't flash, said Phyllis Keith. "I don't like chasing lights. I want everything stationary."
Phyllis Keith is also on the committee that decorates Airlee Court Baptist Church for the holidays. "I would rather do this than Christmas shop," she says.
* * *
The Salem Merchants Association won the contest's Best Main Street award. More than 20 businesses along Main Street and College Avenue are decked out for the holidays.
LENGTH: Long : 157 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. 1. Reatha Linkenhoker's entry took theby CNBBest Religious Display award. It consists of a manger of sheets of
paneling sheltering lighted figurines gathered around the baby
Jesus; the Star of Bethlehem to guide the three traveling kings;
three angels; and a host of animals. The display is located at 3590
Hartland Road S.W. 2. Palmer Park Apartments (left) at Columbia and
Lela streets in Northeast Roanoke was the winner in the Best Theme
category. 3. The Salem Merchants Association won the contest's Best
Main Street award for its decorations in downtown Salem (above). 4.
The display at the Humphries home, at 3560 Cedar Lane S.W., was the
winner of the Most Humorous award. It took two days to set it up. 5.
Luther and Phyllis Keith, who live at 2422 Churchill Drive, N.W.,
won for Best One-Color Light Display. Their daughter, Judy Ferrell
of Roanoke County, won last year. 6. Jack and Dee Thompson's 13-foot
Christmas tree, made of more than 800 16- and 20-ounce Fresca and
Sprite bottles, is the winner of the Best Outdoor Christmas Tree
award in the 1996 Festival of Lights Contest sponsored by the
Neighbors section of The Roanoke Times and the Roanoke Special
Events Committee (ran on N-1).