ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 24, 1996 TAG: 9612240117
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: BETH MACY
SOURCE: BETH MACY
Among parents of small children in Roanoke, all talk led eventually to it.
The day after Thanksgiving, there was no sign of him - the 33-foot, 2,200-light Santa Claus that adorns the front of Roger Fuller's house.
A week later, you'd drive by the intersection of Arlington and Sherwood roads in Southwest Roanoke, and still no sign of the pulley-fashioned, generator-powered, bike-wheel-harnessed engineering feat.
Children across the valley were heard screaming: ``WHERE IS WAVING SANTA?''
Parents were seen driving by daily, searching for signs of activity: a ladder, a string of lights, an errant cotton ball from Santa's beard, pieces of the ``HO HO HO,'' anything
One mother, so desperate to quash the queries, actually hunted Roger Fuller down at his second job at the Franklin Road Burger King, where he works security. ``Are you the guy who puts Waving Santa up?'' she wanted to know.
Fuller nodded yes.
``Will you put it up again this year? Please?''
``I don't know.''
Fuller's wife, Virginia, was so besieged by pleas - at the grocery store, on the phone, at her daughter's school where she volunteers - that she toyed with the idea of erecting the 44-strand Santa herself. ``But I didn't think I could do it,'' she said.
A woman driving by the Fullers' house on a recent late afternoon summed it up best when she stopped mid-intersection, mashed the window button of her gray minivan and hollered out across the lawn:
``Is Santa up yet? We've been so afraid y'all weren't going to do it this year.
``It wouldn't be Christmas without it.''
* * *
At 16 days and counting, Waving Santa - finally - was up. That's two weeks later than usual.
And truth be told, Roger Fuller didn't figure he'd mess with it at all this year.
Fuller is a city police officer well-known for his record of arresting drunk drivers. But he has had a hard time getting in the holiday spirit. His brother recently split from his wife.
And a case involving Fuller's arrest of a state police homicide investigator - for DUI - continues to hound him.
Standing beneath the glow of Santa's blue boots, Fuller runs a hands through his red hair. He's still troubled, though not regretful, about the events that made 1996 ``the worst year of my life.''
``It's caused a lot of friction among my fellow officers,'' the 35-year-old says of the arrest. ``To charge one of your own is considered taboo.''
The investigator, off-duty at the time, beat the case in court, Fuller says, ``because of a tactic he learned as a police officer.''
Fuller has won many awards from Mothers Against Drunk Drivers for his 98-percent DUI conviction rate. This year, out of the 102 arrests he's made - an average of nine a month - all but two drivers were convicted.
This explains why Waving Santa sports the sign: ``Don't Drink & Drive,'' which flashes alternately - via a pendulum fashioned out of 1-by-4 scrap lumber - with the message: ``Make Time for Kids.''
Ten years ago, Fuller was scratching his head, trying to come up with both a medium and a message to promote his life's work.
The previous two years, he'd erected a house-size Christmas bell out of lights. ``And I noticed, coming home from work one time, how good it looked from a distance'' as you're heading west, cresting the nearby hill on Sherwood.
``I thought, if a simple bell shows up that well, what would be the most difficult thing I could do? And bang, it hit me: a human body Santa. I just thought it would be really cool watching it come into size as you drive up over the hill.''
Fuller told his friends and family of his plan; even showed them the design he'd drawn on notebook paper. ``They all thought he was crazy,'' Virginia recalls.
He borrowed an old 1horsepower generator from his father-in-law, who had used it for jewelry-making; found an old bike wheel; and fashioned a pulley and pendulum from scraps.
``The pulley down here turns the wheel, which makes the pendulum go up and down,'' he explains. ``The two pulleys up there make the hand lift up and down,'' creating the wave.
The pendulum flips a switch Fuller rigged to make the message signs flash alternately. Cost of the most creative drive-by Santa in Roanoke: about $100, not including replacement of the lights every three years.
While Fuller says he's not as gung-ho about the holiday as he usually is, he does still believe in the magic of Santa Claus. ``I think it's important to show kids that there are adults out here who have that feeling,'' he says.
Virginia Fuller says their own children were relieved when Dad finally brought Santa down from the attic 16 days ago.
``The kids and I were coming home from church that Wednesday night, and it was the first thing we noticed,'' she says. ``When we saw he'd gotten the Santa lights out, I knew then, everything's going to be OK.''
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY STAFF Waving Santa is best captured onby CNB400-speed film, a slow shutter speed and no flash, advises its
creator Roger Fuller. With him are his children, Kellie (left) and
Stewart. color