THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511220077
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
ABOUT THIS TIME every year James Chalk has one burning desire - to be the first on his block - make that in Norfolk - to switch on his holiday lights.
``We were driving down in Carolina in October and I saw this little house all decked out,'' he recalls. ``The first thing I thought was, `Oh no, he beat me.' ''
Not wanting to risk being beaten in Hampton Roads, Chalk flipped the switch last Saturday night, timing his home display to coincide with Waterside's Grand Illumination.
Call it Chalk's ``Petite Illumination.''
You've seen his house. It's trimmed in colored lights that twinkle across the water at Broad Creek off I-264.
Actually what you've seen is Chalk's house and his daughter and son-in-law's. They live next door to each other, and the whole family decorates together.
Both families light the back as well as the front of their houses, as a treat for commuters.
``I know people like to see the lights because last week when I was stringing them I had to test a few strands, and as soon as they were lit people on the interstate started honking,'' says Chalk, who, at 52 manages investment properties as well as Christmas lights.
Chalk has lived in his house with his wife, Bobbie, and their four children for 25 years. They moved in Thanksgiving Day in 1970, and before the boxes were unpacked Chalk began stringing the lights.
``I'm just a big kid,'' he admits with mock embarrassment.
A really big kid. All 6-foot-5-inches of him.
It's a good thing, too, because stringing this many lights is a big job. Although Chalk isn't sure how many strands of electrical lights he uses, he estimates it to be ``dozens and dozens and dozens.'' Wiring the display takes an entire day.
This one-man charge of the light brigade causes a mild friction in the Chalks' otherwise happy 32-year marriage.
``I prefer white lights,'' says Bobbie Chalk, smiling and shaking her head at her husband.
``Well, I think children like the colored lights; I know I do,'' he says, adding that his wife is in charge of internal Chalk home decorations. He praises her for tastefully transforming the house into a holiday showplace - with white lights in all the windows.
Bobbie Chalk still thinks the outdoor display is too much, too early.
``I like him to wait until Thanksgiving to turn everything on,'' Bobbie Chalk adds. ``Instead he's always sneaking the lights on, pretending to test them.''
``I turn them off, he turns them back on.''
Jim Chalk grins with embarrassment.
``What can I say?'' he says. ``I love the whole season.
``And I think about the people stuck in traffic on the interstate after dark. I really think they like looking at the lights.
``It would cheer me up, I know.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
``I'm just a big kid,'' says Jim Chalk, who lives in this
bulb-bestrung house at Broad Creek in Norfolk.
by CNB