Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
colton lights reindeer
colton christmas lights baseball field
A new display for 2016, Alan Druffel made the reindeer-taking-flight supports out of rebar, a nod to Colton Christmas past.
“Snowball,” a display created by Larry Kirpis, is on display once again at the Colton Schools baseball field. The lights feature players at each position with a snowman at bat.
A tradition has come back to Colton with Christmas light displays brought out again by a new organization.
Last November, a group of residents formed the Colton Community Fund with the intention to revitalize a tradition of lights.
Most of the decorations, made of rebar frames, have been in storage at the Colton public works shop since 2003.
The light displays were made by another generation. One of them, Rollie Dahmen, now lives at Bishop Place in Pullman where Mandi White, Colton Community Fund treasurer, works.
Dahmen's wife Joanne prompted White and her committee into action.
“We decided to pick up and fill some awful big shoes and start decorating,” said Alan Druffel, president.
On Veteran's Day 2016, the new group had a work party at the shop and pulled out tubs of old lights to check the bulbs.
Joanne Dahmen, Diane Patterson and others who were part of the lights effort in the early '90s brought soup and sandwiches to the shop.
“We're very excited,” said Patterson, who moved to Colton in 1990 from Corvallis, Ore. “Younger people are involved and they seem to be very enthusiastic.”
Then To Now
The effort in the '90s followed a first wave in the '70s. People involved then included Bill Haupt, Kelly Kirpes and Becky Phillips.
This summer, the new Colton group put Druffel, as Santa Claus, on a pickup in the Johnson Fourth of July parade. Handing out coal with a pitch for a donation for Christmas lights, Druffel raised money to buy more extension cords.
With the new cords, volunteers set up several of the old town displays on Veteran's Day, as well as a new reindeer-taking-flight feature at town hall.
“I think it's pretty darn great,” said Colton Mayor Jerry Weber. “Some good enthusiams, community spirit and involvement.”
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, a lighting ceremony was held at Legion Park with cookies and hot chocolate. A switch was flipped, and lights came on – gum-drop trees, the “Snowball” players on the school baseball diamond and the new reindeer structure at town hall, built by Druffel in his farm shop. Keeping to tradition, he made it out of rebar.
“We're just trying to bring back a little of that small-town feel,” said White.
“Growing up, we would go to mass in Colton Saturday night and then go see the lights,” said Druffel. “As a kid, it was the most amazing thing I ever saw. I hope that my daughter grows up thinking the same thing.”
Lights
“We always called him The Old Lamplighter,” said Joanne Dahmen of husband Rollie, who for 10 years went out at night during the Christmas season tending to lights.
This year after the lighting, Ty Meyer started a flatbed truck and took people through town caroling.
“After we did that, we decided it has to happen every year,” White said.
“The response was overwhelming,” said Druffel. “It was truly fun. ... It's important in these farming communities to have community spirit.”
Plans to come this summer are to work on a previous attraction, a Santa Claus with a “Slow-ho-ho” message which used to appear along Highway 195.
“There's a few other classics we'd like to get revived,” said Druffel.
White and her husband Kyle moved to Colton in 2003. White's parents grew up in Colton, and Kyle moved to town in sixth grade. White was raised in Pullman but saw the lights every year.
Street lights
Aside from large displays, another part of Colton’s Christmas past rekindled is the special street decorations.
Traditionally, each house was given a rebar tree for the homeowners to keep during the year and put out at Christmas with lights in a specific color – the metal decorations following the use of real trees in the first years.
Later, as people moved out and others moved in, some confusion developed.
One Colton resident came across one of the rebar trees at a yard sale and mentioned to the new residents that they probably should not sell that.
“It was left in the garage when they bought the house,” said Mayor Weber. “They didn't know what it was for.”
2015
Last year, the new group put up the “Snowball” display at the baseball field but problems with the old extension cords left it dark many nights.
Also in 2015, the Colton Community Fund began its work with a return of the tree lanes – a blue street, a red street and later, Candycane Lane.
An uptick in slowing cars in town has been seen.
“People have really gotten into the spirit,” said White. “It's nice to see people come in and see our little town.”
Candycane Lane first emerged in 1992 when Diane Patterson, her husband, Wes, and Larry Kirpes and his late wife, Pat, built candy canes out of PVC pipe. Making 20 the first year, they added 10 more the next.
Redeeming
Last year also marked a theft. At the manger scene in Legion Park, the baby Jesus was stolen and never found.
The Community fund bought a new one for 2016.
“That was sad,” said White.
The Colton Community Fund is led by Druffel, president; Andrew Kuhle, vice president; White, secretary, and Ken Darby, treasurer.
They now seek more volunteers and donations and have an account set up at Banner Bank in Colton.
The Colton lights will be up through New Year's Day.
“I live on Candycane Lane,” White said. “As a kid, I always wanted to live there.”
For now, the town's past shows again.
“We're all just glad,” said Dahmen. “My husband especially.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
Reader Comments(0)