It was Christmastime and there was a bandit lose in my neighborhood. The bandit wasn't looking for anything valuable. He/she/they were just up to no good. A little holiday mischief. A Grinch among us.
The street I lived on growing up was a festive street. Neighbors would decorate their houses with the most colorful lights - from rooftop to basement. My parents' house was no different. My dad and brother would take great care to make sure the lights were first, untangled. This of course was the hardest part. The lights seemed to be tossed in the bin each year after the glow of new year's had faded only to become an unearthed jumble 11 months later.
The boys would make sure that each bulb was glowing up to it's potential. With each twist and turn the colorful chain came together. There were a few years when blue was the shade of choice. Our home - light years before the movie Frozen was a thing - was the perfect Elsa castle with a soft azure luminosity.
Prior to Y2K, our home had two huge pine trees in the front yard. One to the left of our house in the front yard and one adjacent to our house on the right side. These were only a handful of trees that once dotted the yards of the homes on our street. In fact, our next door neighbors' home was practically hidden due to the foliage from their large shrubs.
My father would take the time to put lights around the large tree closest to the street. This was a painstaking process involving a ladder and plenty of patience. Each year, once the decorating was complete, we would have light up night and stand across the street to witness the finished product and bask in the warmth of holiday radiance.
After all the hard work that went into making Christmas come alive on our street, imagine the frustration when the bandit first struck. Lights on the huge pine tree started disappearing or were left broken in our yard. Yes, a Grinch indeed was among us.
I was in college at the time and only heard about the criminal activity via telephone. Even though I was living an hour away, I was upset and angry about this violation. My father had alerted the police about what was happening and asked if maybe an officer could do some drive-bys on our street to possibly catch whoever was responsible.
When I came home for Christmas break, I helped my dad replace more lights on the tree. He was talking about scaling back our display in the future if this kind of destructive activity kept up. This made me want to catch this bandit and take a stand for holiday decorators everywhere.
The next night my younger sister and I had been out having sibling bonding time and were on our way home. Before turning down our street, I had the bright idea to turn off my car lights and drive slowly down the hill on the approach. Once we got to the street I sped up, turned on my lights and started beeping the horn hoping to scare the person who I thought would be stealing lights right at that very moment.
Of course no one was in our yard but we did manage to have a few laughs during our attempt at undercover detective work. We were regaling our parents with the details of our mission when there was a knock at the door. My dad opened the door only to find a police officer standing upright with his notepad at the ready.
"There she is officer!" my father exclaimed.
I immediately wanted to run. I wanted to hide. But there was nowhere to go. I went from detective to criminal in a matter of minutes and my own father gave me up for no ransom. The officer had been doing a patrol on our street when he observed my erratic driving which caused him to stop and find the driver responsible. Here I was thinking I was going to bag a criminal and instead was getting the third degree. I was aghast. Christmas had certainly taken a turn.
I was left with a warning to let the police do the detective work. I am not sure if the thieves were ever caught that year but we were left with a pretty funny story and a pretty good reason why I never went into law enforcement. The element of surprise, not my strong suit.
My father still decorates our family home with care - and this year is no different. The large pine trees are long gone and the large bulbs have been downgraded to strands of LED lights. Whether or not that is because of the bandit incident of '95 is not for me to say, but even decades later driving down the hill to my house has never been the same. Am I tempted to reenact my stunt of a Christmas long gone by? You betcha. Will I do it? Not a chance.
Happy Holidays.
Enjoy the brightness of the season.
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| My current home and the textbook bulbs. |
