Saturday was the 105th anniversary of the Christmas One Lighting Lightmony and Festival, but you couldn’t call the night too much of a celebration. And then there was the memory of the surprise seat of the holiday.
In the woods near the cedar-lined road, there were twinkling lights, children singing and singing soulful songs from the alumni of the John Muir High School Corrum Corps. Santa and Mrs. Claus were there, as well as a tall skinny Elf with a Ruby Ribbon inspiration who called himself jingle jangle.
But for all the smiles, music and a crowd that old-timers say is the most relaxed they’ve ever seen, tears were always close to the face. Conversations will end, words are broken. EMCEE, actor Edward James James Olmos, welcomed the crowd with a moving voice full of emotion.
“It’s ridiculous, especially after the year we’ve had,” said Olmos, a longtime La resident. “I’m crying now but I want to thank you so much for bringing one of the most amazing events to the United States of America.”
People have learned to be patient in Altadena. In this community where every neighborhood was reduced to ashes and thousands were left homeless after a night of fire that sent in January, the new respect is to wait a while for the Speaker to recover, because he did.
Pierre Dupuy, 66, who lived across the country from Altadena, was very emotional as he waited near the stage. He was chosen to turn on the lights this year, in part because of his longtime connection to Christmas Tree Lane, the official Christmas Tree Lane on Santa Rosa Avenue. He grew up in the historic Andrew MCNLally home just a few steps from the 135 dedar cedar trees that line the trail; His brother André lived in a house nearby and at the time of the fire, Pierre lived a few blocks away, in an old house on North Marthengo Avenue.
1. The band plays along Santa Rosa Avenue, aka Christmas Tree Lane. 2. Colorful lights on the trees. 3. The sign says “Santa feeds the reindeer.”
We are waiting for his cue, Dupuy’s voice breaks again and again when he tells how all three houses burned to ashes on Jan. 7. “I ran for my life, and it’s been two hours and 15 minutes,” she said. But then he pointed to the cedar of Dedar beside where his brother’s house stood. “The house was burnt to the ground but it is still standing today,” he said. “So we have something to meet here. We still have this road.”
Dupuy said he plans to rebuild and is concerned about the number of houses going up already in the community, but the misery is always there. “It’s sad I can’t move; it’s just going to be crowded for a while, but I’m so happy we’re coming back and this,” it’s a good thing to cross the festival right now. We need you; ”
The festival has been transformed into a lovely Memorial for those who suffered from the fire while symbolizing the resilience of the community.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
That need has revived the Christmas Tree Lane Assn. President Scott Wardlaw and his Board throughout the year. Wardlaw looks like a skinny santa claus with long white hair and a beard, but he was dressed Saturday night, like a dapper scrooge after his epiphany.
In his presentation before the lighting of the tree, Wardlaw said that this event will be different this year, a minute and 19 seconds of silence, to remember the Altadenans who died in the Eaton fire and the rest of the community lost.
Wardellaw thanked the Disney Co and its employees for their peaceful contributions to the festival. At least 60 Disney employees lost their homes in the Eaton fire, and the company wanted to do something to help Christmas Tree Lane without overshadowing community traditions. Along with launching a “Disney Voluntearc Village” to help Altadena families, the company offered a grant to buy new light fixtures for each of the lights, Watshew said. Disney also arranged for their workers to take two two-hour shifts over two days to help rebuild the new light strips.
Several people at the festival said it was the first time they had been back to Altadena since the fire. Stephanie Gates, who was a member of the 1970s R & B group, free movement, grew up in Altadena and has been singing the national anthem at the festival for five years. He lives near the crescula now and said he could not visit any place in the community but Mountain to look at the cemetery, where his mother is buried. He left at night, he said, so all that was lost would not be seen.
Jim Vitale, dressed as Santa Claus, talks to Wilder Duncan.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Marku Chatham, who lives in Pasadena, walked around the festival in costume as “a pile of jungle jangle,” passing out small gifts and being happy because he wanted to “support a community that has lost a lot.”
(Jeanette Marantos/Los Angeles Times)
Community Support is what drives Jingle Jangle, Aka Marku Chatham, to roam the festival in resplendent Elf Regalia, passing young children. He lives in Pasadena, but he has several friends in Altadena, three of whom “lost everything” in the fire, “so I felt it was very necessary to be present at this year’s lighting,” he wrote Sunday morning, having lost a lot during the event.
Dressing up as characters is a labor of love for him – he doesn’t do this as a business, he wrote, or even as a hobby. “The social lifestyle and our current ‘technological’ lifestyle has taken people out of touch and into panic mode,” Chatham said. “When you communicate face-to-face, you can make an impact and make a difference in someone’s life. If I can spread something, I make someone laugh and accept it.”
At the end of the night, making his traditional walk the entire length of Christmas Tree Street, Warderlaw and his wife, Priscilla Brown, were pulling some of that pool. Wardel’s return was painful, but he insisted on walking a mile and a half, praising the deputies and the work of the Community that people eventually filled the Lane residents and added to their homes under the most beautiful lights.
Brown grew up just a block from the trail in the Barry area, and when he walked, he fell in love with one of the cedar trees in Santa Rosa and Barry that was low enough to climb as a child. He used to go there, he said, and admitted this was the first time he had been able to return to Altadena since the fire. “I didn’t want to see what was destroyed,” she said quietly. “I want to keep my memories. I thought I would wait until they could rebuild.”
Diane Pallay, Center, takes part in a moment of silence before the lighting of Christmas Tree Lane’s 135 Deodar Cedars.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
But to see his tree, and the path quietly open the bright lights that make brown smiles. She was concerned that her husband was injured and hadn’t eaten that day, but Wardellaw brushed her worries aside. Looking at the Christmas Tree Tree Model Railroad Society Project at the southern end of the road, he sat for a while, looked contentedly at the crowd, talking, laughing and just being together in this space.
This, he said, is the Christmas tree road. “We seem to have a shortage of happiness these days. People need more happiness, and we’re going to give it to them.”
