I haven't talked much in this blog about my current residence. The family moved to Mount Airy, NC back in 2003. It's a town of around 10,000 people just north of Winston-Salem. It's the quintessential "small town" - one high school, the classic Main Street, everybody knows everybody, etc. What makes this town interesting, though, is that it's the hometown of actor Andy Griffith. And when he put together a little show called The Andy Griffith Show back in the 60's, he modeled the location for it - Mayberry - after his hometown. There are too many ties between the show and the real town to go into now, but here's a YouTube clip and article that'll bring you up to snuff (and as you check these out, please know it's not all retro - we've got coffee houses on Main St. with wireless internet, by golly).
Anywho, all of this is to highlight the fact that my little town has some cool traditions. And one of them took place tonight with the Annual Christmas Tree Lighting at the city building (which just happens to be right next to our church). It's always the first Thursday evening of December, and it's a neat little small town event with some music and such. Our youth group, the Beacons, serve hot chocolate every year. And once the tree is lit, it looks like this:
As you can see, the tree itself is not an evergreen. Ironically, the one to the right of it is. There is probably some story as to why they don't use the evergreen, but the bottom line is that the one they do use looks extremely cool when it's lit up. It stays lit throughout the holiday season. And since the tree is right next to the church, this is what I get to see when I leave the office at night and head to my car. Not too shabby.
Our family has attended the tree lightings since our very first Christmas here, and it has become one of our treasured holiday traditions. I'll never forget one year, though, when I almost missed it. Oddly enough, it turned out to be my most memorable. I was coming to the event from an earlier engagement and had planned to meet Lorie and the boys there. I’d just hook up with them when I got there, I figured Bad plan. It was dark already, hard to see; and I should’ve known that the crowd would be too large to simply scan over and find my family.
The top of the hour was approaching. WFMY chief meteorologist and native son Eric Chilton was the emcee and was going live with News 2 to have his twin boys flip the switch to turn on the lights. The countdown started: 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 - 6... I was kicking myself for not being with my family for this. 5 - 4 - 3 – 2 – 1… Still looking in the crowds. Zero - Wow! I totally missed seeing the lights when they came on; I was too busy looking into the crowds for the family I couldn't find.
But I’ll tell you what I did see. I got to see the face of every man, woman and child in that crowd “light up” with excitement when those lights came on; a pure expression of joy and delight. It was as if everybody was witnessing the same miracle at exactly the same moment. I found my family just a few minutes later; and while I regretted not being able to experience it with them, I felt like I got to see something very special and unique. I can look at those lights with my boys any time during the holidays. But seeing the look on peoples’ faces as they watched the lights turned on was a rare treat.
I still like looking at those lights every evening as I leave the church, and if we're out around town at night the family might drive a little out of our way to see them (of course, in this small town nothing is too "out of the way"). On Christmas Eve after the 7pm Candlelight service, I'll walk across the parking lot and, just for a minute or two, stand underneath the tree and look up at all the lights. And it makes me smile.
Just one of the signs of a Mayberry Christmas that my family and I have come to appreciate in our time here. More of these signs to come.
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