There's an annual Christmas light
show in Madison's Olin Park. It's put on by local electrical contractors and
the electrical workers' union, who clearly know how to wire up electrical
stuff. Every year, they string up what looks like a million lights in a couple
of dozen displays, and thousands of people drive through it all, along a small,
paved trail that winds through Olin Park.
It takes fifteen minutes or so to
cruise through the lights, and there's sappy Christmas music interrupted by ads
for the display's corporate sponsors, and ads for the Christmas light show
while you're driving through the Christmas light show. At the end everyone gets
a candy cane, and of course, they ask for donations. We usually gave five or
ten bucks.
The lights and music are as corny
and schmaltzy as it sounds, and it's called Holiday Fantasy in Lights, a rather
lackluster name, Steph and I agreed. But it's fun! We always laughed and
talked, as the line of cars rolled slowly past all the lights. It's a blast,
oohing and awing at what seem to be the same displays every year — electric
snowmen and Christmas trees, electric Santas and sleighs and reindeer, giant
Badgers and Packers football helmets, the red white and blue Statue of Liberty,
and on and on.
There are also weird things we never
quite understood, like the flashing lights arranged to look like serpents and
dragons, slot machines and tractors, the electric lightning, Sputnik in space,
or the giant red puppy waving its giant red tail. And amidst all the elaborate,
colorful lights, the brightest lights are always the taillights of the car in
front of you, as you roll along at two miles an hour.
Stephanie herself would light up as
we approached the electric lights arranged to look like Santa gone golfing,
with Mr Kringle swinging a club, and carefully-timed lights representing a ball
bouncing along in an electric hole-in-one. "It's so silly and
absurd," she said, and laughed, every time we went, so it seems fair to
say that Golfing Santa was her favorite part of the light show. My favorite
part, though far less intricate or artistic, was driving under the flat white
rows of lights strung across the roadway itself, which in the black of night
gives the weird illusion that you're in an electric tunnel.
According to their website, the
lights are switched on beginning tonight, November 8, and they'll be lit every
night until January 4. If you're within easy driving distance, I'd recommend
it. Will I drive through the lights? Nah, can't see myself doing that — seeing
the Christmas light show without Stephanie would be too dang sad.
But I sure smiled this morning,
returning from an errand on the south side of town, seeing the electricians are
already at work setting up this winter's light show. You can only drive through
the lights after dark, and it was broad daylight as I drove past, but many of
the lights were on, and a dozen guys and gals in hard hats were connecting
wires and nailing lumber and doing whatever else needs to be prepped.
I'm a cynical, generally grumpy old
man, but I offer a sincere tip o' the hat to the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers and the Wisconsin chapter of the National Electrical
Contractors Association. The Christmas lights make people happy every winter,
and definitely made Stephanie happy. It's making me happy to remember us
rolling through the dark, enjoying the music and lights, holding hands and
laughing, and then savoring a candy cane all the way home.