Christmas lights are hung with care by “The Society to Keep Fincastle Lit”
“The Society to Keep Fincastle Lit” has once again worked magic with the help of Lumos and volunteers. On Sunday and Monday, Nov. 17 and 18 volunteers tested bubs and festooned the streets of Fincastle with lights and festive pole decorations.
The result of these efforts is the Town of Fincastle will be aglow with strands of red, yellow, blue, green and orange light bulbs and lighted wreaths, snowflakes and trees. The little town lights up after Thanksgiving through New Years. It is decorated with 60 strands of lights and the average strand has 30 bulbs. That makes a grand total of 1,800 working bulbs not counting what goes into the decorative wreaths, snowflakes and trees.
One of the toughest jobs is carrying the decorations down from where they are housed in the off season in the old jail. Lights, cumbersome wreaths and very heavy metal snowflakes and Christmas trees had to be carried down three flights of narrow metal steps in the old jail building.
The color configuration is the same through out the town. the sequence is RYBGO (red, yellow, blue, green orange) bulbs that go in the strands. The RYBGO lights are the size of a standard household light bulb; the other bulbs vary in style from the size of 25 watt bulbs, chandelier bulbs and night light bulbs.
Each of these fixtures must be plugged in and burned out bulbs must be replaced with a bulb of the proper size and color. The 60 strands of wires that hold the light sockets are stored in white pillow cases that are marked with the location where that strand is to be hung. The strands are of various lengths, so exact location is key.
Volunteers file all over the town with the RYBGO bulbs and start screwing the bulbs in the sockets of each strand making sure they are in red, yellow, blue, green, orange order.
Bucket trucks are an important in “Keeping Fincastle Lit.” Again this year, Lumos donated the use of two bucket trucks and four employees for a day. Those employees met up with citizens on Monday, November 18 and actually hung the RYBGO strands and light fixtures in one day due to the good weather conditions.
Keeping Fincastle Lit can only continue with financial contributions from the public. The organization holds no fundraisers. Please consider being a part of keeping this holiday tradition alive. Contributions may be mailed to: Keep Fincastle Lit, P. O. Box 250, Fincastle, VA 24090.
Thanks to Terry Tucker and Dave Tickner for contributing light facts to the story! Nov. 2013