From: Pete Donahue 
Subject: holiday lights
Fellow federationists and friends,
As we know our interests span the gamet of human experience.  We share
many common interests such as sports, music, computer hobbies, and so on.
But one does not think that blind persons would involve themselves in such
persuits as decorating with Christmas Lights.  Yet that is what I and my
family has done over the past 30 years.  In the next few moments I'll tell
you how this passtime developed with me and how I as a bline person manage
to do this un aided by a sighted person.
My biological father was not the kindest of fathers. In fact he physically
abused both my mother and I.  But occasionally he somehow managed to do
something right and acquainting me with a Christmas Tree and it's many
decorations, including Christmas Lights was one of them.  Actually he
almost failed as he tried to come towards me with a string of lights wich
to my fragile mind were another instrument of torture and I became very
frightened and mother finally made him get away from me with those
terrible things.
But, mom didn't want me to think of Christmas as a time of year to dread.
She told my grandmother, (Nanny) what had happened and leave it to Nanny
she knew just how to fix the situation.  She put my uncles Ed and Leo to
work to help me get over my fear of the Christmas Lights.  Slowly but
surely this fear bvanished.  Mom knew that Nanny's and her work paid off
when we were sitting at breakfast one rainy morning and she hung a string
of lights in the kitchin and since I can see light and colors I went over
to investigate after she plugged them in.  I styed near the light string
all day long; even when mom turned out all of the kitchin lights leaving
only the Christmas lights running I was perfectly content to sit there and
watch the lights.  But the coup de graw came later when dad brought home
our Christmas Tree.  To keep my interest mom moved the lights in to the
living room whare dad was busy putting the tree in it's stand and un known
to me at the time he was also putting other strings of lights on that
tree.  Soon he took the lights from the lamp and placed them on the tree.
After this he moved the tree in to it's posission whare itwouldstay for
the Christmas Season.  He told me to look towards the tree.  and when I
did what was at first an un interesting bush dragged in from no whare
suddenly came alive and was transformed in to something enchanting and
beautiful, straight from the land of sweets or some place like that.  In
addition to the lights there was a bright star at the top of that tree and
a one-of-a-kind stand that also lit up.  The stand contained bubble
lights, a post war invention orriginally developed as a way to spruce up
advertising billboards, but the are much more widely used as Christmas
Decorations today.
Whatever wrong dad dit to us seemed to be somewhat mitigated at Christmas
time.  Perhaps he too had a love for this season and wanted to pass it on
to me.  In fact in 1963 he  made me a ceramicChristmas Tree that lit up.
It was the type that had a lamp base and the tree fit ovber it.  You could
glue little plastic bulbs in toholes on the tree itself and when the tre
lamp was turned on you would think that all of the individual lights lit
up rather than them taking their light from the lamp.  We have since had
several of these trees.  Mom still has one my stepfather bought her in the
1970s.
Since that time we have always decorated with lights and I as a vlind
person have always enjoyed this traditions thanks to dad.  I can give any
of yyou who would like to try it for yourself the following hints.
Of courst one of the major issues whare we are concedrned is the challange
of working with strings containing multi-colored light bulbs.  Keep in
mind that it is not un heard of tto just decorate using lights of a single
color.  This seems to be more popular than decorating with multi-colored
light strings.  More often than not clear or white lights are used since
they approximate the light from candles.  For someone who has little or no
assistance in looking for the corect color bulb that blew out in order to
replace it with the corect colored replacement this may be the best way to
go.  We too have used light strings of a single color when we've wanted to
achieve a special effect.  You could place a braille label on the string
telling what color lights the string contains and lable the container in
large print or braille that contains the replacements of that color.  By
the way, it is a good idea to separate bulbs of different colors and place
each color in it's own separate container and label it either in braille
or large print.  In addition to knowing what color bulb you are dealing
with it helps when you must find replacements fast.
If you really want to use multi-colored bulbs and can not distinguish
colors you can do one of two things.  Either have a shighted person help
you in replacing blown bulbs or simply just don't let it be a problem.
Some people want to keep to a strict color pattern while others will just
replace a blown bulb with what ever colored replacement theuy have on
hand.  In the end it reallydosn't matter.  The C5 lights are the
Minniature litghts are the most widely useed today, but after much
experience and spending at least $100 or more to replace bad strings each
year we finally decided to go back to using the c7, and c9 lights; the
larger lights which many of us grew up with.  Their bulbs are sort of egg
shaped.  actually they are shaped to approximate the shape of a flaim.
And any one who has used these lights knows that they are much easier to
work with and they last longer.  However, they also require more
electricity and if you're not carefull you may find yourself paying a
rather high electric bill.
The modern c7 and c9 lights have two new safety features that reduce the
the wrisk of fires and accidents around the house.  First they burn much
cooler than they once did.  In fact you can even place your hand on a bulb
for a a short period of time without being seriously burned.  You can tell
if a bulb has blown out simply by feeling it.  If the bulb feels warm and
you know that the set has been running the bulb is working.  If the bulb
feels cold to the touch it's lown and you need to replace it.  I have
checked to see if entire light strings are working simply by just feeling
a bulb.  If it is warm the set is working, but if the bulb is cold
something is wrong with either the connection you are using or the ligh
string.  This brings us to the second safetyy feature of modern Christmas
Lights.
Both Standard c7, c9, and miniature lights now come with a fuzze that
prevents the string from receiving esxcess amperage.  Should this happ,
you guessed it; the fuze blows.  The fuze compartment is located on the
end whare the prongs are located for plugging the string in to an outlet.
They are housed in a compartment that is accessed by opening a small
sliding door on the body of the blug.  most light manufacturers include a
replacement fuze with each set of lights they sell.  The fuzes are quite
easy to change.  So before you throw a presumed bad set of lights in the
garbage try changing the fuze before giving them up as a bad job.
We like to run lights along the ground along a border such as a walkway or
a fenceline.  You can use the border to help you keep a straight line as
you streach the lights out along the border whare they will be positioned.
Next it is a good idea to get the string up off of the ground away from
moysture and mud.  You can do this by placing the wire in the hooks of
special steaks developed for this perpose and then pushing the steaks
about half way in to the ground.
When several strings of lights are connected together a gap in the string
will appear whare the connection was made as ther are no lights in this
area.  This will give the string a broken appearance to those who view
your display.  You can corect this by looping the wire over itself whare
the two sets are    joijned together and then tying them together with a
twistum.  Now the string will appear as one continuous string of lights
with no breaks.  If the break occurrs on a large tree or in an
inconspicuous area of your display you need not be concerned about it.
The crowning glory of our holiday decorating is putting the lithts on the
big peach tree outside of our appartment's master bedroom.  It's quite a
job climbing up as high as you can go and placing the lights whare you
want them to be, but sometimes this too may not be high enough.  I will
sometimes grab a branch that is just out of reach with the cruck of one of
my canes and gently pulling it down to me, placing the light string on it,
and slowly letting it return to its normal place.  If you let the branch
go to fast you may end up either falling off of a ladder if you are on
one, as well as a broken branch and ligh string.  Be very carefull in
doing this.
One more note about the peach tree.  Several days ago one of our neighbors
told us that there was a birds nest up in the tree near whare I had placed
one of the light strings.  I told them that we'll have to see if ther are
birds using it and if they roost there at night when the tree is lit we'll
have to get a photograph of that one.  That would be a great picture for a
Christmas Card for next year.
I give you all of that to say that when we as blind persons let our
tallents be known either by telling others about them, or simply by
showing what we can do whether it be playing a musical instrument, working
in a faborite material such as wood, meatle, clay, painting,or in our case
working with Christmas Lights we can make visable statements as to what we
can do if given the opportunity to proove our abilities and tallents.
This is also true of those who work at a certain job, or are attending an
educational institution in a course of study thought un immaginable for a
blind person. remember that when a blid artist creates a paintingj alth
he/she may not be able to see their handy work the blind artist takes
satisfaction in the joy his/her creation can bring to a sighted viewer, or
bbetter yet a prospective buyer.  Likewise even if you yourself may not be
able to see Christmas lights think of the joy they bring to your family
members, your neighbors, and others who have the opportunity to see your
holiday creations.  If you have ever had an interest in dedcorating with
Christmas Lights I strongly encourage you to do so.  I will mention before
I go that you can also get forms for various Christmas figures such as
angels, Santa Claus, snowmen, and others.  Just wind a string of lights or
two around the outline of the figure and voalla, you have a holiday
creation you can display on a wall, on your roof, or you can stake it in
the ground.  in fact you could erect a whole sceen using these figures.
If you look hard enough you may be able to find a manger sceen that lights
up too.
Anyway let's take up the challange and let's go spreadsome holiday cheer
Nfb Style.  Take care and happy holidays.
Yours truly,
peter Donahue
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