Cars We Remember / Collector Car Corner; Christmas lights memories: ‘It’s a wonderful ride’

By Greg Zyla —

When December rolls around each year, I prepare for my month of holiday feature columns, the final column this month about the fun and significance of cruising under all the brilliant Christmas holiday lighting displays in every city and town, USA. Add in each person’s personal lighting displays, and you are ready to be transported into a world of magical love, peace, and goodwill towards men.

Thankfully, there seems to be more Christmas joy here in the final month of 2024, and for whatever reason, that’s a good thing.

Most all 0f my syndicate newspaper editors tell me they love it when I talk about my firsthand experiences. At present, the major wars raging in Ukraine and Russia, and the unprecedented slaughter of thousands in the Israel / Gaza war, is unfortunately still progressing. Whether we live one mile from these wars or 5,000 miles away, never in my life have I prayed for peace like I do now, knowing that an escalation could result in the unthinkable WWIII.

Clearly, WWIII will make WWII look like child’s play, even with full knowledge that the USA used the first atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and, a few days later, Nagasaki. (I’m no pacifist by any means, but were those atom bombs really necessary?)        

So, this year things are different. The meaning of the Christmas lights hanging everywhere in your community is needed more than ever. With two major wars, and many we don’t read about going on across the world, the realization of what these lights really stand for, i.e., “Peace on Earth and goodwill toward men” should help everyone better understand the severity of our current situation.

At the conclusion of the famous story, “A Christmas Carol,” author Charles Dickens makes it clear that Tiny Tim does not die, and Scrooge becomes a “second father” to him. Tiny Tim is best remembered for his statement, “God bless us, everyone,” which is his blessing at the Scrooge-enhanced Cratchit Christmas dinner.

Growing up in Ranshaw, Pa. (Brady to most) my first seven years and then in South Jersey, notably Vineland, N.J., from 1958 to 1973, there was no better time of the year than Christmas.

Cruising under the holiday lights that adorned the main downtown business district in Shamokin was decent, but it wasn’t until my family physically moved to Vineland, N.J. in March of ‘58 that I got to see a city display go from decent to spectacular, specifically Vineland’s Landis Avenue. This display was and still is breathtaking.

Since there were no malls yet, most main streets back then were adorned with many holiday decorations. They may not have had the added ancillary decorations of, say, Macy’s or Gimbals, it was nearly impossible not to get the “best time of the year” feelings thanks to our local, smaller town J.J. Newberry’s and F.W. Woolworth’s.

Throw in the holiday music while “cruising the avenue” like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Silver Bells,” or “The Chipmunks Song” (Christmas Don’t Be Late) and the festive mood was good from late November through December and beyond.  

In this merriest time of the year, Vineland’s Landis Avenue was and still is a brightly lit two to four-lane wide thoroughfare that served as the nightly cruise destination thanks to its over four-mile round trip cruise length. The ritual of cruising the 4.0-mile roundtrip center city Landis Avenue during Christmas always added an extra touch thanks to the city’s spectacular lighting display. City workers attached (and still do) strands of lights, perhaps 20-feet apart, spanning lengthwise across the 100-foot wide avenue. The hundreds and hundreds of light adornments made for some grand memories of how the Christmastime season made everything all the better for those who loved cars, cruising, and Christmas.

Car buffs know that lighting makes any car look better. Yet nothing compared to the brilliance of nighttime cruising during Christmas in Vineland. Adding to the motif were the countless stores along the main avenue, all adorned in their own Christmas lighting displays from “The Spot” pizzeria, “Martinelli’s”, and “The Elite” hangouts on the east side of town to “Jack’s Toyland” midway along Landis that led to the “boulevard” railroad crossing. Further down on the west side sat the large Sears & Roebuck, always dressed for the season in a sizable decoration style and a place to go every week.

Once you passed Sears, best known for its yearly “Wish Book,” it led to the perfectly positioned “circle” that made turning around at Delsea Drive and the return jaunt to East Avenue all the easier. You would also pass the numerous diners like Jim & Larry’s and the Circle Diner and car dealers like Yank Chevrolet and Glauser Dodge, both adorned in holiday dress. 

Back then, we never thought that one day the actual Christmas celebrations would be challenged. We were perhaps overly concerned with the cleanliness of our Chevelle, GTO, Mustang, Super Bee, or even the late Ken Walker’s altered wheelbase ’55 Chevy finished in metallic red with the customary white fender well headers. Words like “political correctness “weren’t invented yet.

As we now look from the window of Christmas 2024, many wish we could relive those wonderful holiday nights regardless of whatever hometown we lived in. For sure, there are countless Landis Avenue (Vineland) and Independence Street (Shamokin) Christmas light stories in Every City USA.

Perhaps “taking for granted” is the real message of this week’s holiday theme column. We all know things have drastically changed in our country as we quickly move to the year 2025. Yet from my rear-view mirror, things were better in that 1960 decade, except for the horrible Vietnam mistakes and three assassinations (Kennedy, King, Kennedy) that led to significant protests. However, even though the 1960 era was a decade of resistance and change, a new band of youth promoted peace and music more so than destructive war conflicts.

Today, my baby boomer readers are nostalgia-hungry, be it a former flower child in a VW Bus on the way to Woodstock or a drag racer ready to make a quarter-mile pass in his 1967 Plymouth GTX 440 at Atco Dragway in Berlin, N.J. (The drag racer is me, but I did not attend Woodstock as Uncle Sam had a six-month active duty reservation for me at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and then the Vineland Army National Guard on Delsea Drive for another six years.)

The one thing back then that most everyone agreed on and never questioned was Christmas, still a national holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. Cities across the country still proudly display Nativity scenes, many with live animals. The high school Christmas plays were filled with cheer, and be it parochial or public, the birth of our Lord was proudly celebrated be it by Christmas cards, caroling, and simply enjoying everyone’s company. Today, I’m hoping the public schools get back to the basics of our national holiday, but we have a long way to go.   

As for the homes of my teenage friends, they were always decorated inside and out. It was growing up in Vineland where I learned about Hanukkah, the Menorah, and other ways of celebrating special religious times of the season. The families that celebrated Hanukkah complemented the many Christmas tree decorations at homes I visited, even if the latter had those fake aluminum silver trees with electric-powered color wheels. Thankfully, these aluminum trees were popular for a brief period. As for food, everyone was in for a treat visiting family and friends when the holidays came around regardless of religious affiliation.  

Today, I’m happy that most of the major retail stores again allow their employees to say Merry Christmas. Luckily, I now live in a nice small town that celebrates Christmas the good old-fashioned way, which I appreciate very much. 

I will always love the lights, driving through the neighborhood looking at decorations, the Christmas movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Elf” and “Miracle on 34th Street.” I love all the goodwill from people of all ages, and to those who don’t feel the Christmas spirit, you might want to catch a showing of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” or “Scrooge” soon. 

Regardless of the era, and to those who will always believe in this most special time of the year, have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year.

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist who welcomes reader questions and comments on collector cars, auto nostalgia, and motorsports at extramile_2000@yahoo.com or at 303 Roosevelt St., Sayre, Pa. 18840.)