Gleaning Facebook: Rich's Tree

 My grandmother (Lillian Ophelia Wilkerson Shaw but "Mama Shaw" to us) loved Christmas. She was an ornery sort-of-stoic woman who lost her mother to, was it tuberculosis? when she was only nine and her pretty mama was not yet thirty. Lillian (usually pronounced with only two syllables "Lil'yun") raised five sons and one grandson, ruled with an iron hand the house on Main Street in the little milltown of Milstead, Geoirgia, and likely the houses on Hill Street and Broad Street before that.

But come Christmas out came the ornamentation of the season, the gaudier the better. A three-foot tall plastic Holy Family lit internally by 15 watt bulbs sat on the porch with a similar plastic pair of carolers (which Sheila and I still put out each year) and some gigantic similarly lit plastic "candles." Garland and lights decorated the porch, windows, and the passageway between the dining room and living room. For at least one Christmas the tree was an aluminum one.

That little mill house was a child's wonderland for a few weeks.

From Senior Life In Georgia

The Annual Lighting of Rich's Great Tree used to be the official beginning of the Christmas Season in Atlanta and what an event it was! Back then, most stores waited until Thanksgiving was over to start advertising for Christmas. Over 100,000 people often gathered in the street below the 4 story glass bridge that separated Rich's Department Store's Store for Homes and Store for Fashion. The streets were closed off, the buses and trolley's rerouted, the lights were all turned out in and around the area (including street lights), and one level of the bridge would come to life at a time with wonderful choirs singing Christmas Carols. After all levels were lit, a powerful soloist would sing O Holy Night! and at the climax of the song the Great Tree on top of the building would spring to life in all of it's glory as huge Bells began to ring in the Christmas Season in Atlanta! Then, all those of us who watched this beautiful event, joined hands and sang Silent Night together! There was no time in Atlanta, before or since those years, when Christmas was more glorious for adults and children. I sure do miss that! What memories do you have of Rich's Great Tree and Thanksgiving night?

Late in her life I was there once or twice to help Uncle James get the boxes of paraphrenalia down from the rafters of the garage, and following meticulous instructions fro Mama Shaw, get it all up.

But her own bling was only part of it. Christmastime also meant a tour of the lights in Atlanta -- Grant Park, the homes of Druid Hills and surrounding areas, and always, always, the awe-inspiring Rich's Tree.

These carolers used to stand on the porch of Mama & Daddy Shaw's house on Main Street in the Callaway mill town, Milstead Georgia. Lillian Shaw LOVED Christmas and her house was, for her grandchildren, a wonderland of dime store Christmas decor. Yes, she did own an aluminum Christmas tree at one point.

You can see their faces a little better in this shot.

A wider shot of the carolers on my front porch