TD Tree of Hope, Christmas to ignite skies for 70th year
By Sam Woolsey
My wife, Ann Marie, and I live at my parents’ home at 751 E. 18th Street in The Dalles.
My folks bought the house in 1960.
It was built in 1953 and boasts a wonderful view of the Dalles, the Columbia River, and the Klickitats behind the river in Washington.
When the house was built, the Johnson family was the first to move into it.
Outside of the house, on the cliff, overlooking the town was a large pine tree. And Johnsons decided to make that into a giant Christmas Tree for the town.
They bought 10, 60-foot strings of lights, and then someone, a brave soul, no doubt, climbed to the top of the tree.
The climber at the top of the tree threw a hammer with a rope attached out over the tree. The Johnson on the ground would retrieve the hammer and rope and then attach a string of lights to the rope.
The climber would then pull the rope and lights back up to the top of the tree and tie the lights off.
The bottom of the string, with the male end attached, would then be plugged into a set of sockets attached to the tree at its base. This rope throw would be repeated 10 times around the tree trying to keep it as evenly spaced as possible. And thus a tradition, that all could see and enjoy, was born.
The Johnsons, however, only lived in the house for 4 years.
They sold it to the Payne family. But the Johnsons passed the baton. They left the strings of lights behind so the tradition could be repeated. The Paynes continued with the tradition until 1960 when my mom and dad bought the house.
By that time the strings had been worn down by the constant fraying of lines from rubbing against the tree bows in the wind.
So, my dad bought new strings and we continued on with the tradition.
I was 10 when we moved into that house, and I started climbing the tree not long after.
I became pretty comfortable going up and down it and then started putting the lights up when I was about 13.
I did that for the next 8 years. There were a few years after that when I wasn’t in the area that someone else had to climb it and put up the lights. But it happened every year.
There were a few years in the 2000s that it wasn’t lit at all. For various reasons. But in 2010, my wife and I bought the house from my deceased mom’s estate, and have kept up the tradition.
So this Christmas season is now the 70th year of its initial lighting.
It has grown quite a lot since 1950. The strings have been replaced numerous times over the years and each time they’ve needed to be lengthened to reflect the tree’s growth.
Over the years there have been lots of stories to tell about the tree.
I think one in particular resonates.
It was about 1973, my mom and dad left in February for Mexico. They had a trailer and pulled it behind their car. They got to Madras and my dad realized he didn’t have the proper registration for the trailer. They turned back and came home. When they got back to The Dalles there was a lightning storm happening.
They got into the house.
My dad went downstairs in the basement to watch TV, while my mom watched out the back to view the lightning storm. All of a sudden she watched as a lightning bolt came down right next to the pine tree and crossed over and corkscrewed down the tree to the ground.
All of a sudden the TV my dad was watching in the basement blew up.
He fell back over in his recliner, got up, found a fire extinguisher, and put the fire out.
The fire department came, found the fire out but spent a lot of time getting rid of the smoke. I think somebody was watching out for them.
And so, the tree still stands, and the lights still signal the Holiday Season.
Sam said they will flip the switch on the tree, with its some 250 lights, after the Starlight Parade on Nov. 24 at 8 p.m.
“It is something that gives people pause, and they appreciate the feeling it gives ,” Sam told CCCNews in November of 2020. “It gives a sense of peace in some respects, and at this time, it shines a little light on things.”
Sam and Ann Marie Woolsey
