Dec 24, 2004 By Josh Krysak 3 min read

Area travelers who drive the streets of Everson during the holiday season can enjoy some old-fashioned holiday cheer as the borough again erected their famous Christmas lights this year. The antique lights, hung every year in the borough since 1956 when they were purchased from Scottdale, span the roadway from light poles, with stars on each side and a star in the middle, alternating red, white and green.

Former Mayor Joe Eckman, who has been helping hang the lights for nearly five decades, said the lights – 23 strands in all – have come to mean something more to the 900 residents of Everson.

“They are the lantern type,” Eckman said. “They are old fashioned and they are what the people here want.”

Eckman said he remembers purchasing the lights from Scottdale in the 1950s when the decorations were “already antiques.”

“I had a new car and I had to haul the things and they were dirty and dusty,” Eckman said. “Needless to say, I got an earful from my wife.”

According to Eckman, it costs about $1.30 to replace a bulb and, with dozens needing replaced every year, the lights are a financial burden on the Everson Civic Club who pay for the decoration’s upkeep.

He said it costs about $600 a year to maintain the lights and put them up, but added that despite the cost, the nostalgia of the old-style decoration is worth the price.

“They are expensive and we have had to rewire them twice, but they are worth it,” Eckman said. “We want them up every year.”

Eckman said he can remember the outcry from area residents a few years ago when the borough replaced the lights with new ones. Eckman said ever since, there has been no debate about what would light the borough streets after Thanksgiving Day.

He said the borough has a light-up night every year, the evening after Thanksgiving, with many former residents coming home to see the bulbs illuminate the town.

Eckman said in the late 1930s, Everson was a booming town with a population of about 2,000. Most area residents worked for H.C. Frick in car shops and on the railroad.

Now, the former longtime mayor, who has been on the Southmoreland School Board for years, thinks the shrinking borough is trying to hold onto its sense of community by raising something that conjures their past every year.

“They are so nice and they are a reminder of the past,” Eckman said.