A Million Lights, A Christmas Story

The man I use to work for, loved to decorate on Christmas. He wasn't a religious man, so to speak but he was a fair man when it came to treating his employees right. I heard him curse once in the eight years I worked for him.

His name was Jim Clark. He closed his business and retired about 10 years ago. Jim died after 6 months of retirement. He loved fixing up his 15 acres of property. I was his maintenance man and I did much of the work there. I cleared 5 acres of woods by cutting down some of the trees and planting grass.

I would work on his 1957 T-Bird and his 65 Mustang in the winter months. Sometimes I would carve an Indian or cowboy with a chainsaw. Jim always kept me busy....even when I knew that business was slow. He could have laid me off but he didn't.

Every year I would start in early November, hanging Christmas lights. The last year I hung them, Jim counted a little over a million lights. He was so proud when people drove though the parking lot to look at them. He loved hearing their compliments, especially the kids.

The last year was 2004. Jim quit decorating because vandals had cut too many lights and extension cords that year. They had cut them the years before but it was never so much. It just got too expensive and disheartening to decorate again.

Jim was more of a friend than a boss. He created work for 15 people for many years. One of the greatest things a person can do in life is create jobs for people. He only had 15 employees but he was a man of a million lights.