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Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Vol. 65, Issue No. 51
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7H[W DQG 3KRWRV %\ '$9,' +$=/(',1( 6WDII :ULWHU From the fire in the fireplace to the lights on the Christmas tree, the holiday season has a glow like no other time of the year. Across Fulton County, houses, trees and bushes are festooned with lights, and lawns are suddenly inhabited by jolly old elves in sleighs pulled by gravity-defying reindeer, giant inflatable snowmen and solemn nativity scenes. The variety is endless, but what they all have in common is that glow. Rochester’s Janet Bisch expresses her own Christmas glow through plastic blow molds. Maybe the most famous blow mold is the pink flamingo, first created by Don Featherstone in 1957. But these days, they are more often seen around the holidays, when they take on the myriad forms of Christmas iconography such as the nativity scene — like the one currently gracing the Fulton County Courthouse lawn — though they have since branched out into more contemporary characters as well: The Grinch of Dr. Seuss or Charles Schultz’s “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown.” Since around 2005, when she acquired a mold depicting a schoolhouse, Bisch has been amassing a large collection of plastic blow molds new and old, focusing on
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1,*+7 $1' '$< ³ 6LQFH DURXQG 5RFK HVWHU·V -DQHW %LVFK KDV EHHQ FROOHFWLQJ SODVWLF EORZ PROGV ZKLFK VKH GLV SOD\V DW (DVWHU +DOORZHHQ DQG &KULVWPDV LQ KHU \DUG RQ :DVKLQJWRQ 6WUHHW 7KH ÀJXUHV KDYH LQWHULRU OLJKWV XVXDOO\ /('V ZKLFK DUH VHW WR WXUQ RQ DW S P IRU KHU RZQ HQMR\PHQW DQG WKDW RI RWKHUV +HU FROOHF WLRQ LV WRR ODUJH WR EH GLV SOD\HG DOO DW RQFH VR HYHU\ \HDU LV D OLWWOH GLIIHUHQW Easter, Halloween and Christmas. “I thought they were neat,” she said simply. Currently a partial selection of her favorite Christmas pieces fill her front yard at 1228 Washington St., where every evening from 6-10 p.m., they explode into life. “I have too many to fit in the yard,” she commented, “So I try to switch it around every year. … I added music this year.” The electricity bill can get “a little nuts,” Bisch noted, but she uses as many LED lights as possible and has all the figures set on timers. The blow molds are also complemented by lights on the roof of her house. She is also careful to stake down much of the display to combat
high winds, which this year have been particularly problematic. Like other collectors, she favors pieces from ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. “The older ones are hard to find,” she added, not to mention expensive, with some classics fetching hundreds of dollars online and in antique stores. “Now they are so expensive I only pick the ones I really like.” After she was hooked, Bisch discovered a collector in Bremen, Steve Nelson, who she said owns more than 2,000. “I spent two hours looking at his blow molds,” she recalled. “The farthest I ever went to pick one up was Clinton,” said Bisch. Her youngest son, who lives in Kokomo,
also helps her track them down. Blow molds are also sold at regular retail stores such as Walmart, where she first saw them for sale. This year’s centerpiece is an allwhite nativity scene made by Union Products — where Don Featherstone was the product designer — which she found at an antique mall in Kokomo. As well as decorating her own property, Bisch also visits family in Indianapolis at Christmas, where they walk through a large light display and enjoy apple cider. Bisch plans to continue collecting and displaying her blow molds “as long as I can climb a ladder. … It keeps me busy. Everybody has got to have a hobby.”
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