I missed another Lights On in downtown Hollister last Saturday. I'm sad about that, because it's one of my favorite Hollister events. But when you work in retail, it's open season on your Saturdays, and we had an event to attend out of town after I got off.
So I drove into town just as the double arrow diverting traffic from San Benito Street was being hauled away. I could see the sparkling buildings and trees just beyond it, but the parade was long gone.
As I approached our house, I saw a few family groups and groups of kids strolling along, some with light sticks. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed the glow from downtown spread for blocks in every direction.
I am really grateful to the Hollister Downtown Association for keeping this event going in good times and bad. It's partly an opportunity for merchants to host people who might not get downtown very often. When we owned the bookstore, we served homemade cookies and hot chocolate and always made a few new friends. We would take turns checking out the other businesses and sampling their treats.
Now that I work for a big, national merchant, the impulse is the same. We have lots of specials to lure in new people and introduce them to our wonderful products. The difference is that we're not in a cozy downtown where customers aren't just customers, but neighbors and friends.
I think the coziness is what makes Hollister's lit up downtown so special. It tugs at our knowledge, if not memory, of a time when winter meant darkness and scarcity. For some, this may not be such a distant memory. The farm where my husband grew up did not have electricity until the fifties. Light from kerosene lanterns and candles was precious and dangerous. The days were too short and the earth too frozen to do much more than care for animals and go back inside.
But I think even for those who never experienced life without electricity, we know that winter is a time when light is precious and when we depend on each other more than usual - if not for physical warmth, then for the reassurance that the sun, and light, and warmth will return.
I plan to set aside an evening to go into one of downtown Hollister's cafes, order a hot chocolate and gaze out at the lights, and hopefully, the many shoppers who know that the best deal is not a 50 percent-off flat screen TV or two-for-the-price-of-one video games, but our connection to one another.
Elizabeth Gage is a Hollister resident. Reach her at gage.martinie@gmail.com.
Elizabeth Gage Elizabeth Gage writes a weekly column every Thursday in the Hollister Free Lance
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