1961 Decorated Lorain Homes – Then & Now

Here's a pair of photos of Lorain homes with Christmas decorations that appeared on the front page of the Journal back on December 26, 1961. (Click on the image for a larger view.) The pix were more or less filler on a slow news day.

The Journal photographer didn't exactly knock himself out choosing examples of Christmas lights around different parts of Lorain. Both homes were located near George Daniel Field, and were less than a minute apart by car! Maybe he lived around there.

The photos were interesting, though, because they reminded me that back in the 1960s, huge holiday displays were the exception, not the norm, in the west side neighborhood I grew up in.

Courtesy Etsy

Almost everybody had those old-fashioned Christmas lights (with the big screw-in bulbs) along the roof line. You rarely see them today, but back then everybody in our neighborhood had them. They were very bright, and looked great.

It was a real pleasure to go for a walk at night and see the colorful, comforting glow of those lights stretching all the way down the block. They looked even better when there was snow on the ground; it was a true winter wonderland.

Today's tiny Christmas lights don't hold a foot-candle to those lights of old. But they're probably a lot cheaper to illuminate.

Anyway, as for the two homes shown above, of course I had to drive over there this past Sunday and see what they looked like in the daylight in 2012. I was happy to see that both homes still look great and well-maintained (below).