HAY BALERS AND RECORD PLAYERS MAKE IT HAPPEN - Jim Bell's Christmas Display, Another Season

(12/16/2002)

Rocking horse (front) with rain deer running up the hill (rear) It has been a labor of love for Jim Bell, erecting Christmas displays beside his home on Phillips Run for 25 years. "I've tried to do something different every year, for the kids," he said, who drive by every year to see the displays. Bell makes his light displays from materials he has on hand. This year the twelve-foot rocking horse, which really rocks, is operated by gears from an old hay baler. The rain deer, which appear to be running up the hill, are triggered by the mechanism from an old record changer. Large tree and snowman part of display Bell, known as the "Molasses Man," shows up at dozens of functions and family reunions around Calhoun every year with his buddies, frying fish and serving horseradish pickles. So, maybe, he is best known as the "Fish Man," or maybe the "Pickle Man." He is a man when something needs to be done, he'll be on the doorstep. "That's what it is all about," he said. "Being with people and helping out."

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