Please Happy

Found this on Slate. Ah, memories.

They string christmas lights across the street connecting one row of rowhouses to the other. Rudolphs glow next to baby Jesuses, peace doves fly next to hubcap Christmas trees and blinking football players stand in candlelit windows.

The residents of 34th Street in Hampden, Maryland go all out with Christmas lights every year, manifesting an electrifying “Miracle on 34th Street.”

In their 61st year, the residents still turn it on right after Thanksgiving until January 2 from 6 p.m. until midnight every single day. They still pay all their electric bills in what most consider a community service act for Baltimore residents and visitors. They have an official Web site, which includes a calendar here, which lists when the lights are lit and other important dates, like Christmas, New Years and the date and opponents of Sunday Ravens games.

My sister Anna and I took our little sister Grace to see the spectacle of lights Sunday, my last night in Baltimore. Dad circled for about 30 minutes in the minivan while we marveled with the crowds at the simplest white lights and bare bones nativity scenes as well as porches covered floor to ceiling in gaudy Disney Christmas characters, candy canes and kid-sized toy soldiers. 

This was another experiment for me in night photography.

Toward the end of our tour, while on the Peace House porch, Anna and Grace added to the book in which visitors share their visions for peace.

Anna wrote while Grace dictated.

“Peace means quiet, calm and relaxed,” she said. “By Grace Whaley.”

After enjoying our father’s choir at midnight mass at Our Lady of Fatima, my sister Anna and I went home for the annual Christmas morning pranks. We thought of sticking the reindeer in the tree, under a tire or impaled on a fence post. But, this year, we were more inspired by the gaudy lights and yard decorations than by the need to defame and demolish them.

While Santa was zooming around the world meeting deadlines at light speed, I was shooting these portraits in a wet yard in Towson, Maryland. Besides the Eiffel Tower, it was my first foray into night photography. It’s most fun when you’re working with a kooky, beautiful model and the true PleaseHappy (the word that means “Christmas Lights, Yay!”) as subjects.

First Public Ride on the Jackson Hole Tram from Lauren M. Whaley on Vimeo.

On Saturday, the first public box, The People’s Car, carried the folks who had waited in line outside for at least two and a half hours up 4,139 feet to the blustery summit of Rendezvous Mountain. I didn’t see Jackson Hole’s pro athletes jostling for a spot, nor Powder editors, nor even all the Village ski bums (though, a few characters showed up to wait). It was a group of devoted 13- and 14-year-olds that woke up early Saturday morning, staked their place in line at 7:30 a.m. and waited and waited – fueled by tram bars and hot coco – until about 11 a.m. to crash through the turnstyle and ride the first public Jackson Hole Aerial Tram. The middle schoolers proved to be the authentic Jackson Hole badasses that day and their pure joy of the moment was contagious. They set the high-energy tone for what was a stomping, cheering, high-fiving ride all the way up to a freezing 10,450 feet. Click here for a short vid of us emerging from Big Red.

This is the third and final short vid I made of the new tram’s opening at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort last weekend. It took three years to plan and build, $31 million to fund, two hours to wait in line and nine minutes to get to the top. For those staying in town for the holidays, you get to join the local teens who will be riding up in this shiny new Christmas present and doing laps in fluffy white powder for the rest of the week.

This is the second of three mini Jackson Hole Aerial Tram vids I made with my petite camera this weekend at Teton Village.

Jackson Hole Aerial Tram Inaugural Ride 2008 from Lauren M. Whaley on Vimeo.

For Saturday morning’s ceremony, VIPs gathered on deck while cheering crowds stomped in place (it was at least minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit). We listened to the National Anthem, several speeches and Reverend Paul Hayden’s tram blessing.

Then, Resort owner Connie Kemmerer smashed a champagne bottle, spraying and christening the new lift.

Passengers on board the first first box*, the VIPs of the VIPs, included 90-year-old Alex Morley who helped form the Jackson Hole Ski Corporation in 1963 with Paul McCollister, Wyoming governor Dave Freudenthal and wife Nancy and 1964 Olympic Gold medalist Pepi Stiegler, who is the founder of Jackson Hole’s first ski school and the father of Olympian Resi Stiegler.

*First First was VIP Car #1, Second First was the first public car, which went up after the six VIP cars. More on that soon.

I have also put this on my work blog, Cloudveil’s The Mountain Culture. Apologies for the double-up. But, I’m excited about this, and I also wanted double sympathy for my frost-nipped digits.

Jackson Hole Tram Unveiling from Lauren M. Whaley on Vimeo.

After shooting this firey, blizzardy unveiling of the new Jackson Hole Aerial Tram with my point and shoot, my right hand’s fingers were white.

Following the fireworks and snowballs, I limped to the VC with my hand in my armpits. It took about 20 minutes and several dry heaves before my digits returned to healthy pink. But, it was worth being one of about 2,000 people present for Big Red’s unveiling.

Best part – a childhood dream come true – Santa emerging from a tram trapdoor and zipping down 60 feet to the roaring crowd. Rudolph was likely the only snow lover sulking at home that night. Who needs a sleigh when you’ve got a tram?