Gloria Jones Wants You to be Happy this Holiday Season In front of her house at 3819 Daphne, we talked with Gloria Jones about her mission to light up her Scott Terrace neighborhood and make people happy. A pleasing mix of Nat King Cole and Zydeco Christmas songs played in the background, as she waived at all passers-by and wished them "Merry Christmas." HIFC Where were you born? Gloria I was born in a little town called Yarrelton. Its right out there, before you get to Temple, Texas... a little small place. Really it's out in the country. But the little town close by was called Yarrelton. HIFC When did you move to Houston? Gloria I moved to Houston in '72. I've been here 31 years. Right here. HIFC How long have you been setting up Christmas lights like this? Gloria Twelve years. I've been putting my lights up for twelve years. HIFC What inspired you to do this? Gloria I just wanted to do something for the people, to bring the people together, and I felt like if I do the lighting... everybody likes Christmas lights and I had been going out in other neighborhoods looking at the lights, and I said, 'If they can do it, I can do it,' you know. And I started doin' it. HIFC Did you start with this many lights all at once? Gloria I started gradual out with a few things, I had maybe about... I guess twelve ornaments in my yard, and on the Cadillac I only had about 800 lights. Over the years I just went to more and more and more, you know. And now it's like 4,800 on (the Cadillac) now. HIFC What happened a couple of days ago when a group of people came over? Gloria Oh man, they came from the Galleria area, and it was about 30 people, and they were so excited. They got out and they just started singing Christmas carols to me, Christmas carols to my ornaments in the yard. Oh man, it was just awesome. It was real awesome, you know. And one guy, he's a designer, he does lights, and he said they had been out in the Galleria, they had been downtown, but nothing tops what Miss Gloria Jones had done. They were just real awesome. They were very nice to me, and they all just hugged me. They just gave me a whole bunch of love. HIFC You must get a lot of reactions like that. Gloria I get all kind of reactions. Everybody just gets out and wants to hug me and wants to talk to me -- kids, grown ups, I've had people stand out here and drop a few tears and say it's sentimental to them. It brings people from everywhere. Believe it or not, I've met people that's come out here from London, from England, from all over the world. They have all been right here huggin' me and standin' out here enjoyin' the music, you know. I have good music playing, good Christmas music. It's just awesome. HIFC Now, what happens when little kids pass by? Gloria Oh, they just go to screamin' and hollerin' and they say, 'Oh, that's Santa Claus' house. Can I buy your house?,' or 'Can I live there?' You know, 'Can I live with you?' They say things like 'God bless you' and 'We love you for what you are doing for us' -- all kind of beautiful things the kids say. It's real touching what the kids say, because to see a little child, like the other night... a couple of nights ago, these little kids came and they were sittin' over there and their eyes were big and the little guy said, 'I never in my life have seen anything like this, and I just want you to know that I love you from this moment on for doing this for us.' And I say, 'Well if you keep coming, I'll keep givin' it to you.' Because I did it for you all and that's why I do it. I did it for the people, because it makes the people happy. What else can you do to make people happy? If these lights make 'em happy and I'm standing here happy, and givin' 'em love, that just makes my day. HIFC How long does it take you to actually set up all that we see in your yard? Gloria About one month. I start like the first week in November, and normally by the end of the month of November I'm through with everything. I'm ready to turn On in December. HIFC Who helps you? Gloria Well, really, nobody helps me with the majority, only like these little sticks down here with the white lights on 'em, my husband gets out and does that, but all of this other stuff, I do it. And I have to have help putting up the arch, these two arches, but I decorate 'em. I just get somebody to help me bring 'em out and set 'em up, but everything else is all about me. HIFC Are your ornaments where they are supposed to be every year? Do they have a particular place in your yard? Gloria No, they switch places... They switch places, and every year I add a little more, like this year I bought about sixteen new pieces to go out here, and they are the ones sitting at the front. Some of the ones I started with, believe it or not, twelve years ago, they're still with me. Like the big Santa Claus over there in the corner, I didn't disinclude him. He's still a part of it. I didn't want to make him feel bad! And there are a few more that are still hangin' in there with me for twelve years, and they're in perfect shape. HIFC Where do you store all of this? Gloria I have a storage house back there. If you look to the back, it's got lights on it. That's where I put it. I put everything in there, but I'm getting so much, I might have to get me another storage house, because it's getting full now. But I put all my little toys in the storage house until the next year. HIFC Did you ever think about decorating your backyard? Gloria No, because really, can't anybody see back there. HIFC And inside? Gloria Oh, It's decorated inside! You haven't been inside, but it's decorated inside. HIFC What do your grandchildren think of all this? Gloria Very excited. They just love Grandmother for doing this. A lot of grandmothers can't get out and do this. And I have five grown-up kids. I'm fixin' to be 55 in a couple of... maybe about five days from now. I'll be a senior citizen, finally. Yes. But everybody just loves it. My kids say, 'Mom, you're just too much.' Because if you just stand out here and you just watch these people come through here and the reaction that they give me... it's just awesome! It's awesome. I'm serious. It's heart-warming. Sometimes I have to go back there and drop a few tears. It's just awesome and I just love that I can do this for the people. And every race of people come out. It's everybody. This is everybody's love and I just love it. I really do. Nobody makes me feel bad. I had a couple of people one time say, "Aw, you did a lot of work; your light bill is high." I say, 'Listen, if you're not going to contribute to paying it, don't worry about it. Don't dampen my spirits.' You know, I'm not worried about the light bill. I'm just worried about you being happy. That's all. I just love y'all for coming out. People like y'all are what keep me doing this. This is spreading the love. I just love it. This is from my heart. I've never had people hug me so tight. Not family... just people, you know. You see all of the elderly people that's comin' out. A lady, well, there were four people the other day who came from La Marque, elderly couples. They drove way down here just to see this. I've had people come from Atlanta. They've seen it on the news in Atlanta and they rolled down here to see it. So I just feel privileged to have people come to see me. And I'm out here mostly every night greeting people. See, that's another thing, you can ride over all this neighborhood, but you won't find nobody out, but I'm out, because somebody's got to be out to welcome the people to our neighborhood, you know. And I'm the chosen person. God chose me, so I'm out here and I love it. HIFC Most of the houses are lit and a lot of the streets have arches. How is this coordinated? Gloria Well, it started with this street right back here, Florinda. They had one block that had the arches for four or five years and nobody else had it, so I said, 'Well, I want to do that.' So, I got the arch first, right, and I decorated my yard and I started with puttin' the lights on the roof. They didn't put lights on their roofs. I started with the roof and, what I did, I made flyers and I took 'em all up and down the street to people, and I asked them if they wanted to be apart of getting the whole neighborhood together... decorate it. And everybody said yes. This was about a year after me, so that's eleven years that they've all been doin' it. HIFC So, you initiated a lot of this community effort. Gloria Yes, yes I was the inspirataion and then other neighborhoods came to me and asked me, 'How did we do this here?'... the arch. I gave 'em a blueprint on it. I said, 'take it into your neighborhood and do the same thing.' So, now it's spreading all over. It's in Dallas. They are doin' it. HIFC Where do you get the arches? Gloria We buy them at the hardware store. You just go in and you order two 15 foot pipes and have 'em threaded on both ends, and you get two 10 foot, and have it threaded on one end. And you get three elbows, and hook 'em together. And then you get a boot that goes into the ground -- that's what we set the arches in and then we just bring it up. And then we put the lights on. There's like a hundred lights on there. And wrap it with the garland. When we first started out, we had a star on there, but we weren't 'Starburst Lane' -- that's Luca (Street). I told 'em, 'We've got to change the stars and let's get candles, because we are 'Candlelight Lane.' I started this theme. We started out with little sticks, stickin' 'em in the ground, puttin' the bulbs in 'em, but over the years we advanced. We've got it easy now. But if you go on down further, you'll see the little white sticks stuck in the ground and the little lights sittin' on top of 'em. That represents the candle. But we felt like this was better and it's easier. HIFC This neighborhood effort started eleven years ago and you were inspired by the street next to you, so you made the initiative so everybody could participate? Gloria That's right. And they're steadily coming to me, thanking me for what I did to this neighborhood. HIFC The people in this neighborhood, have they been living here for years and years? Gloria Before I came... Before I came. HIFC How long are the lights up? Gloria We turn them On on the Seventh of December and they stay On until the First (of January), and then on the Second they come down. HIFC You mentioned that there is a day when everybody comes out. Gloria The 23rd (of December). The 23rd is our block party and everybody, mostly, has something to give. What I give are apples and oranges. I buy like five or six cases, and I get the big apples and big oranges, and I pass out apples and oranges. And I have a lightsuit! See, I have a suit that matches the house. I'm blinkin' all over and my hat is blinkin'. It's awesome! Yeah, I have a lightsuit that goes with this! Why not? If the house is decorated and I'm standin' out here lookin' like this, I kinda look odd with all these lights. So, what I did, I created my own thing. I made my own lightsuit. And it's awesome. If you see me out here, I'm awesome. Everybody loves it. HIFC So, the 23rd's your block party, every year? Gloria Every year, the 23rd. And, it's the whole neighborhood. Everybody's givin' somethin'. He'd be givin' out hotdogs and hot wassle and chocolate, and some people give out candy... Just whatever represents Christmas, they give. HIFC So, you have a lot of kids and neighbors coming through? Gloria And the grown folk... I give to everybody. I don't just give to kids, because Christmas is about everybody. It's not just a children thing... it's everybody. It's the birth of Christ. We celebrate Christ, the day he was born, and gave us life. We are all here because of him. And if I can light up the lights and bring everybody's hearts to be happy, that's what I want to do. They call me 'Mrs. Claus' in this neighborhood. And they call that Cadillac... The lady that (photographed) this Cadillac first, she was from Dallas, she had a great big ol' picture blown up and the Cadillac (picture) was in the Transco Tower, in the lobby, and they labeled it the 'Lead Sled'. I've been in two magazines. I'm in the newspaper almost every year. You'll seen me on TV. NBC news got me this year in New York, New York. They're gonna enter me into a contest. And I was also on Martha Stewart, not me but my house, for five days in January of 2002. To me, I'm gettin' there. I'm movin' on up. Everybody comes by... they want me to wave, so that's why you see me wave, 'cause they're lookin' for it. And I've been on Magic 102, which is a popular radio station. They do the interview with me every year and pump it up. So it's just been awesome. That's the word that I use, awesome. And I love it. I hate when it ends, because I get the blues when it ends, because it's been so great. And all of the people... So you get kind of lonely when this ends. It takes me a week sometimes to recuperate from missing what's outside with the people. It's kind of heart-warming. You get lonely... It's real dark out here, when everything's taken down. It looks a lot different. It's pretty now, but it looks real sad when it's all gone. So I really hate to take it down, but I can't leave it up all year. HIFC And what if you could? Gloria I think I would. I'd just have to be out with the people havin' fun all year. If it kept the people happy, why not? I think that's the greatest thing... the people, the joy. This is coming from the heart. This is a real person you're talking to here tonight, because I'm honest and I'm real. A lot of people ask me, do I have a blueprint for this, a pattern... it's in my heart. Have a Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year! And many more to come! And I hope I'll be standing in this very place ten years from now doin' the very same thing... Making the people happy. HOUSTON INSTITUTE FOR CULTURE   info@houstonculture.org