Time Machine: The year Christmas was dimmed in Eastern Iowa

Christmas in 1973 in Eastern Iowa was much less twinkly than usual.

The reason for that could be traced to Oct. 6 and the Yom Kippur War. In an effort to win back territory lost to Israel in 1967, the armies of Syria and Egypt launched an attack on Israel's holiest day.

Because President Richard Nixon sent aid to Israel in the form of an arms airlift, the Arab nations initiated an embargo on oil exports to the United States.

An energy crisis resulted, leading to significantly higher gas prices and talk of gas rationing, turning down thermostats and 50 mph speed limits. It also prompted Nixon on Nov. 25 to ask the nation to forgo putting up Christmas lights.

C.R. displays affected

The Cedar Rapids decorations already were scheduled to be metered to cut down on use of electricity primarily because they were drawing power from streetlight poles that already turned on at dusk and off at dawn.

'As a convenience to the light company (Iowa Electric) and the Chamber of Commerce central retail bureau which has to pay the light bill, the timing light switches were agreed upon even before the energy crunch,” said Harold Ewoldt, the chamber's assistant executive vice president.

Sixty new Christmas decorations, red and green glitter-glow trees and pole wraps topped with gold stars, which were ordered before the energy crisis, still were installed, but after the presidential request, they were not lighted for the 1973 season. In addition, the traditional free Thanksgiving weekend movies were discontinued.

Even though lights already had been strung, the nativity at Cedar Memorial was not lighted for only the second time since 1932 because of the fuel shortage.

David Linge, president of the funeral home, said that 20,000 cars visited the scene each year.

'We figured it out that if each car uses 1 gallon of gasoline to view the scene, that's 20,000 gallons of fuel. We thought it could be put to better use.”

Linge added, 'We called the power company in November, and spokesmen there said there was no problem. Then the president got on television and said no Christmas lights.”

The other time the display was left dark was during World War II rationing.

The Christmas tree on the May's Island Plaza was illuminated for only a few evenings because of the energy crisis. The tree, a 30-foot fir, was donated by Paul Brown of 1246 Elmhurst Dr. NE.

The Gazette offered some tips from General Electric on how to light a tree without using a lot of electricity: Use fewer bulbs and add more light-reflecting ornaments and tinsel. Another suggestion was to use midget or twinkle lights, which used less power. Lastly, GE said 25 standard Christmas lights used less power than two 100-watt bulbs, so the suggestion was to turn off other lights while the tree was lighted.

Marion Scales Back

The Marion Chamber of Commerce retail bureau and the Marion Jaycees decided not to light Marion's downtown decorations to help alleviate the energy crisis. The retailers paid for the decorations, and the Jaycees installed, dismantled and repaired them each year. Lanterns suspended from downtown streetlights and five Christmas trees in the city park were left dark. The Santa Claus house was illuminated only while it was in use.

Frank Malone, Marion retail bureau chairman, said that while there was no actual electricity shortage in the area, the decorations blackout called attention to the energy crisis.

I.C. spotlights go dark

In Iowa City, 15 of the 18 spotlights that illuminated the Old Capitol were turned off, and the only light coming from city holiday decorations were reflections from the street lamps.

After turning off streetlights and every other light along the Highway 218 bypass, the Vinton City Council decided to put up Christmas decorations, but light only every other one. The decorations at the Benton County Courthouse were not used. Vinton's Larry Kersten, on the other hand, said his annual Christmas display would be lighted 'until I have to legally turn it off.” He said Rural Electric Cooperative officials told him there was no shortage of electricity and urged him to go ahead with it.

Small towns hit too

Decorah eliminated Christmas street lighting altogether.

In Independence, the Christmas shopping season was reduced an hour a day and was postponed until Dec. 7. Officials also considered curtailing residential Christmas lighting.

Wyoming, known as the Christmas City of Iowa, complied with the official request to conserve energy by shortening the time the Main Street canopy, a 30-year tradition, was lighted. Instead of burning from sunset to midnight Dec. 1 to Jan. 1, the lights would burn from Dec. 9 to Jan. 1 and be turned off at 10 p.m.

In Mechanicsville, the City Council decided to reverse an earlier decision and light the city's Christmas lights on the water tower, but they limited the time to 7 to 11 p.m.

What Cheer bucked the trend. Mayor Harry Moorehead announced the Christmas decorations would be lighted Dec. 8 and continue until Dec. 26.

In Des Moines, the traditional decorations graced downtown by day but weren't lighted at night. Merle Hay Plaza followed suit with the exception of the Santa Claus Village in the center of the mall.

One thing immediately was noticeable: Retailers in 1973 ran many half-price sales on strings of Christmas lights in the weeks leading up to Christmas.