|
Issue Date: December 21, 2008
Welcome to Bethlehem U.S.A.
Meet the citizens of great American towns that share a special name -- and spirit -- of the holiday season.
By Dennis McCafferty
People here will be OK because there are so many willing to help.
|
The star of Bethlehem, N.C., had seen better days. More than three decades old, its metal pipes were rusting away, and its electrical wiring was falling apart. As is tradition, it is lighted on the first Saturday evening of December, and a crowd of more than 2,000 gathers -- cups of sweet hot chocolate in their hands steaming the night.
Through the years, Bethlehem citizens and visitors have shared recollections: A native soldier once recounted how, in looking at stars in faraway lands where he was serving, he was reminded of the Bethlehem star, and that made him feel closer to home. A plant worker who lost his job said that he stopped his car when he saw the star shining one night and concluded he would be OK because he knew he wasn't alone.
Faced with prospects of the star's breaking down, the community resolved to replace it for this year's lighting, organizing a barbecue and other fundraisers to come up with the $3,000 needed.
"It's been a lot of work," Warren Hollar, the unofficial historian here, tells me over sunny-side-up eggs and coffee on a recent day at the aptly named Bethlehem Restaurant. "But when you see a little boy sitting on his daddy's shoulders, and he's pointing excitedly to the star when we light it up and you start to get a tear in your eye watching -- well, you know it's worth it."
Come holiday season, many of us seek a place called Bethlehem. Overseas, 65,000 make the pilgrimage to the original city in the West Bank where the biblical Christmas story unfolds. Here in the United States, there are at least three dozen cities, towns and communities with that name. This is the story of one of them.
Upon my visit to Bethlehem, N.C., I find that goodwill toward men here isn't a seasonal feeling but a way of life. I speak to people who have kept food pantries and clothing drives running because a furniture plant has shut down and so many need help. I watch volunteers reach out to help children whose fathers are incarcerated. I listen to stories about the entire community rallying around Karen and Gary Sain -- Gary runs the only family-owned pharmacy in Bethlehem. The Sains' son, Aaron, was diagnosed in November 1997 with a brain tumor at age 11.
When the Sains had to stay in other cities for weeks at a time for treatments and surgeries, neighbors and churches took up collections for their travel bills and arranged for their home's lawn to be mowed and the pets to be cared for. When the Sains were home, neighbors and churches bought gift cards and a PlayStation, and they delivered meals like fried chicken dinners (Aaron's favorite).
Aaron died at 18 on Aug. 28, 2004, after he had graduated with honors from high school, still hopeful that he would attend the University of North Carolina that fall. ("That was his dream," says Karen Sain, 56, "to go to college in Chapel Hill.")
Since then, every summer, about 30 local residents take part in a 24-hour bike ride to raise funds for cancer research in Aaron's memory; at least $90,000 has been contributedto date through the bike ride and other efforts.
"The people here carried the burden for us," Karen Sain says. "That's what a community should be about, shouldn't it?"
As she speaks, I realize that the spirit of Bethlehem is not necessarily about Christmas, although Christmas is certainly a part of it. It's not really about its name, either. Bethlehem, N.C., could have ended up with any one of hundreds of names of so many towns in America -- maybe Springdale or Pleasant Valley. It could have been named Bedford Falls, the community immortalized in "It's a Wonderful Life." Many of us watch that movie every year at this time, marveling at how well it conveys the humanity of a small town and its protagonist, George Bailey. He's a local hero not because of one great, shining moment, but rather through the smaller, more meaningful acts that he performs all his life. There are a lot of George Baileys in the little town of Bethlehem, N.C., population 6,500. To celebrate them is to celebrate the love of community that resonates so deeply within us.
I meet up with Wes Bolick, an Alexander County commissioner. He takes me to another local holiday draw, the drive-through re-creation of biblical Bethlehem. Along a driving path dotted by oil lamps, the scene plays out on the second weekend in December for families packed in more than 2,000 cars. A tradition for six years, it's a combined effort of a number of churches, in which 100 people play Nativity-scene characters. "Would you believe we actually make these outof old furniture upholstery?" Bolick says, showing off a rack of costumes that look Hollywood-worthy.
Quietly, local pastor Dave Ross tells me how Bolick makes sure the village is built on time. Over the years, Bolick has arranged for inmates serving time for non-violent offenses -- failure to pay child support, habitual traffic violations -- to help build it on work-release time. A day spent on work release counts as two, not one, days served as part of their sentence, meaning they'll be released sooner. "There are men who get out in time to spend Christmas with their families instead of in jail, thanks to this drive-through," Ross says.
It's a telling display of compassion, one that extends to the maximum-security prison near here, the Alexander Correctional Institution. There, I'm escorted to what's called Ezekiel's Room, in the same area where prisoners have family visitation days. Resembling a homey clubhouse, Ezekiel's Room is a respite for children who are visiting their fathers, a place where they can read stories, do arts and crafts, and "be with other kids whose daddies are serving time there, so they can realize that they're not alone," explains Bronda Green, 52, a local volunteer.
One of my last visits is with Noah Lail, 85, a community founder who came up with a special Bethlehem postmark. Visitors lined up outside the door at the Bethlehem post office (which Lail helped to establish), and large boxes filled with Christmas cards arrived daily from as far away as Germany, from families who wanted their cards to be postmarked "Bethlehem."
Lail and his tiny staff handled all of this during the holidays, in a kitchen-sized, brick-interior post office where the service window needs to be propped up by a metal rod. Lail helped arrange for the first Habitat for Humanity home in the community in the early 1980s, and he proudly hands me a letter of appreciation that then-President Ronald Reagan sent to him. "We didn't have a post office before, and we needed one here," Lail says. "We had people who couldn't afford to have homes, so we built our first Habitat home and the other ones because the people here needed them."
That's all he needs to say. People here will continue to face challenges, but you have faith that they'll be OK because so many are willing to help.
As tradition has it, in the December days leading to this Thursday's holiday, the inmates at the prison will be treated to an annual Christmas meal, with volunteers from Bethlehem and surrounding communities serving plates of ham and sugar cookies. Thousands come to view the historic Bethlehem re-enactment and the new star, now shining brightly high on a telephone pole near Lail's post office. And the citizens of Bethlehem can sleep well this Christmas Eve, knowing that their many good deeds are their own reward.
Cover illustration by Robin Moline for USA WEEKEND; cover story photographs by Charles Ledford for USA WEEKEND
Go to top
Q. How many Bethlehems are in the USA?
A. We counted at least three dozen. Here's a look at three across the nation.
Bethlehem, Pa. This city of 72,704 also boasts a large star, made of -- natch -- Bethlehem steel, stretching 53 feet wide. And, while many communities have luminary lightings, more than 2,260 homes here line their driveways with the traditional homemade paper-bag lanterns to create a lovely holiday scene. Each luminary kit is provided for $10 by New Bethany Ministries, a local homeless shelter, and nearly $46,350 was raised last year through the effort.
Bethlehem, Ga. When Christmas approaches, Bethlehem, Ga., population 1,054, receives hundreds of visitors whoflock to the post office on Star Street, where 131,300 letters, cards andpackages were mailed last holidayseason. They often pass through Manger Avenue, where the town's7-foot-wide star sits on a six-story-high wooden pole over the town square. It's there that they also can savor a Nativity scene, complete with live sheep and a donkey.
Bethlehem, S.D. Near the Black Hills, this Bethlehem has a story filled with intrigue. It's not an incorporated town, yet for more than two decades it has had its own post office and ZIP code. In 1957, a local Benedictine monk, Gilbert Stack, was given ownership ofa cave. He renamed it Bethlehem and erected a nativity shrine and chapel there. "Stackdeveloped the complex around a shrine of Nativity," says David Wolff, a history professor at Black Hills State University. "It was his way of creating a religious community." He succeeded.
|
