I’m new to Port Angeles and love living here.
Recently I was up in Bellingham and saw all their holiday lights in the trees in the downtown area, bright enough to be seen in daylight, or what passes for daylight around here.
It made the downtown so appealing.
Then I came back to my new town, which has a major highway running right through the middle of it and tourists from Canada and elsewhere driving through every day.
During the day, you can hardly tell it’s the Christmas season downtown.
At night, there are just a few blocks where the trees have strands of lights wound around the trunks, and nothing in the branches.
The Christmas tree in the middle of town is wispy and merely decorated with red and green mini-lights.
This does little to bring cheer in our rainy gloom and, frankly, it’s depressing.
I know small, poor towns in the Midwest that are full of bright banners and lights this time of year. Not here.
If I could wish for something for Christmas, it would be that Port Angeles would become a lovely, bright and cheerful place to visit or shop next December.
Surely we owe that to our brave downtown businesses? Surely that’s not too big a dream?
Florence Caplow
Port Angeles