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Grinch comes to Omega Decorations stolen, dumped in pond
:
Jeffery Puryear surveys a fraction of the decorations at his family's
yard, home to the Christmas spectacle known as the Lights of Omega.
This year, thieves and vandals stole an expensive inflatable penguin,
snipped electric wires and tossed Christmas bears into the reflecting
pond. What can you do but just forgive them says Puryear.
By MARY EVA CASSADA
Special to The News & Record
Halifax Countyís signature Christmas spectacle, the Lights at Omega,
were visited by the Grinch himself last week.
Jeffery Puryear, whose extended family has put up the lights for
decades, said someone stole a brand-new inflatable penguin, snipped
electric wires and tossed other decorations into the reflecting pond.
Neighborsí decorations in the vicinity were also stolen or damaged, he
said, including lawn decorations and the wreaths on Hitesburg Baptist
Church.
The Grinches were obviously traveling in a car, Puryear said, because
the sites are so spread out.
ìPeople are getting stranger and stranger,î lamented Puryear, who is in
his 40s and works as a counselor at Piedmont Community College in
Roxboro, N.C.
His parents, Larvester and Ruth Puryear, now in their 80s, started
their over-the-top yard show when he was a child, he said, and were
joined by uncles with adjoining lots. One of those uncles is dead and
the other has health woes, but Jeffery Puryear and his folks have
maintained the cherished institution. They marvel at the hundreds who
drive to Omega ñ†not a place theyíd otherwise cruise ñ to take in the
blinking lights, the kitschy elves, the blaring Christmas carols and
the general holiday exuberance.
Some sightseers park their cars, snap photos or film their childrenís
reactions to the excess.
Even the December that Larvester Puryear was in the hospital with a
massive heart attack, he worried about disappointing the fans.
ìI want those Christmas lights to be on,î he instructed from his
sickbed.
But just as the cartoon Whos of Whoville didnít let the Grinch dim
their joy, neither will the Puryears: Jeffery Puryear said heís worked
to correct or compensate for the vandalsí mischief.
ìThis is our Christmas gift to the community,î he said.
Directions to the Puryears: From the stoplight at the intersection of
U.S. 58 and Route 360 (at the end of the long bridge over the Dan
River), travel east toward Clarksville for 4.9 miles. Turn right onto
Buckshoal Road. The Lights of Omega are a mile or so on the right.
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