Longmont man carries on tradition of Christmas lights in memory of his late wife

Floyd Adler wouldn't dream of not decorating his Longmont home during the winter — he does it to honor the memory of his late wife, Marian.

Adler is now 97 years old. He and Marian were married for 70 years before she died six years ago after battling Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

"She liked two things: She liked flowers, so I raised flowers for her, and she liked Christmas lights, so we always decorated the house for Christmas," he said while sitting in his living room late Wednesday afternoon.

Adler doesn't just like any Christmas decorations — he has a penchant for the old-fashioned. The Christmas tree in his living room could have come from a 1960s Better Homes and Gardens, with miniature doves and cardinals stuck in between the boughs and red and green cloth-textured ornament orbs.

Adler turned the lights on outside at 4:45 p.m. as the wan winter daylight faded. His corner lot in the Fox Hill neighborhood twinkles with yellow icicle lights and red and green lights spiral up the firs that flank his property.

He's even asked permission of his neighbors to decorate their trees, and he does so with a special rod to place the lights high up in the branches. At 97, he doesn't get on a ladder anymore.

Adler lights up a tree at Bethlehem Lutheran Church that he planted when the church was built and helps distribute luminaries throughout the Fox Hill neighborhood on Christmas Eve.

He and Marian received a prize for their Christmas lights from Longmont, but the faded blue ribbon doesn't carry a date on it.

"Oh, if I had to guess, I'd say it was maybe 20 years ago," Adler said. "I don't do it because I have to; I do it because I like it. It's just sort of a hobby."

He has farmed the Longmont and Mead area with his family his entire life. In fact, Adler, his son and his grandson are still farming land in Mead, driving livestock and growing barley for Coors.

Adler's grandparents were German immigrants who settled in Fort Morgan when his father was 3 years old in 1902.

"I don't do it because I have to; I do it because I like it. It's just sort of a hobby," Floyd Adler, 97, says of putting up Christmas lights, which he does in memory of his late wife, Marian. (Lewis Geyer / Staff Photographer)

Adler, born in 1920, is the oldest of 13 children.

He remembered the Great Depression of the 1930s from his childhood.

"We had cows and pigs and chickens and a big garden and I remember during that time we gave a lot of food away to people who didn't have any. We gave away a lot of potatoes," he said.

He met Marian Gwinn, who he described as a "city girl" from Longmont — which then had a population of 5,000 — at a dance.

"We used to do dance to all the big bands. We danced to Glen Miller," Adler said. "She said, 'Come and see me sometime,' and I was over there the next night ... we met and we coulda got married 30 days later but out of respect for our folks we got married in June — on June 7. We met on the 28th of September."

Adler was spared from World War II because of the sheer size of both his and Marian's family.

"She had two brothers in the service and I had two brothers already in the service and they figured four out of one family was enough," he said.

The couple had seven kids — five boys and two girls.

He remembered when United Airlines Flight 629 exploded in midair and crashed in his uncle's sugar beet field near Longmont in 1955.

"Marian and I drove over there to go see. It was my uncle's farm," he said. "Oh yeah, I remember that. It was terrible."

Even though Marian is gone, the family is still carrying on the tradition — exactly the way Floyd and Marian used to do it.

"I'm not a professional light putter-upper, you know," he said. "My daughter came by a few days ago to help me and I had her stand with the bundle of lights to go along and string 'em out as you put 'em up and I told her, 'Hold it just like mom used to do,' and she did."

Floyd and Marian used to drive around Longmont and look at others' Christmas lights. Now, he'll do it with his kids and grandkids over the weekend.

He said over the 32 years he's lived in Fox Hill, he thinks he has inspired other homeowners to string up Christmas lights.

"Oh, it seems to be more and more every year," he said. "I just like to do it. I don't care if it looks professional or anything; I do it for Marian and so that people, when they turn the corner, well, they'll have something to stop and look at."

Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci