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Rocky Mountian LightsBrining CHRISTmas magic one Christmas at a time
April 09 A legend in the CHRISTmas display world passesFRANKENMUTH, Mich. APRIL 1st 2009-- Wally Bronner, whose Christmas retail empire (BRONNER'S CHRISTmas Wonderland)made Frankenmuth one of Michigan's most popular tourist destinations but who strove to keep the focus on the Nativity and Christian tradition, has died. He was 81.
Bronner's death was confirmed Wednesday by Kim Cederberg, owner of Cederberg Funeral Home of Frankenmuth, which is handling funeral arrangements. He provided no other details. The Saginaw News reported that Bronner died Tuesday. His relatives notified employees of Bronner's Christmas Wonderland last week that he had inoperable cancer. Shoppers from all over the country have come for years to Bronner's to take in what is touted as the world's largest Christmas store. "You want to know the truth?" he asked a Detroit Free Press reporter in 2004. "The truth is no decorations are needed at all at Christmas. What's really needed at Christmas is that we decorate our hearts. "We get so busy with all of our preparations that we forget that this is such an important time of year to stop and take time to reflect on our lives, our faith, our world. "What matters most to me? Helping people to decorate their hearts with peace and love." Wallace "Wally" Bronner was born in Frankenmuth on March 9, 1927, the youngest of Herman and Ella Bronner's three children. He started a sign-painting business in his parents' basement in 1943 and expanded it to include decorating parade floats and fair booths and designing window displays. In 1951, Bronner met several merchants from Clare who were looking for Christmas decorations for lampposts in their city. Aided by his first full-time employee, Eddie Beyerlein, Bronner designed and produced Christmas panels for them. He married Irene Pretzer of Hemlock the same year. Bronner learned that other cities in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario also were interested in commercial decorations. He held his first decorations exhibit in the spring of 1952 in Frankenmuth's Township Hall. Two years later, he and his wife constructed their first permanent building in the middle of Frankenmuth -- half of it dedicated to the sign painting business, the other half accommodating the Christmas decorations. The store offered decorations for cities and shopping centers as well as gifts and trims for the home in religious, traditional and toyland themes. Another building was acquired in 1966 and a third in 1971. He was laid to rest on Monday. God bless Irene and the family during this difficult time
April 01 Plans for 2008 are here Announcing!!!
PHASE 4
The next addition for 2008
In my 3rd car garage I am adding an animated santa scene Diarama.
The scene is modeled after this Picture (with no elves)
The scene is made up of Gemmy 5' and 4' animated dancing singing Santa and Mrs claus
the backdrop is made of a painters canvas it will have a fire place and a 6' tree.
It will be controlled my my Light O Rama cmb16dc 16 channel dc computer contoller board
It will then be hooked into the remaining comuter controllers.
I have been picking up peices and materials for this display since 2004.
I have all the materials necessary to complete the project.
the scene will be encase in a plexiglass front
December 23 MERRY CHRISTmasMERRY CHRISTmas!!!
Well The season is almost over and the lights were a complete success even after I had the failures with the Train.
Well SANTA came thru (ok well I figured it out ) and just in time for CHRISTmas
THE TRAIN IS NOW RUNNING. !!!
I picked up a couple of powerwheels motors off a used powerwheels jeep and built an powered gear box and got the train running
last night so it will run tonight thru christmas!!
Here are some day time pics of the gear box and the train on the track
MERRY CHRISTmas!!
November 20 Display going upWell it's thanksgiving week. and I am about 2/3rds done with setting up the display. The ginger bread theme's 2nd season installed well wih minor failure lost 2 led bulbs. the mega flagpole tree lost 1 strand but so far things are going somewhat smoothly Although I have a LOT of work left most of it is conecting up power sources and light o rama computer boards.
i hava a fix for the train and should have it runing by this weekend the track curves and staights are done i just need to conect them and the make a test run. Although the train has been quite the task it is comeing to completion. and hope fully i can work on other projects like hackng my gemmy dancing santa an begin to draw up the plans for my ice pond. already i am pondering the project for next season.
but for know i have quite the to do list for tomorrow and friday. btw its supposed to get cold tonight and SNOW!! so we will see how much out side i get done.
we will see i still have a few $$ project for my light clients that ned to be done this weekend too. November 12 MAJOR FAILURE!!Well
We tested the engine and the motor had a major failure within 3 minutes.
on of my rail casters came off the motor the engine got bound up on the track and smoked the motor causing
MAJOR wiring harness melt down. I rebuil the wiring harness and although I would like to rebuild the motor it is unrepairable.
I have resorted to another motor option power wheel gear box motors I hope to have the engine up and running by this weekend.
Santa would be proud that i did not just give up for this season but turdged on with another solution.
will keep you posted.
mean while the decorations for this season are going up and its looking really good. its gonna be a great year
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