SR grad lights up Montana
BILLINGS, Mont. — Last year, Craig Hicks' friends teased him because he didn't have any Christmas lights on his house.
This year, his house not only has lights, it has become a destination in Billings, causing cars to stop and even run into each other at times.
There are at least six cars parked outside at any given time, and at least two fender-bender accidents have been blamed on his light display, said Hicks, a former Slippery Rock resident and a 2001 Slippery Rock High School graduate.
He is a junior at Montana State University in the electrical engineering department.
His studies have helped him create the 30,000-light display that decorates his house, as well as the system that coordinates music and twinkling lights. The lights look like a high-speed fireworks display when they flicker to music, according to Hicks.
Each minute of the light-synchronized music took three hours of programming, Hicks said.
"It is the first computerized, residential light display in the state," he said.
The display has attracted attention from his university newspaper and other newspapers in the city. It is quite a change from last year, when friends called him "Scrooge."
"My friends bragged about their lights last year," he said. "After researching how to program the lights this year, I just decided to do it myself."
There have been some drawbacks, Hicks said, such as the vandalism he found last Monday when it appeared that someone cut some of the wires. And he and his roommate, George Wilson, have to be careful about what electricity is used in the house when the lights are on.
"We can't use the electric stove or clothes dryer for fear of overloading the whole system," he said.
Hicks, 24, said he enjoys Montana most of the time, but misses some of the technology he had at home. For example, he said, there is only one Best Buy store in the whole state.
To see pictures of the house, visit montanachristmas.org.
