Month: December 2025

The Star on Pine Mountain  – Shining for Five Generations

Wednesday, December 24, 2025

If you have followed our blog for several years you might remember a few posts about “The Star.”

With lots of help from family, friends and the community we have worked and helped maintain the large lighted star on the side of Pine Mountain in Remlap, Alabama since the 1980’s.  The Star was built in 1950 by Max’s uncles and others as a project of a Sunday School class of Lee’s Chapel Church. When we went to Max’s Uncle JW in 1982 to get married, he insisted we promise to go to church together before he would marry us. We chose Lee’s Chapel as our church and that got us involved with The Star. Eventually we ended up in charge of it.  Still with lots of help we continued in that role until we started traveling almost full-time in 2014. Each year involved trimming trees, brush and vines and replacing bulbs and sockets.  Some years required repairing wires and resetting anchors. We still helped with it some years after 2014, but turned it mostly over to our cousin’s and best friends, Barry and Donna.  We know that we could not have kept it going without them.

This is the original write up about The Star we found in a local history book:

Christmas always finds the Young Adult Class busy sharing its members’ blessings with others, and Christmas 1950 will be remembered as a special one.  Sibyl Hallman [Max’s aunt] suggested to the class that they erect a “Star of Bethlehem” on the side of Pine Mountain facing Murphree’s Valley. Having read about a similar star in Colorado, she thought it would be something that they could share with many people. The class agreed, and Troy Lee Ingram, an Alabama Power Co. engineer, was contacted, and he agreed to lay out the star. It was formed on an area belonging to Lee McGriff. The star is 75 feet long from point to point and is 282 feet in circumference. Eighty-five 60 watt bulbs set about one foot apart shine into the nights of the Christmas season. Many regular travelers on Highway 75 look forward to the light of the Star during the holiday season. People from other parts of our nation have also enjoyed it. May there always be a “Star of Bethlehem”!

The star continued as two wires with screw-on sockets and incandescent bulbs until 2021 when we helped Donna and Barry and other friends rebuild it with LED rope lights.

We actually got to help a little on it this year back in November when we were in Alabama for a few days.

Five generations? We are the second generation; Donna and Barry are the third and their children and grandchildren have helped. That’s five generations – right?  We are so thankful for the people too numerous to name who built and helped maintain it for the last 75 years.  Hopefully it will continue for many more.

Each year when The Star is lit, there are many comments about what it means to the community. Hopefully, somewhere in the nostalgia people see the true meaning of “The Star of Bethlehem” and remember the Savior God sent to us to provide the one way to eternal salvation.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and remember.

Catching Up Again

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Hello everyone.  Seems it’s been over a month since we last gave you an update.  We have been here, there and everywhere and kept thinking we would get a post uploaded but it just hasn’t happened.  Sorry.  What follows is a synopsis of what’s been going on with us. 

We left our work in Ashville and spent five days in Lexington, KY with some Impact Maker friends at the Kentucky Horse Park.  We met some new friends, human and animal (beautiful horses) in a beautiful setting.

From Kentucky, we went to a Switch Crew Founders Club (SCFC) event at Talona Ridge RV Resort in Elijay, Georgia.  We love Talona Ridge and enjoyed more time with friends.  It was more than just fun as we spent a good deal of time planning the next 12-18 months for the organization.

From there we returned to Alabama for a little time at our home church and Camp Sumatanga and doctor and dental appointments.  We finally got to meet our new pastor, Mark Puckett, in person.  So thankful for him and always thankful for time with our Lester Memorial family.

After a brief week in Alabama we were back at Talona for a gathering of other friends and YouTube influencers, Cindy and Harold Strange and family.  It was another fun time of renewing friendships packed in three days.

Then it was time to return to Randy and Debra’s home in Johnston, SC.  We went to Gaffney, SC for two days for Fred’s annual checkup.  Thankfully, no problems were found and we spent the remainder of our time enjoying catching up with our family.  Debra and Anne enjoy preparing lots of good food for the family Thanksgiving and Max and Randy always have projects to complete.  It was nice to have some time to just relax. 

Randy’s new grapple sure makes cleaning up trees easier.

We are so very thankful for the time we have had with friends and family over the last several months.  We still have more of you to see and we will be working on that in 2026.  We are currently in Gulf Shores, AL and will try to keep things more up to date.  May God Bless You All and keep you safe!