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Article=20 Last Updated: 12/12/2004 08:34:52 AM=20

Crippsmas Place light show may be = last
After mounting displays for 40 = years,=20 Fremont couple plan to move away

By=20 Barry Shatzman, STAFF WRITER

FREMONT =97=20 Just as he has every year for almost 40 years, Robert = "Spider"=20 Cantley painted boards with cartoon characters, = purchased=20 50,000 candy canes and powered up spotlights. And once = again,=20 Cripps Place magically turned into Crippsmas Place.=20
Possibly for the last time.=20
Cantley estimates that 150,000 people will come to = see=20 Crippsmas Place by the end of December. In the past 37 = years,=20 the small street, off Nicolet Avenue by Fremont = Boulevard, has=20 become one of the Bay Area's biggest and best-known = Christmas=20 light displays.=20
But Cantley and his wife, Jan, are planning to sell = theirhouse and move in the spring. And, as much as his = neighbors help out every year, he doesn't know if any = of them=20 will replace all the hours he spends each year to make = Crippsmas Place unique.=20
"I haven't asked directly," he said. "If it'll = happen,=20 it'll happen."=20
Cantley said what makes Crippsmas Place unique is = the=20 characters. The life-size figures are not only kept = up-to-date=20 =97 this year's cast includes Sponge Bob, as well as = characters=20 from "Shark = Tales" and=20 "The Incredibles" =97 but they also go back to = characters=20 grown-ups remember, like Dagwood Bumstead.=20
With the 20 or so boards he cuts out and paints = each year,=20 the collection tops 500. During the Christmas season, = the=20 boards are spotlighted on every lawn on Crippsmas = Place, as=20 well as houses on neighboring streets.=20
"It's the neighbors that make it happen," Cantley = said.=20
But the neighbors do more than just display Cookie = Monster=20 or Snoopy on their lawns. Cantley points out the = inconvenience=20 of the traffic, and = the extra=20 $200 or so they'll end up sending to PG&E to power = the=20 spotlights each night of the Christmas season.=20
They also help with the work. Jeff Pickering was = helping to=20 prepare his mother-in-law's house, next door to = Cantley, for=20 Saturday night's first influx of visitors.=20
"I have five finals coming up. I'm supposed to be = studying.=20 But I'm putting up lights," he said.=20
Cantley said he has never directly asked anyone to = join in.=20 They all came to him. Part of the reason there has = never been=20 even a single = problem,=20 he said, is that it's all just fun, and there are no = rules.=20
"There's one benevolent dictator =97 me," he said=20
"Last car!" shouted Al Kieselbach. He was joking, = of=20 course. Kieselbach yelled that for every car, knowing = there=20 will be hundreds more that night. Besides chatting = with the=20 occupants of almost every car, he also was collecting = money=20 from them to help find a cure for leukemia and = lymphoma.=20
In addition to making=20
Crippsmas Place happen, Cantley is chairman of the = KGO=20 Radio 24-Hour Leukemia and Lymphoma Curathon.=20
Cantley calls it a win-win situation.=20
"We want them to enjoy the decorations first. Then, = if they=20 want to give, they can do that too," he said.=20

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