He also brought home ideas .
Kiser studied industrial arts in college and planned to work as a shop teacher . He completed his student teaching before the promise of a bigger paycheck lured him to the coal mines , where he first worked for Standard and then U . S . Steel .
The love of creating stayed with him though , and when he returned from Bronner ’ s with ideas in his head , he simply created them himself .
“ It actually became a hobby of mine ,” he says . “ When I wasn ’ t working , I ’ d piddle out in my garage and build .”
His creations through the years have included a giant Christmas castle , nativity sets , signs , toy shops and even his own sled and lifesize reindeer .
As his displays grew , so did the crowds , as visitors from across the county and even neighboring counties stopped by for a dose of Christmas cheer .
“ I guess it was word-of-mouth ,” he says of how news of his decorations spread . “ Back then you didn ’ t have the internet , but people would come and be amazed .”
Kiser and his wife Pam were comfortable in the Oceana home where son J . W . had grown up .
That changed on July 8 , 2001 .
• • •
“ The sun was shining when I went to work that morning ,” Kiser recalls . “ I was in the mines and later on in the shift , a dispatcher came on and said , ‘ Man , it is raining out here like you wouldn ’ t believe .’” Kiser still has trouble believing what happened that day . By the time the rain stopped , much of Wyoming County had been damaged , destroyed and even washed away . “ I had never seen water so high ,” he says . Pam and J . W ., who was home from college for the summer , made it out of the house safely , but the Kisers lost most everything else .
“ Furniture , clothes , everything we owned ,” Kiser says of the losses . “ We had about 44 inches of water in the house , and the garage had over 6 foot .”
The family spent the next year in a FEMA trailer while their home was gutted and restored .
When they made it back to the place they had called home — on the bank of the Clear Fork , a tributary of the Guyandotte River — he and Pam worried .
“ Every time it rains , once you get flooded , you get nervous ,” Kiser says .
Before long , FEMA , through its hazard mitigation program , offered to purchase their property , tear down the home and never allow another structure to go up . “ The government wanted to buy us out , so we sold it ,” Kiser says . Three years and two months after they lost everything but a few pictures on the wall , the couple moved to their newly constructed home on Grandview Road in Raleigh County .
As they adjusted to their new normal , a familiar thought crept into Kiser ’ s mind .
It had been three years since he put up a single decoration . It was time . “ I said , ‘ It ’ s Christmas ; we gotta do something .’”
• • • Rebuilding a 21-year collection wasn ’ t easy . The thousands of lights and hundreds of blow molds and other decorations he had amassed since 1980 were long gone — washed away by raging floodwaters .
And purchasing blow molds , Kiser quickly found , was tricky .
40 ❖ SOUTH ❖ NOVEMBER - DECEMBER ' 22