Making spirits bright

Things weren’t looking too merry or bright for Jon Whitmore when he lost his job as a local truck driver in February.

“I have a family of eight — a wife and six kids,” he said.

Instead of signing up for unemployment compensation, Whitmore, 47, took a part-time job delivering pizzas for Pizza Hut, created and sold crafts with his family and kept an eye out for other opportunities to make a buck.

For this year’s holiday season, he decided to try brightening his finances by tapping his skill at putting up Christmas lights and other outdoor holiday decorations. Whitmore credited his sister-in-law Patty Dyhrberg with the idea.

“I hang her lights,” he said. “She said ‘There’s a lot of people out there who want theirs hung, too.”

He advertised in the Daily Inter Lake and got his first job this week. Whitmore envisions working for senior citizens who can’t safely use ladders or people who don’t enjoy working in the cold. With recent frigid weather, those ranks may be growing.

Whitmore doesn’t mind the subzero temperatures.

“I’m an outdoor kind of guy,” he said. “When it gets cold, you just wear lots of layers.”

All of his life, Whitmore has had a knack for using his hands. He called himself finicky, which pays dividends when it comes to doing a good job at stringing lights.

“I’ve done my own Christmas lights year after year,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a lot to it. You have to make sure everything is straight.”

One secret is using the right type of lights for the application. According to Whitmore, lights for stringing along the eves of houses should be at least the large C-7 or C-9 size since they fit the hangers.

The smaller Christmas tree lights work for places such as bushes.

“There’s such a large variety,” he said.

Whitmore said he starts by going to the customer’s residence to assess the scope of work. He checks out the lights on hand or figures out what he needs to purchase to meet the owner’s illumination dreams.

“I see where the electricity is and how many lights it’s going to take,” Whitmore said. “I don’t charge to go and get lights. That can take a lot of running around.”

Whitmore has his own ladders, a staple gun and a helper on call if a job requires two people.

As far as trends, he said the all-white twinkling lights are still very popular, but many enjoy the mass infusions of color as well. Whitmore makes no judgments — he just wants them straight as a string of lights ought to be.

“I’m a perfectionist that way,” he said.

Since Whitmore lost his job with City Service Valcon, his wife Betty has bumped up her hours working from home via the Internet as a medical transcriptionist. The couple, with help from their 13-year-old daughter Lisa, also make and sell crafts, most notably pads that heat up in the microwave to use for neck and joint pain relief.

They also make neck coolers filled with a special gel that retains cold. Whitmore just came up with a new product that integrated the cooler into a motorcyclist’s head covering.

They sell their goods at various craft shows in the summer and winter.

“We do the farmers market,” he said. “Because of the economy, we sold less this year.”

Because of slow sales, the couple skipped going to out-of-town craft shows they attended in the past. He didn’t think they would make enough to pay their expenses and make a profit.

The couple have passed their work ethic on to their children, ages 8 to 17, who also have money-making projects. As an example, Whitmore said one daughter, Libby, 12, bakes and sells bread at the farmers market.

He hopes to tap the Christmas decorating market to supplement his family’s income. If he has time between paying jobs, he may finally get his own Christmas decorations up.

“I still have lights to put up,” Whitmore said with a laugh. “It’s ironic.”

Because he prefers working outside an office, Whitmore would like to find another local truck driving job. He enjoyed the three years he drove a propane truck for City Service Valcon.

“I used to be an over-the-road driver, but I don’t want to do that again,” he said. “I loved the driving part but I don’t want to be away from my family.”

 Because his Pizza Hut hours slowed this winter, he may finally seek unemployment compensation. But he won’t stop looking for innovative ways to make ends meet.

Whitmore doesn’t see anything unique about his family’s entrepreneurial bent.

“It’s what we’ve always done,” he said.

Anyone interested in having Whitmore help with their decorations may reach him at 755-7635.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com