Ephrata's 'Candy Cane Lane' brings together neighbors

EPHRATA - 'Twas the summer before Christmas in 1988 when two neighbors had a vision of candy canes dance in their heads.

The vision of Karen Moore and Deborah Moore, unrelated, spurred a holiday family tradition for Ephrata residents.

Karen Moore said she and her neighbors enjoyed the summer months, when everyone was out in their yard, enjoying the sun. She said the idea was to have something during the winter months that would bring the neighbors together again.

With only 18 houses on her street, Ridge Drive is a cozy little nondescript side street by the Ephrata Airport.

But this story is not about Ridge Drive. It is about Candy Cane Lane.

During those late summer and fall months neighbor Everett Wenke built a candy can making mold, and neighbors Mike Boland and Dave Ebberson went to work testing and bending different sizes of PVC pipe, trying to make a good shepherds hook, Boland said.

Once the hooks were made, the Moores decorated the canes with red duct tape and lights.

All 18 canes are the originals, Karen Moore said, although some of the neighbors are new.

William Coe moved to Ridge Drive after the creation of the candy canes. He said although there is no official covenant, candy canes are left behind for new home owners.

All neighbors interviewed agree, creating and decorating the canes is work.

"Of course there is a lot of prep involved," Coe said, "but the overall benefit is igniting the neighborhood...it gives us an opportunity to meet the new neighbors and get to know one another."

All neighbors agreed as well, like Coe; the benefits outweigh the work.

This year, the neighborhood welcomed two new families, the Roses. No relation.

"Yeah," Karen Moore said, "that happens around here!" She said in the early years of the canes, there were three Moores, two Whitakers, and two Murrays, none of which were related.

The holiday and the candy canes bring added traffic as families drive through to see the lights, some for generations now.

The year of the first canes was determined by finding a Christmas letter, written in January of 1989, that mentioned the task.