Couple of cold ones & a bright idea lead to a lot of Fun
Editor’s note - This story was written in November 2021, and some details have changed but the seminal story of how the star got started remains the same. Those wanting to donate can send checks to the Fun Group at 673 Brentwood Drive, East, The Dalles, OR 97058.
Here is one of the Original Fun group hats with founding member names written in Fasulo custom paints. The key? Well, that’s the key to Fun. If you want to keep it going, think about donating to the volunteer group. These hats were sold as some of the original Fun raisers for the group.
By Tom Peterson
Why join a group unless it’s fun?
That was Bert Hodges thought some 30 years ago.
He and pals, Phil Pashek, Jerry Kelly, Ken Proctor and John Wood were cruising The Dalles in Phil’s Mercury convertible.
It was 1991.
Little did they know that day they would start a tradition that has championed the local holiday spirit for the past three decades.
As legend has it, The Dalles Five Pack, impressively packed into the convertible, was one friend short of a sixer. They ended up at Sally and Tony Fasulo’s back porch on Seventh St. Place.
“Yeah, this is the cradle of the star,” Sally Fasulo confided on Monday, Nov. 29.
Tony said the gang was tipping a few that day.
Allan Peterson dons his original Fun Group hat from the ‘90s. It was a bit of a madcap start, but perserverence has led to three decades of Holiday fun.
And while they were chatting on the back porch, John Wood said, “I have a great idea. I want to put stars all over The Dalles, and we need to have one great big one.”
“I know where the perfect spot is,” Hodges responded. “On Ginny’s rock.”
Fasulo said the idea caught fire and soon they were piling into pickups and driving out to Hodges’ property on the west end of The Dalles and Chenoweth Creek.
“I really thought they were crazy,” Sally said. “But, turns out they weren’t”
The group drove out past the Chenowith Grange on west 10th Street and out onto property that now overlooks Google in the Port of The Dalles.
For people driving westbound on Interstate-84, the star is an ever-growing image as drivers near The Dalles. It is s milestone and something to look forward to in the short days of December, especially for those coming to visit family.
And they hiked the 100 feet up scree and slick cheatgrass to Ginny’s rock. Ginny was Bert’s wife, and the couple had enjoyed looking out at the city from the vantage point.
Fasulo said there was some dickering between Bert and John about the placement of the star, and Bert settled it by saying it was Ginny’s rock or nothing.
And it was so.
And they started calling themselves the Fun Group, adding electrician Ron McHale of Hire Electric and Allan Peterson into the fold.
Each paid $350 out of their own pocket to fund the star.
“The first year we had to haul all the parts and pipe up the hill,” Peterson said.
Fasulo said they had built a sled they intended to pull up the hill with all the parts they needed - conduit, wiring, bulb receptacles. But the sled didn’t slide. It dug in, and they abandoned it, choosing to carry the materials by hand.
Melissa Lee is part of The Fun. She is the granddaughter to Bert Hodges and an active member of the group. The Fun Group Star ignites the sky from the basalt plateau directly behind Lee in this photo.
“God, that hill was steep,” Allan said. “It was all I could do to get up it.”
Eventually, a rope was strung up the hill to aid people in climbing it.
They used Bert’s gas generator, and McHale came up with the wiring and electrical parts and hundreds of incandescent bulbs. They pulled it off for Christmas, lighting the star on the night of the Starlight Parade.
“Hattenhauers gave us gas for the generator,” Allan said, noting they would not take money when he tried to pay for it. “We would just ask for stuff, and people would give it.”
In those first years, the Fun Group was beset as vandals, broke bulbs, tipped the star over and generally created havoc with their setup. They even threw Tony’s forty-foot ladder - one used to change bulbs in the early years - off the cliff.
After several years, the star was so badly damaged, it had to be rebuilt. But this time they used galvanized fence tubing and they got a little help from the sky.
John Shearer of local crop-dusting fame agreed to use the company helicopter to lift the new star into place.
Free of charge.
They set the star with concrete. It was bigger, tougher and would eventually hold the weight of climber Gabe Red Cloud and his son Louis who dangled off the structure to replace bulbs.
In those earlier years, wildfire also burned through their wiring
The Fun’s Louis Red Cloud with the help of his dad Gabe upgraded the star with LED lights in 2018 with some impressive climbing. A helicopter was used to put the star in place in the 1990s.
But The Fun persevered, rebuilding and repairing the star as needed.
“We also built a lot of 10-foot stars,” Fasulo said. “That was the original deal. If somebody in town wanted one, we would build it. They just had to pay the electric bill.”
The legacy of that plan lives on today as multiple stars, either built by or inspired by The Fun Group adorn The Dalles.
Sally, Emy Peterson and Barbara Pashek joined meetings at Bert’s Speedee Sales and planned their repairs or next adventures over pizza and drinks.
The group even constructed a 40-foot star for Arlington in the early years.
“Bert was a perfectionist,” Tony said. If the generator ran out of gas before daylight, Bert might give the generator crew a call and tell them to add another gallon for the next night’s lighting.
“He was just that way,” Tony said. They would even jaw about how fast to crank the manual gas pump. “That was the fun,” he said.
Allan and Tony are the last members of that original crew. But the star, now using LED lights, a timer and a propane-driven generator, still shines as bright as ever - a testament to fun and a bright idea.
The Fun Group has grown over the years, adding a multitude of members that now includes Alex Hattenhauer, Bill Matthews, Dave Carney, Donna Carney, Dave Re, David Jacobs, Doug Hattenhauer, Gabe Red Cloud, Greg Weast, Jerry Christensen, Jim Bergstrom, Jim Wilcox, Ken McBain, Kurt Conger, Larry Toll, Melissa Lee, Myke Smith, Norm Miller, Robyn Conger, Ross Bailey, Russ Brown, Scott Mengis, Tanner Elliott, Ted Valkov, Terry Nelson, Tony Foote and Tom Peterson.
Gabe Red Cloud, Louis Red Cloud, Jim Bergstrom, Ross Bailey, Kurt Conger and David Jacobs under the star in recent years cleaning up after completing maintenance on the star.
And Bert’s sense of perfection is still running strong within the group. Kurt Conger recently sent instructions to star operator teams.
“Nights are 16 hours run time. The 4 p.m. mark is circled on the timer. This is the correct start time to dial to for winter. That will provide a 16-hour run (off at 8 a.m.).
Bert would be proud.
Full disclosure - Original Fun Group member Allan Peterson is my father and Tony and Sally Fasulo are my aunt and uncle. Oh, and they rock! - Tom Peterson
