NORTH GREENE STUDENT thinking ahead to Christmas

By Editor | July 13, 2026 |

North Greene Junior High student David Cook repurposed the sign that his great-grandfather used for decades to denote Santa’s Rest Stop in Walkerville. Following the passing of Ed Caskey, all of his Christmas items were sold and Cook, 12, decided three years ago to carry on Caskey’s holiday tradition. Now, the pre-teen is hoping the community will help him by donating their unwanted Christmas items to help him grow his Christmas collection. (Submitted photo)

By Carmen Ensinger

With the month of July starting out with temperatures hovering near 100 degrees, now is a good time to be thinking of Christmas in July – at least that is what David Cook of Roodhouse wishes everyone would do.
Cook is hoping that while everyone is gathering up things for their summer yard sale, that if they run across some Christmas lights, or other Christmas display items, that they might find it in their heart to donate them to his Christmas light display that he has been putting on for the past three years.
A Christmas light display might not sound too impressive, especially not in July, but what makes this Christmas extravaganza special is that it is orchestrated by a young man that is only 12 years old. What is even more impressive is that he has been doing it for three years, having started it when he was only nine.
Cook, who will be in seventh grade at North Greene come August, is the son of John and Sue Cook and is the great grandson of Ed and Loretta Caskey. Everyone remembers Ed Caskey and Loretta for having run Santa’s Rest Stop in Walkerville for many, many years. Folks would come from far and wide to drive through thousands and thousands of lights and displays at their country home.
Sadly, Ed passed away three years ago and while many of his lights and displays were sold, some were passed down to Cook, who seems to have caught the Christmas bug from his great grandpa and wants to take up the tradition where he left off, even though he hasn’t even reached his teen years yet.
“I wish I would have gotten more of my great-grandpa’s stuff, but a lot of it got sold,” Cook said. “But I did get one really cool piece, and actually, my favorite piece of all and the favorite piece in my display – and that is the Santa in the outhouse that he always had at the end of the run.”
Anyone who visited Santa’s Rest Stop from the 90’s on can remember that Santa sitting on the toilet waving as they left the light display.
“That was my great-grandpa’s favorite piece too,” Cook said. “When I got it, however, it was no longer working, but I managed to get it working again.”
It is probably a good thing to inherit a working knowledge of mechanical things if he is going to carry-on the tradition that Caskey started many years ago. The mechanical knowledge, however, Cook attributes to his aunt who is a mechanical engineer.
“I can fix almost anything,” Cook said. “And if someone donates something, whether it is a string of lights, or some type of display, if I can’t fix it, then I will find some use for the parts – I never let anything go to waste.”
For example, say one has a string of lights that no longer works, it might be a simple case of a bulb being blown out. While one might not want to spend an hour or more going through trying to find that bulb, at least that was the case back in the good old days, Cook said he is more than willing to make use of that strand of lights in one way or another.
Last year he had literally thousands of lights lighting up the night, along with more than 50 inflatables, which seem to be all the rage these days. He is more than willing to accept a donation of those as well.
“I know a lot of people who live in town have a limited space in their yard for these kinds of items,” he said. “They like to buy new inflatables every year because they don’t want to use the same thing over and over again. Well, I would love it if they would donate their old ones to me because I have plenty of room to display it out here.”
He certainly does. The physical address is 1020 Butler St. in Roodhouse, but Cook has several acres on which to set up his lights and inflatables.
While he did inherit some things, many of the lights and displays he has purchased with his own money.
“I save up all of my Christmas and birthday money and wait for the after-Christmas sales,” he said. “Then, when they mark them down to 75 percent off, I go in and buy everything they have left.
Of course, that is the idea that many people have as well, so he has a lot of competition, hence his plea for donations now.
“I just want people to know that if they have some Christmas lights, displays, inflatables, anything at all, that I would love it if they would bring it out and donate it because it will not go to waste,” he said. “If something is broken and I can’t fix it, perhaps something is salvageable from it that can fix something else. I don’t like to see anything go to waste.”
In this day and age of a throw away society, Cook is a rare breed indeed.
Cook said there are several sheds and carports at his location, but he prefers anything dropped off to be dropped off at the little carport because he will check there every day.