POTTS CAMP — This Christmas tree’s green branches are tie rods salvaged from junked cars and hung with carburetors, hubcaps, crankshafts, fan blades, license plates and twisted bits of chrome. Red taillights blink on and off. And the presents underneath include a brightly painted engine, transmission, radiator and grills.
Repair shop and salvage yard owner Robert Sexton of Potts Camp, nearly an hour’s drive northwest of Tupelo, tells the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal he built it in 2010 for his grandchildren — two boys and four girls.
“I built it one fall. It took me all of the fall to build it. I worked on it at night,” said Sexton, 61. “Everything on it came out of the junkyard.”
Well just about everything. Sexton said he had to buy the hooks that he welded to each branch to keep ornaments in place.
He sets it up each December. The rest of the year, he stores the parts and decorations in an old van.
It stands about 16 feet tall, he said. The trunk is a carpet fork from a forklift.
“A lot of things are hanging by string so they’ll move,” he said.
Some decorations are painted red, blue and yellow. Others are straight off the car or truck.
“It looks a little different each year. I mix it up and figure out new ways of doing it. I make little improvements,” Sexton said.
He said “There are 53 taillights, not counting the star. They’ve got two bulbs or three in them.”
The star at the top is a spoke-style Cragar truck wheel with lights set up to flash inside.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.