LYNNFIELD — Michael Croke came home to holiday lights, his smiling family and a warm coat after spending 10 months serving with the Massachusetts National Guard in Africa.
“I am so happy to be home, but I think I forgot how cold it can be,” Croke told the crowd gathered for last Saturday’s town holiday kickoff on the Common.
Croke, a 2008 Lynnfield High School graduate and Guard sergeant, was stationed in Djibouti, an east African nation. Wrestling with a foreign language was almost as hard as enduring the region’s 120-degree heat.
“It was really hard and I cannot tell you how happy I am to home with my family,” he said.
His Saturday homecoming was a high point in the town’s annual afternoon and evening filled with festivities that began Friday night with the first of two nights of trolley car tours through the town to view the entries in the Second Annual Light Up Lynnfield holiday decorating contest.
Nearly 1,000 people paid $5 each to jump on the trolley, sit back and admire a delightful array of holiday lights. Sponsored by the Lynnfield Recreation Commission, tours departed the Town Common Friday hourly at 6, 7 and 8 p.m. with four Salem Trolley cars filled to capacity on each 45-minute tour.
Saturday night’s tours scheduled for 5 and 6 p.m with four trolleys running in each time slot sold out in no time flat, prompting the last-minute addition of a fifth car on the 6 p.m. run
“We were basically running about 160 people every hour over the two days the trolley ran,” said Recreation Commission chairman Rich Sjoberg. “It was just truly amazing and some of the houses were absolutely incredible. The tours are just a great way to experience the holiday season with your fellow Lynnfield neighbors, and every trolley was filled with the maximum (45 occupants), so it was a great event.”
The highlight of the next morning was the arrival of Santa Claus from the North Pole via firetruck. But Croke almost stole the bearded man’s thunder when he embraced his family.
His spouse, Siobhan, recently learned she passed the state bar exam and kept the home fires burning in Croke’s absence for his mom, Debbie, brother Tim, sister-in-law, Ryan and niece Braelyn. Croke will be on leave for the next nine months and Siobhan said she is looking forward to every day.
“It’s been such a tough year without him and I cannot tell you how happy I am to have him home,” she said.
