"Yard display lets dad know daughter's feelings" Associated Press article The Salina Journal, 6 Sept. 1996: 1.

(by the Associated Press) SUNNYSIDE,WA -- Dixie Lyczewski has turned off the flashing strobe light, but the 7-foot-tall scarlet "A" in her front yard will stay. The yard display is a result of a dispute between Lyczewski and her husband, Tim. the separated last August after 26 years of marriage.

Their 20-year-old daughter, Tarah, built the display using plastic irrigation pipe wrapped in red garlands three months ago. It's shaped like the letter "A," as in "adultery." She said she got the idea from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter after her father began dating and moved in with another woman before her parents' divorce was final.

"We were raised with morals," she said. "I told my dad that we'll take it down if he stops living with her."

Tim Lyczewski said he is frustrated about the display, but a restraining order prevents him from getting a close look at it. "They're trying to embarrass me, but they're doing a better job of embarrassing themselves," he said. "I cant' go anywhere around here without people whispering behind my back or asking me about it. A lot of women are upset with me, but to --- with them."

Dixie Lyczewski agreed to turn off a flashing strobe light on the display on Tuesday after residents filed a petition to have the display removed and the city brought a public-nuisance complaint.

"I'm not happy about it," she said. "But the 'A' will stay up."

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