LT I enjoyed reading your post...thank you so much for taking the time to explain in full detail. I feel you are very lucky that you are allowed to do what you do......your neighbors must really enjoy it & you are lucky you have no complainers.
You mentioned people walking pass your house & enjoying the activities of watching you put your display up.......I too go through that along with the amount of kids on halloween night that come & tell me.......I watched you everyday putting up your decorations when I rode by on the school bus! Its so cute when these little ones want to chat with you. There are really perfect strangers but we seem to have this bond because of what I do. Its heart warming to say the least.
AAhhh yes......not knowing our neighbors. That my friend is common in these times anymore all around the USA. Folks are just not into getting aquainted & getting together as they use to be. I too have been quite distraught with that in my new neighborhood. I'm here 4 yrs. this month in the new house and I only speak with the neighbors on one side of me as the neighbors on the other side want nothing to do with us. Across the road I speak with the cousin of the one neighbor I talk too & his Mother. Thats it!
It makes me very sad cause I would love to have a big fall festival of some type here at our home with a pig roast. I use to throw huge parties for up to 300 people when I had my Diner in Nebraska. Here ya just cannot seem to get anyone to want to get together. BUT...I'm working on it. As you....during Halloween they all come out of the woodwork, they come through my house with their kids & last season we honestly had more adults come through than kids. Thats when I meet all these nice people around here....but where are they the rest of the year?lol
Thats why this year I'm getting someone else to take pictures of my TOT's so I can free myself up more to get aqauinted with people. On Halloween everyone wants to talk but I'm just so busy keeping the line moving along there is no time to chat. This year I'm gonna spend a little bit more time on trying to figure out how to get these people together for something during the month of October & plan that get together for the 2009 season. I'll keep ya informed!lol
Lastly I kind of agree with your son & wife.......I too have to watch the gore in my haunt. We have over 200 kids that come that are small kids....maybe 12 and less. I would love to do a bit more gore but I have to figure a way to add it so the little ones could bypass it. I WOULD LOVE to have live actors but the truth is LT I don't know a soul out here, I'm really new to NC & have not had time to form any friendships.
We know this season that the 3 of us cannot handle this thing alone. SO I asked the gals at the beauty shop yesterday....hows about those ladies that wear the red & purple clothes, the Red Hat Society chicks......they claim that "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" so I'm gonna see if I can contact their group & get about 7-8 of them to come help us at Halloween. The front yard scene is getting bigger & with the line we have out there I just wish we had someone to help us out there.
Then we need a greeter when they come in the mansion. I would also like to see one live person in each room as we decorate all the rooms in the house. This season we are going to try & do 2 rooms in the garage so people can exit thru there.
Last year ya came thru the house & had to get back thru the house to get out the front door.....oh my GOD it was ridiculous with so many people standing in line to get in the mansion...... so we are in serious need of some traffic control.
So yes there is always more for us to work on & more to think about. I have great admiration for these folks that do these big haunt attractions where there is so much work on getting the haunt ready and worse is trying to hire actors you know you can count on to show up thru the season. The time it takes to dress them and apply makeup and make sure everything runs smoothly....oh yes and then there is the marketing......wow lots of precise work. Maybe we are lucky we just have these small haunts!lol
Haunt On My Friend!!
the Muffster
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