Thread: How did YOU start?

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Bare your souls, people. Whatever possessed you to start such a bizarre, far-out undertaking as scaring kids, on an Industrial Scale, on Hallowe'en Night?

Here's my story - A long time ago, 1985, I would say, I took my then 5 & 6 year old kids out for Trick-or-Treat. They had awesome costumes, The Devil and The Grim Reaper, home-made, not store-bought, very detailed. We stayed out way late, well after most of the other kids had gone home. My kids were having a ball, very loud and boisterous, until we came to one of the last houses of the night. The Home Owner answered the door wearing a werewolf mask. That's it, just the mask. No music, no decorations, certainly no fog. But the kids instantly grew tense. "Uptight", I believe, was the phrase at the time.
They stepped slowly up to the door, took their treats, mumbled "Thank You," and backed away returning to where I was standing. They never took their eyes of the "Werewolf". Walking back to the car, I asked, "Was that scary?" They replied, in unison, "Yeah", like, wasn't I watching? I said, "Guys, look at your costumes, YOU'RE scarier than he was". They weren't buying it. So I said, "Guys, wait till next Hallowe'en, I'll show you something REAL scary." The rest is history.
What got you guys going? Some guy with a flashlight under the chin?

There was a house in West Quincy that the schoolbus used to drive us past on the way to school that used to get totally decked out. They had a well with a guy's legs sticking out, a cardboard coffin, spider webs everywhere, etc. It was great!

All my life, I thought "I'd love to do that!" Being I grew up in the house my grandparents owned, they didn't want the yard "messed up" like that.

Then later, after the house was sold we moved into an apartment building and I sort of decorated the balcony with lights and such. Wouldn't you know some butt-wad complained about the purple lights and I was asked to take them down by management who said they don't allow decorating for holidays?

When X-mas came around alot of balconies had colored or clear x-mas lights. I complained to management, but they never did anything about it.

Then, after my father passed away, my (then fiancee) and I bought a house 20 miles south in Pembroke. We bought a few tombstones from Spencer's and I busted out the fog machine and strobe lights from my band-playing days and we had a mini-graveyard. That re-kindled my interest in having the most outlandish house in the town, and "the rest is history" as the saying goes.

All I remember is when I was 4 my mom dressed me up as a ghoul and had this face paint on me that cracked and I hated it. When I saw pictures later on of it I thought it was so cool. I was addicted there. The houses in my neighborhood used to decorate like crazy so when I was all decked on in a scary costume (thanks to my mom starting me on the right foot) I would go around the entire neighborhood just to go to these homes. I never at the time thought of doing it to my parents house, but I think part of me was thinking up some ideas. One Halloween it seemed like none of the houses were decorated anymore. One of the more famous ones the people had moved out. Well I wouldn't stand for this and I at least put out tombstones made from boxes. Each year it was grown from there and now I have the famous house in the neighborhood. I'll be moving into a condo one of these days soon, but I think I'll still go back and decorate my parents house.

Start? I never stopped, 23 lifetimes later, several towns pillaged, a plague unleashed, and a nation destroyed. It has been my design to bring terror to the masses. Part Celtic Irish - part Carpathian.

However, for the sake of a story, this time around the Brothers started around the time we were 8 & 9, building out the crawl space under my parents house. It wasn't much, but it started it. Before then, Halloween was a big day for us, costumes, pumpkinds, the works. That year we brought it together and became organized. Every year the outside after that got decorated. My brother got his place in 92'ish and the foundation work for our cemetary. I ventured off to the military and 8 countries later returned home with plans to make the haunt an attraction where people would return every year, and we did!

This year poses a twist, as I have mentioned in other posts, both my brother and I have moved to new homes. His is the accepted point of the haunt and has a nice large front yard, we may branch into the back yard if I can sell him on it as he backs up to a corn field and gives me waaaaay too many ideas.

There ya go, thats our story and I am sticking to it. As the signature says

Obsideo Ergo Sum

Mom made us homemade costumes, and did very elaborate makeups... she even dressed as a witch to answer the door, as she does to this very day. Both my parents were handy, and had a bug to be entertain, so it came from there.

When we bought a house ten years ago, it was two weeks before Halloween. Having nothing elaborate planned, I answered the door with a black cape over my head and a jack o'lantern in my hand. Not long after that, I built a robot rod puppet to answer the door and dispense candy. That damned thing was a hit... my wife sees other mothers at school, and when she tells them where she lives, they remark about how there's this really cool house there where a guy built a robot, etc... my wife gets all the glory!

This year will be my first full scale haunt, a sideshow with monsters. Not only do I want to do it, I have to, somehow. Without getting too bogged down in weepy sentimentality here, I'm not certain I have too many healthy years left, and want to do as much as possible now while I have the strength and drive. I set a goal for myself last year, which was a disaster, and it will be done!

Totally cool thread Wolfman. Having a blast reading these posts.
We started out of necessity. Had to find a way to keep kids form climbing over or falling because a recent plumbing disaster. Ended up with a three foot burm right down the center of our front yard. Started by decorating this with big sticks, spider webbing, Jack-o-lanterns and two borrowed strobes. Everyone had a blast. That high and wide stretch of dirt clods is long gone. But the habit still remains.

Wow. Some great stories guys! Where do I start on mine? I will just start at when I was a baby I was born in October so my mom dressed me as a little pumpkin (as a newborn) and even took me out ToTing with her. My parents have always been big into Halloween. And actually my whole family is. Someone has been having a huge Halloween party since I was born.. Strange they had just started doing it the year before I was born. lol. Every year after that we always had Halloween with the family and they went all out with games, treats, tricks, and scares.. Esepcially my dang uncle. He is kind of crazy. LOL. And they live in the woods too we used to always go down there for thier Halloween party and he would hide in the woods dressed as Jason and we would all have a hayride at Midnight and he wouldn't go becuase he said he was sick and while we were on they Hayride he would come running out of the woods with a chainsaw dressed like Jason.. LOL. Scared the crap out of me and my cousins who were all around 6 or 7 at the time.

But basically I am so into Halloween becuase I was raised on it. My whole family STILL has those great parties and everyone goes all out with thier costumes. When I got in 5th grade I started spreading the Halloween bug to all my friends. We would all try our best to dress up at school (rules permitting) if Halloween was on a Schoolnight. we would have things like Halloween pencils and pens and erasers. lol. Get the idea? When I got in 7th Grade I decided I was going to have a cool Halloween party and my mom and dad loved this so they decorated the house and the garage. My dad even had a HUGE spider hanging in the center of the garage where the main party was going to take place. All my friends came and they ALL dressed up. It was so much fun I started to have a party every year after that. My family would even come all dressed up. lol. When I hit High School my friends and I couldnt' wait for Halloween. They kept telling people at school that I was so much fun at Halloween it wasn't even funny. LOL. I had been a fan of Rocky Horror since I was in the 7th grade so I decided to have my first Halloween Theme party.. And everyone knows the story from there.

Its like a lot of you are getting your children into Halloween very early on. Like my parents did with me. I really admire that and you guys KNOW that my children are going to have a great Halloween every year!!... That is when I have some.

Thats basically my story... Anyone else?

Wow some great stories! I was trick or treating with some friends I was about 8. When we go to one house and a lady came out dressed as a witch, scared my buddies it gave me an idea! So as time passed I did what I could to my parents house. I moved on Halloween came with me usually just decorating a balcony, or a front lawn where I resided. Then we bought our home in 1999, that was the year my son was born. Took the first year off, being a new dad and all. Then in 2000, started doing the front yard a bit not too much yet. Then in 2001, a bit more. 2002 recruited volunteer and Horror on Harmon was born. Now it is a madness, the whole neiborhood waits and watches as the props go up in late September!

I got going seriously about 10 years ago, with dozens of carved pumpkins all around the outside of the house. Good thing I like roasted pumpkin seeds! When we moved 5 years ago, my wife decided that a yard haunt would fun to do. I took the ball and ran. Now she just leaves Halloween to me and the kids, and does the Christmas decorating. She still can't understand how one can be obsessed with Halloween full-time, though.

There were many things that have attributed to my love of Halloween and all things spooky. I feel very lucky to have been born in 1950. For one thing life was much simpler then and not so complicated. My grandmother loved ghost stories and I remember the first time she took me trick or treating. I think I was about 4 years old. That was it I was hooked from then on. When I was 6 Frankenstein was shown on tv for the first time. I remember thinking " why don't those adults just leave him alone?" Then Famous Monsters came along in the late 1950"s. I still have the first 50 issues. And Dark Shadows in 1966. I was born and raised in Indiana where things turn creepy in the fall. All the colored leaves and that wonderful smell. I can't explain that smell, a combination of damp wet dying leaves and moist air. Creepy old cemeteries, old haunted looking farm houses. I think it was a combination of all these things that have inspired me to do my yard haunts every year. And a drive to give my trick or treaters a great memorible Halloween experience. They remember what I've done in the past and I want them to tell their children and someday their grandchildren that when they were kids there was this one house they visited every Halloween that was so cool and spooky.