Thread: What I learned this year

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I figured I would start this annual thread that I have enjoyed reading in the past and where I have learned a lot of valuable lessons thanks to others! So please feel free to list anything you learned from this year's Halloween, good and bad!

I learned :

1. At the end of Halloween night, knock the tombstones down (even if it's behind a wrought iron fence) so the 2AM vandals have nothing to target with snowballs/rocks.

2. Stop stressing on Halloween night. If a light burns out and it would be a pain to replace during the live haunt, don't replace it. Live and let live.

3. 18 inches of snow 2 days before Halloween SUCKS.

If you build a wooden casket and plan on using it to stand in and make a lot of noise by thrashing around in it or banging on it and especially "exploding" out of it, umm make sure you use big enough screws AND especially glue. Oops..

check the odd smells in your vehicle because even if you are "sure" what the smell is you probably have a rotting pumpkin on the floorboard of your truck.

Let a FCG run for several hours before it goes on display Halloween night. Mine lasted about 10 minutes before the strings got tangled and couldn't be repaired while hanging from a tree!

That for some reason, 4 pretty girls carrying a casket is pretty funny and should be photographed. They were NOT happy with me Hey, they're the ones that offered to help. Sorry its fuzzy, but it hides the innocent

What I learned was;

1) Throwing an adult party on Halloween night really takes away from your family Halloween with your kids...that was my experience anyways.

2) You can't count on your 'friends' to attend a party or even let you know whether or not they're coming

3) Investing in a cheap dip warmer/dry ice and large JOL makes a really COOL smoking pumpkin...

4) Those cheap Dollar Store battery operated pumpkin/flicker lights work REALLY well and last a LONG time...well worth the $$ (Just not the best for a BIG JOL, not quite bright enough for the big guys...)

5) Halloween goes by WAY too fast (well I already knew this one but I hate it more every year)

Even broken, that casket looks great!

I learned: It doesn't matter how much time in advance or how much you talk about something, "good friends" are flaky and cannot be relied upon.

Do not wait until the last minute to put tombstones up that you've never used before. The cheap plastic things bust off even if soft ground

10" bolt screws work wonders to hold said tombstones in ground

You can never have enough Halloween decorations before Halloween, but cleanup sucks!

Crickets like to hide under buckys, not crawl over it, and that doesn't make for a very scary scene.

A fake plastic hatchet can easily decapitate a styrofoam manequin.

You can put up a gazillion signs warning parents that the haunt is scary and not for children, tell them 3x by 3 different people, and some folks will STILL drag their crying 4 yr old daughter through it.

Stacy

Start working/planning before september. I ran out of time and didnt get a facade done...