Hello from Augusta GA

**Torqumada286** · 10-09-2011,06:46 AM

New member of the forum here. I'm looking for advice and possibly to share some of my experiences.

I loved Halloween as a kid, especially since I was born in October. It always felt like I was having little celebrations all year long. One year, my father took out his old Hifi stereo system and played the Steppenwolf B side version of The Pusher which is a 20 something minute psychidelic jam session as mood music for the Trick or treaters that year. That was in 1977 or 78. I couldn't really start celebrating Halloween as an adult until a few years ago, when we finally got a house in a great neighborhood for Trick or Treating. I started decorating that first year and have added a little each year. I don't do really scary stuff. I don't want to frighten the little ones who want to come to the door trick or treating, but I do spooky very well and have gotten compliments each year from our setup, with people telling me we have the best decorations in the neighborhood.

M basic setup has our porch blocked off, so you can enter only one way. The inside is lit by black lights and fluorescent webbing, making it bright enough to see for safety reasons, but still dark enough that you can't quite make things out, especially since there is a fog machine active, pushing fog towards the opening on the porch. Everyone thinks there is something waiting for them at the end of the porch, but there isn't and figure their imaginations are doing most of the work for them. Out in the yard, I have a light and music show that uses the Mister Christmas light system with the built in Halloween sounds. It's a pretty simple system and I hope to upgrade to a Light-O-Rama system next year. The trees have orange lights at the moment. I still have to use incandescents for them at this point, since I can't seem to find orange LED lights that you can string end to end. There is also a small graveyard on the lawn, which I hope to cover with another fog machine this, and old large plastic jack o lantern that I got from my grandmother that I converted over to being enhanced by black lights. We're going to paint a giant pumpkin on a bed sheet and enhance it with a black light flood. That will probably be all that we do this year.

The good news about this setup, is that much of the infrastructure is in place for the Christmas decorations.

I can't wait to meet and learn from the others here.

Torqumada