As with any decorating, certain judgement calls come up when creatively expressing ourselves through our Halloween haunts. I bring this up because I've only been having fun with this for a handful of years, yet I've already run into quandaries. Just in the first and second years in this first-time home there have been two instances where I had to consider taste and politics for my displays.
In 2017, I had found a broken wheelchair and had intended to have my pose'able skeleton in it wearing old lady garb while she watched over my growing collection of zombie babies. But there's a neighbor only two houses up from me who is confined to wheelchair after a wreck with an idiot who was texting and driving. I've never met the guy, but I worked with his wife years ago, and they're good people. So it just seemed wrong somehow to display a skeleton in a wheelchair. So, I settled for my porch chair and was done with that.
Last year, I wanted to have one of my zombie babies in a medium-sized dog cage, with a torn-up teddy bear and some bones surrounding him. But around the same time there was the (continuing) fuss about the border with Mexico and the photos of kids in cages at the detention centers all over the news. Now, the last thing I intend to do as a newbie is introduce a thread where people debate political matters. Those never go well, and we may all have massive differences of opinion about politics, religion, and what-all, but we are all here for our love of one very special night of the year. So, I'm not here weighing in on either side of that argument, and I ask others to please refrain from hyperbole in reply. My only point here is that I do want to scare, but I'm not trying to make any sociopolitical statements with my Halloween displays. So, I weighed things, realized that people on both sides of the immigration conversation could possibly see it as something to get triggered about, and said, "Screw it, I'm doing this one anyway." And thankfully, nothing came of it, and everyone who stopped by seemed to have a fun time last Halloween.
I'm sure everyone has seen news articles about yard haunters who perhaps take things too far. Some purposefully include political components, or have figures dangling from trees (looking perhaps too much like lynchings). There was one item from late September 2018 where someone had decorated with some of those bloody window clings of blood spatters and words that had a neighbor worried enough to call the Law, just in case. Me, I try for more of a creepy, spooky vibe than gory horror, but that's just my own preference.
I don't know, just thought it was curious that I'd run into quandaries like that both years of my first genuine attempts at yard haunting, and would like to hear from others if decisions like that have ever caused them to drop ideas or how they handled things.
In 2017, I had found a broken wheelchair and had intended to have my pose'able skeleton in it wearing old lady garb while she watched over my growing collection of zombie babies. But there's a neighbor only two houses up from me who is confined to wheelchair after a wreck with an idiot who was texting and driving. I've never met the guy, but I worked with his wife years ago, and they're good people. So it just seemed wrong somehow to display a skeleton in a wheelchair. So, I settled for my porch chair and was done with that.
Last year, I wanted to have one of my zombie babies in a medium-sized dog cage, with a torn-up teddy bear and some bones surrounding him. But around the same time there was the (continuing) fuss about the border with Mexico and the photos of kids in cages at the detention centers all over the news. Now, the last thing I intend to do as a newbie is introduce a thread where people debate political matters. Those never go well, and we may all have massive differences of opinion about politics, religion, and what-all, but we are all here for our love of one very special night of the year. So, I'm not here weighing in on either side of that argument, and I ask others to please refrain from hyperbole in reply. My only point here is that I do want to scare, but I'm not trying to make any sociopolitical statements with my Halloween displays. So, I weighed things, realized that people on both sides of the immigration conversation could possibly see it as something to get triggered about, and said, "Screw it, I'm doing this one anyway." And thankfully, nothing came of it, and everyone who stopped by seemed to have a fun time last Halloween.
I'm sure everyone has seen news articles about yard haunters who perhaps take things too far. Some purposefully include political components, or have figures dangling from trees (looking perhaps too much like lynchings). There was one item from late September 2018 where someone had decorated with some of those bloody window clings of blood spatters and words that had a neighbor worried enough to call the Law, just in case. Me, I try for more of a creepy, spooky vibe than gory horror, but that's just my own preference.
I don't know, just thought it was curious that I'd run into quandaries like that both years of my first genuine attempts at yard haunting, and would like to hear from others if decisions like that have ever caused them to drop ideas or how they handled things.
I stick with monsters and zombies in a scary scene.
