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When I was a kid, Halloween was HUGE! There were literally hundreds of kids on any given block collecting candy for hours. But about the time I stopped trick or treating, Halloween became sort of dangerous and the kids retreated from the streets and their parents took them to malls and schools.
Throughout the years, I've lived in a few places and in some of those neighborhoods, Halloween still exists -- we live in one of those places right now. When you drive through the streets of your neighborhood and you see that one house that's gone overboard for Halloween, that's our house. I love Halloween! It brings back fond memories of trick or treating and I just remember how cool it was to walk up to a house that was well decorated and I knew one day that would be my house -- and now it is.
In the first year of decorating this house, I had cobwebs, a big spider, carved jack-o-lanterns, candles, spooky music, and the main attraction... me. I was dressed from top to bottom in all black with a scary mask. I sat in a chair outside of the front door in a blind corner. When the unsuspecting victims... err... I mean trick or treaters walked down the sidewalk; I would hold my breath so that I would appear to be a prop. Upon first glance, most people were startled but then thought I was fake. As they would turn their back on me to ring the doorbell, my wife would answer the door and I would get up and growl like a scary monster.
Needless to say, my wife and I enjoyed this game for hours. She would run down the sidewalk and let me know when unsuspecting people were coming and I would setup in the chair. Eventually the numbers dwindled and we wrapped up our first successful Halloween.
In year two, the neighbors wanted to know how we were going to top our first year. In preparation, I purchased more scary stuff and decorated in the original theme. This time I added a graveyard, a big scary monster, more cobwebs, more spiders, and orange Christmas lights. I also stuffed a large dummy and put the mask from the prior year on it. I propped it up into a corner and thought that people would think it was me again. The idea was for them to keep an eye on it while I scared them from the opposite side in all black with a painted scary face. It worked.
Year two was definitely a success but I thought year one had better numbers plus it was sort of the same thing as the previous year so people knew to expect something. Still... it was good fun.
Year three -- more stuff, still scaring people, scary mask, and definitely fun but the repetition was starting to bore me although still entertaining for the neighborhood. At one point, my wife and I were standing out front with the neighbors chatting it up and periodically getting into position for the kids. As soon as they would move on, we'd move back to the front of our houses and continue our conversation. So in a sense, we sort of bonded with the neighbors over our holiday.
This year has been tough. I've been working quite a bit, the training has been taking up a good portion of my remaining time, and we've had contractors working on the house. When asked about what I had planned for Halloween, I responded by saying that I would definitely hand out candy and I might dress up but I was going to pass on decorating. I was sort of sad but I just couldn't get my head wrapped around hours of decorating.
Friday morning when I left for work, I said my goodbyes to my wife and went off to work. When I returned to the house, I discovered that my wife had decided to decorate the inside of the house just for me. She put up a few banners, Halloween garland, and a giant sign on one of our doors. I think it was at that moment that I decided I had to do something other than just dress up and hand out candy. But I was still not mentally prepared to drag out the decorations and setup the big show like in the previous years.
After a few minutes of thinking about it, I came up with an idea. I could setup a table draped in block and position it in our driveway. On the table would be a pair of identical boxes with handles. My wife would man the table and offer them a Trick - or - Treat. In either case, my wife would lift the box where... [...hang on].
It's Saturday morning and the contractor is working on the house. My wife and I both have workouts but we have to babysit the contractor. We split up the day so that I could get my workouts done, come back, and then she could get hers done. While she was out on her workouts, I would prepare for Halloween. Between our workouts, I ran out and picked up the various supplies.
When I returned to the house, I setup in the backyard so the neighbors couldn't see what I was up to. I had a four foot table, two black bed sheets, a couple of office boxes, and two kitchen cabinet handles. I gathered all of the necessary tools from the garage and started on my project. I covered the boxes in black cloth and mounted the handles. For the table, after I routed out a large hole about the size of my head, I used the remaining black cloth to cover it. The project was complete.
[continue...] my wife would lift the box and my head covered in a black nylon like a bank robber would be revealed -- illuminated with a flashlight growling like a scary monster.
The neighbors were also outside scaring kids and since we were in the driveway, it was convenient to chat with them and laugh at all the victims while my wife and I played this charade for a few hours. Oddly enough, I think we scared more adults than kids.
Another successful Halloween! We have 12 months to prepare! If it were not for my wife, I would not have been brought to my senses this year.
(My final preparation inside our garage...)
Boo!
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