Halloween

We live in an upstairs apartment, so Tom got these candle-holders that were basically metal pails with jack-o-lantern faces carved into them. Then we hung them off the porch on string. When trick-or-treaters came by, we'd lower a Halloween basket with candy down to them. We also brought the TV out and ran old black & white horror movies (Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy) while we waited. There were tons of kids, so many that we ran out of candy. We could look down the street and see costumed kids in all directions. Was great to see so many people getting into the spirit.  It was a perfect night, too. There was just a little bit of a chill in the air and lots of leaves on the ground.

We had already done our haunted house tour on Thursday night (part of my birthday celebration). We hit one "Warehouse of Terror" with a zombies-on-the-loose theme that turned out to be somewhat mediocre. The next one was on a riverboat in Lorain (west of Cleveland) and was incredible. For one thing, they understood the importance of cheap startle tricks. Everybody knows there's nothing to be scared of in a "haunted house" but if you keep the adrenaline going with a few well-timed boos, it gets a lot easier to suspend disbelief. On top of that, and a good maze with the usual creepy stops, they had some great sets. One spot created a nice illusion of walking a plank over a deep pit, and the dining hall and ballroom (near the end) were amazing. They made sure our path wound all through the cobwebbed tables and skeletal patrons, while keeping us on track with more animated spooks.