NJM 18 in NoJoMo 2019

I am trying super hard to catch up with everyone that’s doing NJM. I’m sorry I’ve fallen so far behind!

Write about your favorite holiday.

Those of you that “know” me, know that my favorite holiday is Halloween. I’m going to give a bit of a backstory.

Before I burst into existence (sorry, I’m in an odd mood) my parents had plans on Halloween and wouldn’t be home to give out candy. So my dad made a scarecrow, put a sign on it that said “One only” or some such thing, put a bowl of candy on it’s lap (it was sitting in a chair), and went off to party, or whatever it was they were doing.

When they got home, the candy, and the bowl were gone, and the scarecrow was tipped over onto the floor.

So, the next year, my dad made another scarecrow, put a bowl of candy in it’s lap, and put the sign on it. He then got dressed as a scarecrow himself, straw and everything. He sat next to the real (or fake?) scarecrow and waited.

If a kid looked shady, or grabbed a huge handful or whatever, my dad would jump up and yell “The sign says to take ONE!”

Obviously the kids would freak out and run. My dad thought it was the greatest thing in the world. Yes, that is a bit twisted. We’re all twisted in my family.

Over the years it progressed into an almost full haunted house. Or porch. The front porch was long and covered. kinda hard to explain.

My dad painted plywood black … well, at first it was just dyed black sheets, then while they were away we had a hurricane that blew all of it to shit. I called my sister in a panic because, well, it was the haunted porch shit.

Anyhoo, he painted plywood black and put it where the screens would go, tack black dyed sheet on the ceiling and the wall of the house. Props were built. Black lights were hung, along with a strobe light that was focused at the end of the porch.

Family and friends would come over, have a few (or more) drinks, put on their makeup and costumes, and find a spot on the porch. The witch sat at the end of the porch in front of a huge copper kettle that he somehow got from work (used for making candy) that was filled with candy. 99% of the time they were sandwich bags with several kinds of candy in them. One good thing about working at a candy factory. Broken candy sticks, funky looking lollipops and other oddities were free for the taking.

The kids had to walk past all the “monsters” to get to the witch to get their candy. They would then have to walk past the monsters again to get out. If we made someone scream, or even better made someone cry because we scared the crap out of them, it was a good year. Like I said, twisted.

There would be a line at the door, people waiting for us to “open”. We usually kept it going from 6pm to 10pm, or when the candy ran out.

My dad did this for… gosh. From the time of the scarecrow, to the last Halloween they did it? Probably 30 years. Parents would come up with their kids, and tell my dad that they’ve been coming to our house since they were kids themselves.

When my parents sold the house and moved to Florida, the people that bought the house had a lot of people ask what happened to the haunted house.

My sister Lynn did a haunted porch in Florida for a little while, until my parents got sick.

Now, I try like hell to do get my makeup “just right”. I don’t know where my dad might be hanging out, but I always try to make him proud.

Halloween is the only time I don’t like living in the country. Yeah, we go to Pam’s brother’s house, but it’s not the same, y’know? I would love to have the chance to turn their garage into a haunted house, but I don’t think that will ever happen.

Bummer.