Halloween night
I’m a little behind with my posting this past week as I’ve been letting myself become overwhelmed by all that needs to be done to break down the Halloween display. This Halloween was, especially in comparison to last year, a great success. While the weather was far from perfect, it was much more tolerable than last years torrential rains and heavy winds.
Halloween morning was bleak. The weatherman’s promise of fair weather was overshadowed by periodic light rains and that familliar, chilly breeze of Autumn in the northeast. As late morning approached, the sun began taking occasional peeks through the thick blanket of clouds as though it were checking in on the ado of the day. As the day progressed, the temperatures dropped and those occasional spots of rain were quickly replaced by insignificant and short lived patches of sleet.
As the hours of Trick-or-Treating arrived, the last few pockets of precipitation move thru, but it was no more than a minor nuisance on the night, and seemed to do little if anything to deter the kids from their quest for goodies. The many labors of the past year had all led up to this four hour fragment in time, and we would be ready for them when they came. We were ready for them.
They came in groups of twos and threes and sometimes more, their parents in tow and treat bags in hand. Some would stop, pointing and shouting with enthusiasm as they passed by the Graveyard. Others would scurry by, trying not to look in past the gravestones in hopes to go unnoticed by that which might lie in wait from within.
The Blaircrows did little to deter them from their goal; an unheeded warning of what might lie ahead, and twenty two Jacks lit the path to the old witch’s house. The excitement spilled over as they would exit the Witch House, eager to tell their parents of the eerie things they spied while inside and urging them to go take a peek for themselves.
Yes, this year’s haunt was a great success. A few of the parents took the time to come up and thank us for the time and effort we put into our display. For many others, the simple nod and a smile was enough to say the same. But it was the children who were the real thanks. The smiles, the laughter and even the apprehensive stares, many local children will remember this Halloween for years to come.
Buried
So here we are, Halloween now five days in the past, and I find myself buried in chaos. I had planned to have everything done before returning to work yesterday, but it just didnt happen that way. With so many things to do, I’ve gotten myself to the point where I just don’t want to do any of them. Post-Haunt depression I suppose.
As I sit here gazing at the mountain of Halloween decor, all still awaiting its off-season resting place, I know I can take solace in the fact that I am making some progress in settling the post-holiday ado. For those who may not have noticed yet, I’ve added several photos from our 2010 haunt to the Photo Gallery. There will be more added, but perhaps not until I’ve taken care of some of the other tasks that lie in wait.
In parting, I would like to share with you my favorite photo from this years Haunt. This is one from the Witch House, a new addition to our haunt this year.
Gazette Article 10-26-10
Stephen Austin carves a pumpkin as he decorates his Scotia home for Halloween Monday.
SCOTIA
Scotia native exhibits his Halloween spirit in big way
BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Michael Goot at 395-3105 or mgoot@dailygazette.net.
Stephen Austin wishes every day could be Halloween.
The Scotia native tricks out his house on James Street with a fullscale display including skeletons and tombstones, pumpkins and witches.
“Halloween is our Christmas,” said his wife, Lauri.
Because Halloween falls close to Austin’s Oct. 28 birthday, it has always been a big event for him.
“It’s like a giant celebration of my birthday,” said Austin, who is turning 40 this year.
Austin has been decorating for Halloween since he was a child when he used to help his mother. “I just kind of took it over. It got bigger and bigger,” he said.
Austin says he has always had artistic talent but pursued a career in public safety. He works as a Scotia-Glenville dispatcher. “I’d rather do it for fun instead of a job. It’s not fun if you have to do it.”
To work on his project, Austin takes off the week before Halloween.
Austin shows off his Halloween decorations on the front lawn of his home.
Most of the display is handcrafted. The dozen or so “tombstones” in the front yard are carved from foam insulation boards. He uses an utility knife to etch in epitaphs on the graves.
“Every one of the older stones is named after a character in a book I read,” he said.
For the more recent headstones, he just makes up a name that seems to fit the time period listed on the stone.
The skeletons are made out of papier-mâché — newspaper, paper towels and “a whole lot of Elmer’s glue.” The one holding a shovel in the center of the front yard is made from latex and cotton.
Austin said the most difficult part about his project is taking breaks. When he gets going, he does not want to stop.
“The hardest thing to do is my housework.”
He starts working Nov. 1 on the next year’s Halloween display, although he really gears up in the beginning of October. Austin gets some help from his three children, Savannah, 8, Bryce, 13, and Cody, 16.
“My daughter spent the entire day [Sunday] helping me with the pumpkins,” he said.
He is carving 50 pumpkins, about a dozen of which the family grew themselves. “We’re hoping for more next year,” Lauri said.
Cody made the bookshelf that sits in the enclosed front porch. The bookshelf contains jars with handwritten labels of various “potions.”
Bryce also helped with some of the papier-mâché.
“Halloween is a family event,” Lauri Austin said.
She added that it is a shame that more people don’t do their own decorations. She said Halloween has gotten too commercialized.
“There’s too much kitschy stuff you can buy,” she said.
Austin has a website at www. thehauntingrounds.com, where he puts videos about how to make some of these creations for people who want to do it.
The couple did buy an animatronic witch that will sit in the window and “stir” her cauldron. There will also be scary music playing from an Ohio-based band called Nox Arcana.
Because he is worried about the display being vandalized, Austin brings in a lot of the decorations at night until Halloween when it will all be illuminated.
“We have a lot of kids in the village who get a little crazy,” he said.
When the couple lived in an apartment on Fifth Street, some thieves stole a bunch of items from his display in the mid-1990s. That prompted him to suspend his display for a few years. When his parents bought a house in Glenville, Austin moved to the house where we was raised. He has been doing his most recent display for about three years.
The family enjoys watching the reaction from the kids that come up to the house. It’s usually “wow,” Lauri Austin said.
The two will be dressed in costumes — Lauri as a witch and Steve in a scary mask. He said he usually hangs out in the front yard while his wife gives out the candy. He does not want to scare anyone too much.
Austin said he tries to add more to the display and make it better every year. The display defi nitely attracts attention, Austin said.
“A lot of people do the rubbernecking as they’re going by,” he said.
The Kingdom of Witches
Source: Youtube user Nocturnaloner
Halloween display badly recieved
Here’s one from todays issue of our local newspaper, The Schenectady Gazette. Please note that this is NOT OUR DISPLAY. The story can also be found here: Halloween display badly recieved
Toy babies hang from nooses on a tree in front of a home in the Village of Scotia Wednesday.
SCOTIA — A Halloween attraction of baby dolls hanging from nooses in a tree outside of a Scotia home was taken down after about a week.
The display drew the ire of some who saw it, while others felt like it was in keeping with the theme of the season.
“It’s just a Halloween thing,” said David Miles, who lives in the neighborhood where the dolls were hanging.
Miles and his wife didn’t even really notice the decoration, as they focused more on the red handprint staining the glass door of the house.
For some living nearby, the attraction was distasteful and poorly represented the neighborhood because the dolls would be the first thing people entering the small community would see on their left.
Kayla Alvord, who worked in a house across the street, straddled the two extreme opinions. “I wouldn’t have done it,” she said. “It was creepy, but I guess it is Halloween.”
Attempts to reach the owner of the property where the dolls were displayed were unsuccessful.
According to Scotia Mayor Kris Kastberg, the village doesn’t get involved in what decorations people can put on their lawn or on their house.
Kastberg said they only get involved if “it’s something that’s overtly perverse,” and he cited an instance when a code enforcement officer asked a homeowner to remove a snowman sitting on a toilet.
The ambiguity surrounding the issue was a problem for Scotia Police Chief Thomas Rush, who said it is hard to determine what is appropriate.
“Where do you draw the line?” said Rush.
Another issue for Rush was protecting civil rights, which made it almost impossible for police to force someone to remove decorations that weren’t overtly obscene.
“There’s nothing really to enforce,” said Rush, adding that obscene decorations aren’t really a problem in Scotia.
Krastberg added that occasionally the village receives complaints about offensive signs, but they can’t force anyone to do anything because it is protected speech.
The position of the Albany branch of the American Civil Liberties Union was that any decoration that didn’t incite a riot, couldn’t be construed as hate speech and was not obscene in the legal sense was protected against any infringement.
For the most part, anyone looking to create something like this needs to make it themselves, said Halloween Hall owner Lois Myers.
“Most of these people create it themselves,” said Myers. She added that her shop didn’t offer anything like the baby dolls in a noose.
Miles felt like there was nothing malicious behind the neighbors’ intent.
“They’re just average ordinary people,” he said.
Alvord said that she was surprised to see this in such a quiet neighborhood: “Wouldn’t expect it from them,” she said.
This is Halloween
Halloween season just doesnt seem right without this one. Tim Burton’s ‘The Nighmare Before Christmas’ re-cut with Marilyn Manson’s version of ‘This Is Halloween’ for the re-release of the film in Disney Digital 3-D and 2-Disc Special Edition Soundtrack.
Source: YT user raven009
Blaircrows?
After a few days on my ass with an Achilles Tendon injury, I was finally able to get myself up and moving again today. I decided to scrap the plans for a few more corpses and go for a simpler “eerie” look. Something that would fit the Witch House theme for this years haunt. This was the outcome; A sort of “Blair Witch” type scarecrow trio.
