Invariably, this is the question always asked of me.
For most, it’s “Why Halloween”?
Simply put, there’s no other single holiday I can think of that would accomidate the wide variety of opportunities as Halloween.
From research, to sculpting, to building mechanical devices, to acting, lighting, sound design, sets, scripts, and providing a willing audience, reliably, each year. No other holiday can boast such a thing.
There were 2 in the neighborhood growing up that played a huge influence as well.
First there was THAT GUY…
Still do not know who it was. But there was this guy…each year as a child, he would dress in ratty old clothes, covered in chains, and simply wander the street dragging the chains behind him. I was absolutely horrified as a kid.
Then there was THAT HOUSE…
I still remember it vividly. All lights out, spider webs covering the hedges out front. Strobe light shining on a coffin, from out of which would rise a mummy to chase you. I don’t think I ever quite made it to the door at that house.
Of course, I quit Trick or Treating by the age of 8. My older brother being sick that year, my dad working, mom not wanting me to go alone, nor able to leave my brothers, I was confined to the house to watch “The Bat”. Complete with 3d glasses we picked up promoting the thing. They didn’t work. It sucked. I decided it was more fun to sit on the porch to hand out candy.
Mom came out to talk, and was just sitting there, not dressed in costume or anything, we had been talking. A couple kids came to get candy and commented on ‘what a nice dummy you have there’. Mom looked at them, they ran, I was hooked. I wanted to become THAT HOUSE.
A school assembly that year also featured a jacobs ladder, blacklight, and tesla coil. Though I fail to recall what it was actually for. I saw the tools to make a mad scientist lab. And began asking Santa for them. I also came across liquid latex.
For the years from then till I got a car and discovered girls, our house became THAT HOUSE in the neighborhood. You would hear the kids walking up, “oh this is the scary house”.
When I moved out, I had great expectations to begin doing my own house. We had one. Trick or Treater. One. Solitary. I did manage to scare the daylights out of some teens coming to smash the pumpkins, but for several years I tried, no trick or treaters. So, I resigned to returning to my parents neighborhood and being THAT GUY. Wandering the street at random, scaring kids.
I once tried the same at the in-laws neighborhood…a small neighborhood where everyone knows everyone and no one did anything of the sort. I scared em all right…but it was certainly not appreciated having a stranger wander around.
We moved out of that house July of 2004. The first thing I asked the new neighbors is how many kids come by on Halloween. I had found my home to finally become THAT HOUSE on my own. That first year was just me and “the biggest bowl of candy I’ve ever seen!” as one kid put it, a couple torches and some music. ~150 kids came by that year.
The display and traffic have both grown since, to a 400+ kids this last year, and who knows how many adults.