My Favorite Time of Year

October is here, the leaves are falling and there is a slight nip in the air. This is the signal for all Ghouls and Ghosts to come out celebrate for one night each year. The night of HALLOWEEN!

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday of the year. I have many fond memories of trick or treating with my sister and brother when we were young. Not only did we hit our neighborhood, but drove to other parts of town and collected their goods as well.

Back then we didn't have all the problems with sicko's trying to poison candy and such. I remember getting more than one homemade item from several of our stops. Homemade popcorn balls, Homemade caramels, Homemade candied apples and Homemade chocolates to name a few of the best. At the end of the night, we had candy that would fill brown paper grocery bags and would easily last till Easter.

Four years ago, I was visiting with friends and we were discussing these important matters of the past. We wished Halloween had not diminished to 2 hours of hurried trick or treating and that was that until next year. So we devised a plan to fix the problem. That was our first year for the Haunted Garage. My friend, Greg, along with several volunteers build and haunted house for the little kiddies to go through on Halloween night. We used his garage and built a dark, dank maze through the worst horrors ever imagined.

With special lighting, fog machines and "decorations", we scared the wits out of adults as well as kids. Our motto was "Everybody needs a little Halloween". We had a spider that would drop onto the hand of an unsuspecting child when they reached for the candy in the candy bowl inside of a wooden coffin. We had real people inside in full costume to make sure everybody left with candy and left us with a scream or two. Greg was dressed in all black except for the gloves he wore of red claws. He would hide in a special alcove near the end and grab people as they left.

The adults were the best. He grabbed a woman by the arm and said,"What are you doing?" She screamed as she ran for an entire city block! I was outside and made sure there was a steady stream of victims.

We have continued this tradition every year since. Kim participated in the second year and had a ball. This year is the best yet. Kim will be in full costume and hiding inside controlling lights, smoke and will also be the voice of a special guest. Greg will be inside again grabbing and terrorizing. I'll be at my post outside and getting people to leave the safety of the sidewalk to enter at their own fun.

The pictures are from last year.