Peg came over to hand out candy while James went trick or treating with his parents. James was able to help put up some of the decorations this year. This was an extremely windy day so we did not put up all the inflatables, but it was still a respectable display of terror we think.

James Trick of Treated all the way down to Syracuse street so he should have enough candy to last a long long time. I think everyone was chilled to the bone when we got home, thanks go out to Peg for handing out the treats.

There were huge Halloween decorations out, animatronics and everything. We really planned on taking pictures of the homes similar to what we did in 2006 but just never got around to doing it. Many of the homes (including ours) do not put up all the decorations until Halloween day so the time to do it would be during the day when we are putting up decorations as well. Maybe we can work something out for next year.

Continue reading “Halloween 2009” →

This year we had a big trip to the pumpkin patch where James got to pick out whatever pumpkins he wanted, then we took them home and cleaned them up, and carved them up. James did the little one all by himself. Great work James.

Halloween James got to dress up as Mary’s favorite race car driver, Tony Stewart. In fact, you could hardly tell the two apart. James trick or treated all of Tulane and Vassar, then made it up to Grindley and Parker before bringing his stash in. Peg came by to hand out candy so we could be with James.

James heard us talking about the tale where my sister Criss soaped the inside of the windows on devils night, not to be outdone by his Aunt, James did a little artwork himself on the window.

Continue reading “Halloween 2008” →

This was a fun Halloween and most of the strange characters that you see are people who live on our street, what a cool street we live on. James had no idea that Sponge Bob and the Burger King guy were actually the same neighbors he sees in the summer mowing their lawns. James trick or treated the entire block of Tulane, then did a drop off and went back for more on Vassar. We made one more drop and headed toward Parker and Grindley to finish off the evening. Most houses were closed when we got back so we certainly filled the trick or treat time slot this year.

Peg came by to hand out candy so that Mary and I could enjoy the time trick or treating with James. James was in his Elmo Costume and really looked adorable, plus the red fur costume kept him somewhat warm on a cool October night.

We brought out the Nash and put a skeleton in him for some added atmosphere as far as the decorations goes. Lots of fun was had by all and this was for sure a Halloween to remember.

Continue reading “Halloween 2006” →

James was a bumble bee this Halloween. There is a commercial with a bee in it that he simply loves so we thought he would enjoy dressing up as a bumble bee. We trick or treated the whole block of Tulane this year, and all the neighbors thought James looked so cute in his bumble bee costume.

We decorated Mary’s Nash this year to really look creepy with a skeleton driving it. One of these pics made it to the Nash Metropolitan club of Michigan newsletter for October. Lots of comments from other trick or treaters on the Nash Metro being a great Halloween decoration (so long as the skeleton is driving it).

Continue reading “Halloween 2005” →

A year ago James was only about a month old at Halloween time so needless to say he did not do much trick or treating.

This year was a different story as James got to go trick or treating for the first time. Amazing really, the kid has only been walking for a little bit and now he’s out trick or treating. He went as Spiderman and seems to enjoy spiderman products and toys. Guess some things never go out of style, I remember reading those comic books when I was a kid and even my mother kept up with Spidey in the local comic strips. A good choice for sure james, you can’t go wrong with a classic.

Continue reading “Halloween 2004” →

We used to put trains up at Christmas time but I think I am the first to make a Halloween train set. We keep this up year round now because no one plays pool and its on the pool table. We hope to build cabinets around the display to at least make it somewhat practical.

We used to do a Christmas village but I think the Halloween one is better because not alot of people are doing it. Should be fun for James when he is older as well. The train operates like any of the standard houses and the houses are the same ceramic ones you will find in Christmas villages. Being Halloween is the only difference.

Continue reading “Halloween Train Display 2004” →

This was James first visit to Cedar Point and he had a blast playing on swings and such. Most of the rides were far beyond that of a ten month old kid, but he enjoyed himself and loved the atmosphere.

They had their Halloween faces on this time of year, more skeletons and pumpkins than I have ever seen in one place.

I especially liked the graveyard of rides where they had tombstones for old rides that have since been replaced at Cedar Point. One of them was the pirate ride which was a favorite of my family.

Continue reading “Cedar Point Halloweekends 2004” →

Here are some pictures from the Knights Dungeon haunted house which was a charity haunt which we operated for about a decade. The dungeon became a real big fund raiser for the K of C charities and was reasonably priced so that any size family could attend. Many people help contribute to the overall success of this Halloween event and I would like to thank them all.

The dungeon relied on a pole and curtain system that was supplied by the Hyatt Regency. the curtains would either be all black or alternate black and orange. On top of the supports camouflage netting was placed as we tried to create the illusion that they were not in a Knights of Columbus Hall. The Knights Dungeon used animatronics including air pressure to create some great effects such as a corpselator (where a corpse flies out of a coffin at you) and the werewolf. Most of these items were motion activated.

Unfortunately there was really no one to carry on the tradition so all that remains of the Knights Dungeon are memories and these few pictures.

Continue reading “Knights Dungeon Haunted House Ends 2000” →

Myself and several of my friends just joined the Knights of Columbus and the Grand Knight approached us afterwards and asked if we would like to do a Halloween Party for kids. We agreed and The Knights Dungeon was born. We named it Knights Dungeon instead of a haunted house so as to protect ourselves for insurance purposes. Turns out if you host a haunted house your insurance rates go up, but since no one ever heard of a Knights Dungeon, the K of C insurance rates were not affected.

We hosted games for the kids upstairs and every kid was a winner. We also had people dressed up as characters (IE Scooby Doo and Barney) so that people could get their pictures taken with the characters. That evening we had a Halloween Party for the adults in the basement which was “so so” attended. We hired a disk jockey and the party went well and made a little money for the council. They have already asked us if we would like to do it again next year and we thought “why not”.

In the lower lounge we set up the haunted displays, shown here was our big hit for the year, the Phantom of the Opera complete with candles and sounds.

Charles T (James Grandpa) had a male home nurse come and draw blood once a month or so and he really hated it. He said the guy was rough and always left his arm bruised.

I told him the blood tests and other tests were necessary and that the guy was not that hard on him (there was always someone in the house while this was going on), but I told him I would set up some Halloween guys (even though it was springtime) if he liked and put signs on them saying “be nice to Charles” and maybe the guy would get the message in a humorous way.

I set the props up in the living around Charles T the day of his exam and left for work. A few hours later I got a call from the hospital regarding the nurse. The hospital complained that when he went to draw blood that there were a bunch of “artificial monsters” in the room and Charles was shaking his cane at him and yelling at him that he wasn’t going to “draw any blood today”.

I apologized to the hospital and told them I would remove the monsters and rescheduled Charles T appointment for next week with a different nurse. I guess in a way it worked since he got a different nurse but I would have really loved to have seen the look on the guys face with all those monsters and Charles shaking his cane at him.