So back when we were packing up the house in New York, I really debated whether to bring the Halloween stuff out to California.
Why? Because moving is expensive, and I owned a lot of material. Tombstones, masks, ghosts, goblins. On and on. Every year I’d do a haunted house in our basement, and every year I’d add to the collection of stuff.
So, really, I considered moving on without the goods.
Thank God I didn’t.
Tonight was the local elementary school’s Halloween party. My son Emmett is a student there. A few weeks ago, I told the head of the PTA that I’d done haunted houses, and asked whether she’d be interested.
“Yes!” she said. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Again, thank God.
The party was tonight. And, man, was it fun. I don’t know many people in California, but a ton of volunteers showed up. Some were ticket takers. Some were line organizers. About 12 worked in the house. As ghosts. As freaks. As weirdos with big knives and horrible teeth. I spent all day designing and laying the thing out, behind the curtain atop a stage in the multipurpose room. It was a path of four hallways, filled with all sorts of nightmarish stuff.
Many laughed.
Some cried.
All, I think, had some genre of fun.
Here, take a look …
