As a child I always looked forward to Halloween. It was the time for make-believe. We walked all night to our neighbors' houses and filled our grocery bags and pillowcases with lots of candy. In the small town of Fort Lee, New Jersey where I grew up, we even had an annual Halloween Parade where the kids would walk down the street displaying their costumes.
My parents were very creative and resourceful. My mom is a seamstress and has made all my costumes for the last 45 years . I'll never forget my "Hobo" costume when she burned a cork and used the ashes to paint a beard on my face and then tied a stocking on my head to make me look bald under my hat. I can't believe I walked all night in my dad's big shoes! (Thank you Mom for your creativity and positive thinking!)
My "Halloween Madness" began in 1993 when my son was almost 2. I wanted him to experience the same joy of Trick or Treating that I had felt when I was a kid. However, there weren't so many trick or treaters on the street anymore. There was talk around my neighborhood that some influential religious people were trying to eliminate this "evil" tradition, and the new trend was to take your child to the mall or a safe place to get candy. "How absurd!" To me, Trick or Treating means walking around your neighborhood and getting candy from your neighbors' houses, not a mall! Since I believe that one person can definitely make a difference, I took it upon myself to keep the Halloween tradition alive. By following the concept of "If you build it, they will come", I provided a safe and scary Trick or Treating destination for my neighborhood kids. They (and their parents) look forward to being scared by us, yet know that it is all done as a labor of love.
This web site will give you step-by-step instructions on how to build your own haunted cemetery. I hope that it will inspire you to do something at your house for Halloween. If you get anything out of this site, I'd like you to get this message:
It doesn't have to be expensive,
It doesn't have to be perfect,
It doesn't have to be original,
JUST DO SOMETHING!
It will make you feel like you've accomplished something and your neighborhood kids will love you for it!
Thanks for visiting my site. Please come back and sign my guest book to let me know what you think of it.
