Well to tell about myself a little bit. I am from Owatonna born and raised. When I was a young lad back in the day I loved to go trick or treating with my friends. Going to all the surrounding houses and getting all the candy we could then getting loaded on sugar and bounce off the walls then crash real hard, oh yeah good times. I had some good times and bad ones as well while out on Halloween. The good times of course out weighed the bad ones, but I will always remember them both. One of the bad things that happened, was having our pumpkins get smashed, that always hurt, of course, seeing something you worked pretty hard carving then seeing it smashed the next morning. Jerks!! My most favorite memories of Halloween are at my grandparents house.
It all began for me on October 31, 1977 the first of many Halloween parties. It was where the fun began, every year after my brother and I got done trick or treating we would meet the rest of my cousins, aunts, and uncles at my grandparents house for a little get together. That was always the highlight of the night, best way to end it. You would walk up to the door, ring the bell and the door would open with grandpa in his mask and scare the bugaboos out of you. It happened every year, you knew it was coming but he still got you to jump. Grandpa would order pizza for the family to eat and the kids would share and trade candy, sugar rush coming on again.
On into my teens, even through high school, and yet in my 20's I still went to the annual Halloween party at my grandparents, costume and all, yet to get spooked by grandpa once again.
Just when I thought Halloween was at its best in 1995 I met a ghoul I mean girl. I think she might have been just a little bit more of a Halloween nut than me, not by much, but it all was meant to be. Somewhere the witches had made a brew and the spell brought us together. I had brought the party side of Halloween but she had come with the theatrical side of it. Setting up the graveyards, ghost hanging from trees, spooky music in the back ground.
Couple of years after we had got married and lived in Waseca where we had started our own Halloween home haunts. Each year we did our yard haunt inviting trick or treaters to stop by and walk the terror on Lake View Ave. We didn’t always get a lot of people to stop, being around the lake but the ones that did stop always got a scare. It really didn’t matter how many people stopped we always had a spooky ol’ time. I think being around the lake made it that much more creepy.
Once the dead ate all of the candy we would pack up for my grandparents annual party. No matter what though I had to be at grandma and grandpa’s for the party. Wouldn’t miss it for anything. 2000 was the last year at my grandparents for the Halloween party, the party moved to my parents house for the next couple of years. In 2003, Jen and I moved to Owatonna and were asked by my parents if we wanted to take over the family Halloween bash, we accepted and are continuing on with the tradition. So every year we create a Haunted House for our families, friends and trick or treaters to come get spooked. Just from what we have seen so far it has been a big hit with the family and our friends that have been through it. Our first year doing the haunt in Owatonna was definitely the "night of the living dead" but since Halloween creatures have been creeping our way and our greatest year was 2007 with 310 trick or treaters in four hours. 2007 Haunted event had 2 cemeteries, a maze, glow-in-the-dark room, the bat cave and an awesome front gate facade that lite up the night! So If you would like to check it out come on over we would love for you to join us for a haunting good time in 2008. This year it’s a surprise that the PumpkinMan is brewing. It’s the "Golden Haunt" 31 years of Halloween fun on the 31st!
31 on 31, that could be some spooky numbers! Hope you have a spooktacular Halloween season and hope to see your insides soon at the PumpkinMans Lair!
