# How it Started....



## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

I've been taking a bit of time off, as I unfortunately had to deal with putting a real body in a real cemetery with the passing of my mom over the holidays. Though it is comforting to know she is at peace and not dealing with the daily debilitating pain she endured for years.

In going through her things, I did come across a newspaper scrap from 1987! This was close to the pinnacle of what I would call our original haunt. Though we moved around a fair bit in my early childhood, this house, I would consider my childhood home. As I got into my tinkering/experimenting/making things/early teens phase, we sort of evolved from a couple dozen Beistle cardboard cutouts in the windows to this. 

Seems like I first found that one of those orange plastic pumpkins was a nice replacement for the glass globe on our porch light. Once the yard was lit in spooky orange light, the next year we added some spiders hanging around and it seems like that pre-packaged spider web filament became popular, at least in our area. Next year we added a sign, "Beware of Ghosts" (you can just see it in the background of the photo). Then it seems like the next year we wanted an actual ghost, so a pair of coveralls got stuffed with fallen leaves and straw. Styrofoam mannequin head to support an old latex devil mask, black trash bag for a cape and a bunch more trash bag streamers to give the house an town which just didn't have the ToT pull that the in-town house had. By August of '90, I was away to college, and while we decorated the dorms, a true 'home' haunt would have to wait. After college, it was into another house at the edge of town... no ToTs. After a ~3 year run there, it was another re-location to a different state and a townhouse, you guessed it, in town. We did get a few ToTs there, so that inspired me to rope off the garage and set up my tesla coil for some Halloween fun, but not really a 'haunt'. Meeting my now wife while living in this townhouse, we moved into our current house in '01 and the haunts continued to grow. 

Though I think we peaked in the '14-'15 time frame. We were building up a repeat following and growing the ToT group, but it was around this time we had to pull the plug on Oct 30 and travel out of town for an Oct 31 funeral. So that blew out our ToT count for the next several years. We built up a bit only to run face first into covid, and here we are today!

Anyway, there is 34 years of haunt history!


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

Sorry for the loss of your Mom. Always hard.

Sweet pic and history.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Sorry to hear about your mom, corey, and thank you for sharing your reminiscences of your haunting history. I love the old photo.


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## stick (Jan 21, 2009)

Sorry for the loss of your mom.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Thanks for the sentiments, all. Looking forward to brighter and more spooky haunting days ahead!


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

I'm sorry for the loss of your Mom. I think she must have been special, with a big heart. For around 35 years, she kept an old yellow newspaper clipping of her son and his Halloween dreams. She must have been really proud. I know her because my Mom was just like her. You and I were lucky to have had Mothers like that. Thank you for sharing. I like your style of writing. You write like you are talking to a friend about something you've had a passion for. I'm really glad you are getting back into haunting, sometimes we just need to take a break. I hope you share more of your memories of Halloween. I enjoy them.


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## Daphne (Oct 18, 2006)

I’m so sorry for your loss Corey, your Mom sounded really awesome. Thanks for sharing the story, I enjoyed reading it.


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## kurtkyre (Nov 7, 2021)

corey872 said:


> I've been taking a bit of time off, as I unfortunately had to deal with putting a real body in a real cemetery with the passing of my mom over the holidays. Though it is comforting to know she is at peace and not dealing with the daily debilitating pain she endured for years.
> 
> In going through her things, I did come across a newspaper scrap from 1987! This was close to the pinnacle of what I would call our original haunt. Though we moved around a fair bit in my early childhood, this house, I would consider my childhood home. As I got into my tinkering/experimenting/making things/early teens phase, we sort of evolved from a couple dozen Beistle cardboard cutouts in the windows to this.
> 
> ...


That's really a great memory, despite the loss of your Mom.


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