Okay, so I know a lot of you really don't care...but, I thought I would share anyways.

I am pretty sure that by now, most of you know that I am a HUGE fan of Halloween, particularly the haunted house aspecct of it.  I grew up on a 660 acre farm in a small rural area of Ohio.  Anyone that has ever lived in a small town with buildings and houses that were built long ago are familiar with the ghost stories that usually accompany them.  In our area we had the Haunted Bridge and the Witch's House. 

The Haunted Bridge was a particularly odd spot.  The bridge was actually a tunnel under an old railroad line.  The long, one-lane road that passed through it, wound it's way through a particularly dense patch of wooded area...making it seem as if it was in a constant state of twilight.  The legend goes that the young woman that had lived in the nearby house was suspected of being a witch.  She had given birth to a child and all the residents were afraid that this was the child of Satan and must be destroyed.  So, they formed a mob and made their way to the "witch's" house.  In an attempt to save her own life and the life of her child, she climbed up the hill surrounding the tunnel to the train tracks above it, but was quickly surrounded by the mob on the ground.   A train could be heard making it's way toward them.  The woman pleaded with the angry and frightened mob to let her and her child go, but the would not back down and the woman and child were eventually hit and killed by the train.  From that time on...the tunnel was reported to be haunted. 

Several people have, in fact, died at this location...usually by getting hit by a car or by falling to their death from the train tracks above.  It was said that if you drive into the tunnel and put your car in neutral, then turn out your lights...at exactly 2:13am...your car would stall, and then get pulled mysteriously out of the tunnel.  This was a VERY dangerous stunt to attempt because the road makes a sudden 90 degree turn right out of the tunnel...which didn't give you a lot of time to get out of the way of oncoming traffic.  My friends and I attempted this several times, but most of the time would have to bail out...mostly due to oncoming traffic, once because the driver got scared....HOWEVER, I did go out one night by myself and try it....and it did actually work.  I am sure their is some kind of scientific way to explain it...but I never took the time to figure it out...not because I was scared...but rather, I liked the fact that it DID work and didn't really care why.

The Witch's House was the house owned by the young woman mentioned above.  It was a rather modest 3-room cabin of sorts.  Their was a small sleeping area, and family area and a kitchen/eating area.  From what I remember of the story..the woman mentioned above had been married at one point, then one day her husband disappeared.  No one ever knew what had happened to him, but this is part of what led to her being labeled a witch.  The local residents believed that she had murdered her husband in some Satanic ritual and buried him somewhere on the property.  From the day the woman died...the property laid vacant and was never sold.  Kids would always sneak in there to party, fool around or just spray paint some stuff...but no one EVER went alone and no one EVER stayed the night.  When I was in High School, there was actually a pot started.  People would but money in the pot from time to time and whoever stayed the night IN the house would win everything in the pot.

Those that would attempt it had observers assigned to them (who always slept in tents on the other side of the road)...to ensure that the person actually did spend the entire night inside the house.  When I graduated in 1996, no one had taken the pot yet and the last I remember, it was up to nearly $1000.  Everyone always came running out of the house screaming that they had seen or heard something.  I was always busy in High School and never tried this one out...perhaps when I make a trip back home for Thanksgiving...I will give it a shot. (If the house is still there).

Anyways...these types of things always peaked my interest and got me interested in ghosts, monsters and the things that go bump in the night.

My mother was big on Halloween as well and would take us to Akron every year to visit different haunted houses there.  But, we soon found a favorite.  The Haunted Schoolhouse/Haunted Labratory.  The effort and detail put into this attraction was remarkable.  It wasn't the average face paint and rubber mask attraction.  These people actually worked on this.  During my sophmore year in High School, I learned that my art teacher was friends with the guy that owned the attraction...and she got me a job their doing set/makeup design.  I had a blast!!!  I was creating prosthetic appliances for ghoulish makeup...designing, painting and decorating different sets and actually doing the makeup effects themselves.  During the course of the Halloween season, I had suggested things here and there to different people that I thought would improve the experience.

When the Halloween season was over, the owner called me into his office.  I thought I was in trouble for something..(a small prank I had played on one of my coworkers)...but I actually got a promotion and was put in charge of set design!!!  The times I spent at The Haunted Schoolhouse and Haunted Lab were phenomenal and I new that one day I would like to run one of my own.  I spent three seasons there before enlisting in the Air Force and moving out of the area. 

Time went on, as it tends to do, and my ideas for my life changed constantly...every year that I could, I would put on a Halloween party and small haunted house which grew bigger every year.  My life grew uncontrollably hectic in 2003 and seemed to remain that way for several years.  During this time, my Halloween activities can to a halt while I had more important things to worry about.  Well, two year's ago, my wife's friend's husband called me up and asked me if I wanted to help him on his haunted house....I jumped at the chance and have done so the past two years.  This year, I will be featuring two new animatronic props that I have constructed as well as a few other sinister ideas....

I am now looking into creating my own year-round haunted house / bar...I was planning some of the "rooms" last night...and am pretty sure I should be able to terrify EVERYONE that might happen to come through...I just hope I can get my sh!t together and get this going....

If you want to check out the Haunted Schoolhouse / Haunted Lab... CLICK HERE