We considered it a total success. There were kids screaming, crying, refusing to come down the path, running away (one poor child fell down while he was trying to run away screaming). We toned it WAAAAAAY down for the little-little ones, and overall there were very few crying babies as a result. Brenda would walk candy out to them if they were too scared to come to us.
We even scared some older kids. Notably two girls in their early teens who were so scared they were clutching onto each other and moving together like some kind of drunken spider. Although there was also another girl who looked to be about sixth grade, who was totally freaked out by me in my dead-pirate guise. She was trying so hard to be brave and stand up to me, and when she finally did get all up in my face, Brenda, who had snuck up behind her, yelled "ARRRRRR" and the girl just about passed out. It was great.
It sounds kinda mean when I just write about it like that, but we really did scale the scary to fit the kids. We gave the kids what they could take.** We got a HUGELY positive response. People were taking pictures, telling us it was the best house they'd ever seen, that we should win a prize (except, of course, that there was no contest), that we were better than Disney (which was not quite true, although we appreciated the sentiment)...it was just great. We had a truly marvelous time. Brenda and I got TOTALLY into our characters, roaming amongst the graves, using our "pirate voices" to threaten and cajole. Brenda actually chased people down the street (which they loved). Ned *tried* to get into the spirit of it, but he couldn't quite be as mean and scary as Brenda and I were. :D
[**We had one boy who looked about early high school, so we started out with the top-level scary. His mom, who was with him but stayed at the top of the path, quietly informed us that her son was autistic and might take us seriously, so we scaled it way back. When he was done with the trick-or-treat, he was getting back into his mom's car and we could hear him jubilantly saying over and over, "I did it! I did it!" It was really a fantastic moment for us.]
Then there was an ADORABLE little girl in a ladybug costume. We weren't being scary at all for her, but apparently it didn't matter anyway, because she looked at us in our horrifying makeup and masks and smiled and said, "Hi pirates! I like your lights!" She was soooooooo cute.
I haven't had so much fun in forever. Brenda was really, REALLY having a blast. By the end of the evening, we had used our pirate voices so much that we could barely talk, and the next day neither of us could do the pirate voice at all without a GREAT deal of pain.
OK, pictures. mk
(this is Brenda)
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