Murder on Van Norden Street
“Oh watch out, that’s a dead body over there. yeah, he’s got his parts all over, but you can come up the stairs over here. Well, the decorations are for the young ones in the neighborhood. Because my wife was a preschool teacher, a lot of little ones come by – and a lot of her former students have children now, too.”
“Sometimes on warm days I’ll sit outside and read, and people don’t see me until I move and it’s like one of the figures is moving. It’s pretty funny. And they’re all different characters: this is a grandma reading the Chronicle, and then those guys are playing cards and drinking. And then there’s the gambler, of course, with all his money.”
“I decorate for every holiday, for 45 years – I’ve already started Thanksgiving. And then we do Christmas, and Winterfest, and then Valentines, and Saint Patricks, and Easter, and Memorial Day, and July 4th – it makes me feel good.”
Ghosts and Ghouls on Pearl Street
“We absolutely LOVE Halloween! We have such great memories of trick or treating, and we want to pass that joy forward for the kids today. Our friends are now a part of the tradition, so they help pass out candy and glow sticks!”
“I definitely do this for the kids. The last three or four years my partner and I have gotten really into decorating – trying to get new pieces every year, trying to be a little funny and a little creepy.”
“I love this skeleton here, with the green hair. She reminds me of me and my dog Delilah, in a different life maybe. You’ll have to come back on Halloween to see the fog machine!”
Devils and Handmaids on Appleton Street
“I start decorating on the first day of October and I put something new out every day, all the way up until Halloween. Today, actually, I did that vampire bat over there. ‘when I have my house, I’m going to decorate it just like this.’ And they always have recommendations and requests for next year.”
“I have always decorated, since I had children. Then I got sick for a while and couldn’t do it, and when I got better it was one of the things that really helped me get healthy again – it was a way of being outside, and being with the community.”
This article also appears in our October 2024 edition.
