The first time I went I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would it be too scary? I was thrilled and apprehensive about what I was going to see there.

I think my first year I was just in awe of everything there. It felt cool that I was going to one of the most popular Halloween events in the area. My relatives and I were not just going there to be at a fun event, and get scared. We were going there to see my cousins in action as actors in the mazes. My poor aunt, who scared easily, said she would just go there to see her son. Since I’m the youngest of my cousins on my mom’s side, I was usually seen as the Tagalong Kid. I had been invited when I was 10, but my mom said it was too scary and I was too young. Working as a scare actor is sort of a family tradition. I just never took those jobs because I don’t have a driver’s license and those jobs end around 2:00 - 3:00 AM. But if and when I do have those resources available to me I’d love to audition to work there. I’m not sure if I would be good at it.

The thing that people don’t understand is that they think an admission to the park when it opens will allow you to stay all day there for the Haunt. That is not true. The regular park closes in the evening for a while to set up the Haunt. They are 2 separate events with separate admissions.

My aunt (not the easily scared one) got this special package that came with a pre-Haunt dinner. I liked that the servers wore costumes. I think our waiter was a hippie, and there was a colonial girl and a guy with a giant Taz mask. I wondered how he waited in that. It was nice to have a meal there before you got scared.

I never acted like a punk *ss kid there. If I did my relatives would have been mad at me, and would have told my parents when we got back. People liked to yell at the monsters “I saw you! You don’t scare me!” I would think that, but I never said it aloud.

Being there was a learning curve. The monsters like squeamish people no matter what they look like. Buff guys, gangsters, or twelve year old girls. They especially like to scare the “tough” looking people. For me it’s not that I’m easily afraid of haunted houses and things like that. I just startle easily in any situation, not just haunted ones. If I remember correctly, at my first Haunt I spent most the time trying to distinguish who were real and who were mannequins or animatronics. Some of the actors were good at being very still. The street monsters were good at looking for distracted people. Remember this was in the late 90's, so there were no smart phones to be distracted by.