Halloween Experience

So my daughter talked me into going to the Schaller Jaycees Haunted House with her on Friday night and I wondered the whole time, is this a place for a 53-year-old woman?

I have done numerous stories on that haunted house over the years and in the earlier years, I was a visitor of the house, taking my then late elementary/middle school kids with me. Each year for several years, it was a tradition for us to go there together.

And then, they grew up and could drive themselves and so I bowed out.

Marissa was home from college this weekend and wanted me to "experience" some scary Halloween fun with her.

I hesitated because I still recall one of the earlier times we went to the haunted house there, we got lost in the maze that they change up each year - and had to be led out by a gorilla. How embarrassing was that? Though we knew it was only a costume...to have a gorilla smarter than two blondes is just not right!

So we waited in line with anticipation with many others and one of the spooks hovering around outside just getting everyone more anxious for what was inside came up to me and said hi - then took her mask off. It was Jaycees member Holly Ehrp whom I had talked to only a couple weeks ago. It was nice of her to not scare an old lady but rather be a friendly spook!

We finally paid our very reasonable $5 admission (a cost the planners told me has not changed for years and years as a means of making it more affordable) and waited some more with many, many impatient and noisy teenagers.

Again, I wondered what I was doing there!

As our turn got closer I was getting a little nervous and told Marissa I just wanted it to be over!

Our turn. As we walked through, holding hands, with spooks popping out at us, my maternal instincts kicked in and I just wanted to tell them to quit scaring everyone and to behave! But I didn't lecture them.

The chainsaw room has always been a spot I hated to enter and it was no exception this time. Just the sound and imagining "what if they forgot to take off the chain..."

We did get lost a couple times through the maze - again - and monsters pointed us along. One group, waiting to scare their friends, popped out of a door at Marissa and I and we screamed.

They had jumped at the wrong victims and were apologetic. "Did we scare you? We didn't mean to," they said. That was nice - I should tell their mothers how polite they were!

When done, we agreed it was "fun" and I was glad I went with my daughter. I told her this may have to be the last year I go, though!

If you haven't been to Schaller, you have one more chance. It will be open on Halloween, 8 p.m. until the last visitors go through.