Two of Chicagoland’s haunted restaurants: Red Lion Pub and Country House

The Red Lion Pub has an excellent Shepard’s pie and its decor is one of my favorites……an English manor library with bookshelves filled with books even above the glassware and liqueur at the bar. Walls are complimented with WWI and WWI pictures especially in the Great War room dedicated to his grandfather. Current owner Colin Cordwell has paid homage to his family. The second floor balcony honors his mother who was an expert on African art.

The Red Lion used to be Dirty Dan’s Western Saloon originally built in 1882 and it was a horrible place owned by a gambling, unmanageable alcoholic. John Dillinger saw his last movie at the Biograph Theatre located across the street. But it was John Cordwell who saw the saloon as an opportunity and was remodeled/ opened in 1984.

The Red Lion Pub is on the north side of Chicago at 2446 North Lincoln Avenue. Now a more upscale neighborhood, according to Haunted Houses people have died in the building including a woman who died from an epileptic seizure, a mentally challenged woman, a young cowboy, and another male entity according to ghost experts. These spirits walk the floors of the restaurant to name just a few.

John Cordwell had built a beautiful stained glass window over a stairway and added a plaque to commemorate his dad who died in England. He was buried without a tombstone there. Guests who pass the window actually feel a presence, or are overcome by dizziness which was a condition his father had.

According to Haunted Places, regulars at the pub have heard footsteps and voices, and objects crashing, among other pranks. The phenomena are said to occur when the pub is not very crowded, such as late evenings or Sunday. Nightly spirits offers a ghost tour of the most haunted pubs, and alleys actually leaving from the Red Lion and walking the same path that Dillinger did before he died. Drinks are not included in the ticket price.

One of my favorite burgers on dark rye while enjoying a rustic atmosphere and a beautiful fireplace in the bar area is served at the Country House in Clarendon Hills; a family friendly restaurant I have frequented for over 30 years and even their website talk about the famous ghost. The Country House is a two story building erected in 1922 as a place for locals to congregate for drinks, food, and good conversation.

In 1974 during a meeting with a contractor to renovate the restaurant the men were sitting in the bar and shutters on the windows opened without human contact displaying shafts of light. Other workers have seen dishes move and have heard moaning in the walls. Others have actually seen a woman who they call the lady in blue.

The Country House has gone through a number of ownership changes over the years and is currently owned by two local residents who purchased it in 1974 according to the Clarendon Hills Historical Society.  It’s the late 1950s, and the story begins like so many others – with a bartender and a pretty blonde. On this particular evening, the woman visited her regular establishment. After a few choice words with her lover, a fight erupted that greatly upset her. The woman was so hurt by the exchange and the actions of her lover that she left in huff. Unfortunately, the roads were as uncaring she collided with a tree or a telephone poled a short distance from The Country House. While she might have perished in the accident on that fateful night, she lives on through her daughter and the legend of The Country House.” Some say she had a daughter with her And the lover went after her.

Richard Crowe, Chicago’s famous ghosthunter, was asked to come in for a consultation. He brought in two self-professed mediums who claimed to “feel” the presence of a young woman looking for something or someone she had lost. They went on to describe the woman as blonde, good looking, in her late twenties, and someone who died in the late fifties of abdominal injuries and this is discussed on the Country House Restaurant website.

Are your children safe at school?

On Thursday in the my first grade classroom, we performed a lock down drill to e viewed by the police. Classroom doors must be locked, lights turned off and after practicing with the children before on the seriousness of this drill, I was surprised. When the announcement came to begin the drill, students turned off their voices and moved to the corner of the room designated, moving close to those they may not be quite as fond . They huddled together, boys with girls and they did not make a sound.  In the minutes that we sat, I thought of Vegas, I thought of Columbine, I thought about what if this was real. The look on their faces were fear, wide-eyed and one i held close.

There are almost 750,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. More than 200,000 children are the victims of family abductions each year.  Custody-motivated abductions have increased by more than five times between October 2010 and June 2013.  Eighty eight percent of public schools reported that they controlled access to school buildings by locking or monitoring doors during school hours, and 64% reported that they used security cameras to monitor the school.

Who is Raptor Technologies?

• Raptor Technologies is the nation’s leading developer of integrated school safety technologies for K-12 schools across the United States.
• Raptor® developed the first web-based visitor management system designed for schools and monitors visitors, contractors, and volunteers who enter a building.
• The visitor management system provides instant screening of visitors, contractors and volunteers for sex offender status and custody orders.
• The Raptor System also tracks students who arrive late or leave early and faculty who sign in and out of the building.
• In addition, Raptor Technologies also provides a volunteer management system.

In 2017, over 19,000 schools use Raptor’s visitor management software that conducts an instant and automatic screening against an up-to-date national sex offender registry and checks for any court-ordered custody restrictions. Raptor currently flags over 30 registered sex offenders per day attempting to enter schools. This fall, they also unveiled an emergency management application that streamlines parent reunification.

In Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, Bellwood School District 88,  Aurora 129, Joliet 204,  Joliet Public Schools 86, Naperville Cusd 203 are just some of the school districts that implement this technology. After interviewing several parents of school-aged children, they continually wonder if their child’s school is doing everything it can to keep their students safe.  Do they have lockdown drills? Do they have an easy parent-student reunification system in place if students are evacuated? Are they doing everything they can to keep sex offenders out of schools?

Raptor also has many non-profit partners whose mission is to spread awareness on school safety like Safe and Sound, which was created by Sandy Hook parents and the “I Love You Guys” Foundation, created by the parents of a student who lost her life 11 years ago in a school shooting in Colorado. These foundations now go to schools nationwide teaching schools how to effectively deal with on campus emergencies- like lockdowns, active shooters, etc.

After we received the all clear sound, returned to our seats and was told that the police thought we did a great job, I silently thanked God that we were safe. I thanked God for Raptor Technologies. Contact them today!

Chicago’s Most Haunted: Eastland Disaster

This summer I took a trip to Michigan City, Indiana and spent a few minutes in Washington Park by the lake having no idea at the time that over 100 years ago the S.S. Eastland ship was suppose to arrive with Western Electric employees and their families to  celebrate a summer picnic.  It never happened.  After researching the Eastland Disaster, I returned to the park again imagining its beauty in 1915.

It.was an ideal location that offered various attractions according to the Eastland Disaster Historical Society including a roller coaster, electric merry-go-round, dancing pavilion, picnic grounds, baseball park, bathing beach with bath houses, band stand/gazebo, bowling alleys, amusement park, and photo studio. Though today, still beautiful, Washington Park has less attractions and activities including women dressed in hats, stockings, long dresses and the men dressed in suits and ties on the beach.

Western Electric picnics began in 1913 and really took off with over 6,000 attending where attendees boarded several ships in Chicago docked near the Clark Street Bridge for a leisurely trip to Michigan City across the lake for the picnic. On July 24th, 1915 the Eastland along with other ships began boarding at 6:30 am. Five thousand people had arrived for the excursion.

Because the Eastland was late the prior year in arriving at Washington Park, the owners decided it would be the first to depart. They were quick to board the passengers at a rate of about 50 per minute. At approximately 7:10, the Eastland reached capacity of 2,500. The engines started about 5 minutes before with a light list to port.  Attempts were made to move passengers to starboard but they did not follow the directions.  The list becomes worst and valves are opened to fill the no. 2 and 3 starboard ballast tanks. Water eventually enters the Eastland through the port gangways and a warning signal is sounded.

The Eastland tries again moving away from the wharf. The angles of the list reaches 45 degrees and everything begins to slide with water pouring in through portholes on the main deck. Passengers are rushing to the staircases which becomes not an exit but a death trap. The list worsens. Passengers and crew members jump off from fear of being trapped. The Eastland finally rolls in the Chicago River and 844 people are killed.

Today, paranormal investigators have found activity between the Clark and LaSalle bridges and people have reported screams and orbs in photographs. But the Armory where bodies from the Eastland were taken to be transported to funeral homes and used for family identification which was Harpo Studios where Oprah Winfrey taped her show, was haunted for years.

Oprah and her staff continued to see shadows which some have called the Grey lady; they think the ghost was of a mother who has lost her child. However,demolition of the Harpo campus took place in 2016 which will make way for a new building that thousands of McDonald’s corporate employees will call home in 2018.

Is the site still haunted?

Chicago’s Most Haunted: The Iroquois Theatre/The Oriental

The most devastating theatre fire in history happened on December 30th 1903. Over 600 people died which were mostly woman and children during a matinee performance of Mr. Bluebird.  Many Chicagoan’s did not think a fire of such magnitude could ever happen again since many had lived through the Great Chicago fire. This building was built to be fireproof.

However, A Day in History comments  that at the same time the fire inspector and Chicago’s building commissioner claims that the Iroquois was fireproof, the editor of Fireproof magazine inspected the theater and wrote an article that there were major fire alarm issues including no alarm and sprinkler system.

The Iroquois opened just shortly before on November 23rd of that year and was located on West Randolph between State and Dearborn. The theatre had a capacity of approximately 1,600 seats with three audience levels that included a main floor with orchestra that offered about 700 seats. The second floor had about 400 seats and the gallery or balcony areas had about 500 seats. The backstage area was extensive with emergency doors that remained locked the day of the fire. The theatre had only one public exit.

The December 30th 1903 matinee performance drew a huge crowd since so many children were out of school celebrating the holidays. It was about 3:15. Strange, how that time was very close to the same time only 50 plus years later when the most historic school fire broke out at Chicago’s Our Lady of Angels School on the south side. A fire, I  was alive to see and never forget.

During the second act, sparks from an arc light ignited a curtain. Stagehands tried to put out the fire but it had spread mainly to the fly gallery high above the stage. The stage manager tried to lower a fire curtain on the stage to block the fire from the audience but what they thought a fireproof stage curtain snagged and was flammable. The stage doors had bascule locks which protected people from not entering from the outside but nobody knew how to open them. Many were killed by being trapped especially in the balconies.

There were no exit signs, no emergency lighting, no iron fire escape and locked exit routes that nervous ushers forgot to unlock. The burned out theatre  was completely demolished and in the 1920’s, the Ford, Oriental Theatre was built with beautiful art Deco decor design and great access to bathrooms/ emergency doors designed by the firm Rapp and Rapp. Exceptionally different from the interior before and still safely operating today.

However, as elegant as the Oriental is, many ghost experts say that there is a real presence there because it was a site of such tragedy and death including David Cowan author of To Sleep with the Angels and his wife, author and 30-year veteran and paranormal researcher Ursula Bielski who host Chicago haunting tours

Especially behind the theatre, many have called the alley… Death Alley, because it is there that the most haunting s have been sited including a child crying. Other ghost experts claim that there tour groups continually experience sounds and apparitions today. It was also here in the alley during the 1903 fire that the corpses of so many tragically burned victims were piled and arranged to be eventually removed.

Others have felt cold spots and have actually been touched by unseen hands!

Chicago’s Most Haunted: The Congress Hotel / H.H. Holmes Murder Castle

What’s great about the Congress Hotel, one of the most haunted in Chicago, is you can go there, rent a room and stay the night.  Rates for rooms are not outrageous and you can spend as much time as you want to catch pictures of ghosts. They actually host a Haunted Halloween Ball at the Congress at 520 Michigan Avenue.

Originally constructed in 1893, the Congress Plaza Hotel featured cobbled streets, gaslights, and horse drawn carriages. The hotel was originally called the Auditorium Annex when it opened to house the throngs of visitors to the World’s Colombian Exposition.

Many famous people and presidents have stayed at the Congress which include Grover Cleveland, Teddy Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt. And the most visible ghosts include Peg Leg Johnny who was murdered, a workman who was buried behind the walls in the balcony of the glorious Gold Room. The Gold Room and Florentine Room are still beautiful spots for special occasion parties and weddings.

The six floor has been known to have some strange experiences as well as the 12th floor where a mother and her children committed suicide throwing themselves out a window. Staff have claimed that one room is so dangerously haunted…they had to seal the room and no one will go near it.  Supposedly, one of the most haunted rooms of all is 441 and remember, it is not locked forever….you can stay there.

Another bizarre story at the Congress is that of the ghost, Dr. Henry H. Holmes who wanders the hallways looking for woman to to enrapture in his arms and murder at his Murder Castle. His real name was Herman Mudgett, Chicago’s first serial murderer, who went to work in a drugstore owned by Dr. E.S. Holton, in Englewood, a suburb of Chicago that is now part of the city.

And it was here Holmes would draw in young woman and visitors from the Fair. Missing woman were reported and some have said that Holmes had killed 27 women and other reports include even more even though there is no conclusive evidence of how many he killed. In July 1895, Chicago police and reporters began investigating Holmes’ building in Englewood, now locally referred to as “The Castle”. Though many sensational claims were made, no evidence was found which could have convicted Holmes in Chicago.

According to Exploring Illinois, Holmes, who graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School, had already racked up a fairly impressive resume of fraud, forgery and petty theft by this time, including, while still a med student, taking out insurance policies on cadavers he stole from the school. Holmes, though, was a hard worker at the drugstore and eventually bought it.

Holmes purchased an empty lot across from the drugstore, where construction began in 1887 for a two story mixed-use building, with apartments on the second floor and retail spaces, including a new drugstore,on the first. When Holmes declined to pay the architects or the steel company, Aetna Iron and Steel, they sued in 1888.^[5]

In October 1895, Holmes was put on trial for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel, and was found guilty and sentenced to death. By then, it was evident that Holmes had also murdered the Pitezel children according to a Philadephia detective who found the children and had followed Holmes.

What was the murder castle like? According to Prairie Ghosts, the second floor however, proved to be a labyrinth of narrow, winding passages with doors that opened to brick walls, hidden stairways, concealed doors, blind hallways, secret panels, hidden passages and a clandestine vault that was only a big enough for a person to stand in. The room was alleged to be a homemade “gas chamber”, equipped with a chute that would carry a body directly into the basement. The basement was a chamber of death with devises and materials that indicated torture and murder.

The murder castle is no longer there and a post office remains in its original location but the story is well-documented in Erik Larsen’s, Devil in the White City and Leonardo Di Caprio plays Holmes in the movie. However, staff at the post office have seen strange sightings in the basement.

What was your best or worse Halloween costume?

For me, it began when my son was only two and hated being a clown. That’s because the face Mom had painted on his delicate skin was way too scary for Halloween. He scared himself when he looked in the mirror and trick or treating was just out of the question. Mom’s first costume attempt was not too good and thought he would forever be damaged by a poor holiday experience. But it did get better when the following year he liked being a beggar, carrying his stick of wrapped clothes in a scarf though when I think about it, maybe that wasn’t a good choice either.

As a child, I loved autumn with the breathtaking color of the season, pressing leaves in scrapbooks, spending hours selecting a costume and, of course, carving a pumpkin with, for me, Dad. It was his job to cut but I scrapped away the innards. The only time I liked kitchen duty. And I remember being a gypsy, Little Bo Peep with a crooked staff that eventually gave way to the wind on Halloween, and a date girl wearing a beautiful wide skirt with mini calendars attached. Among the many dressed as Super Man, witches, Bat girl, Sleeping Beauty and Minnie Mouse, cowboys and Indians, and of course, Casper, with silly masks to match our attire back in the 1960s. Dressed in a white sheet or a Frankenstein mask was about the extent of what was scary. Maybe a devil took you by surprise as well.

And the neighborhood was packed with children trick or treating; knowing the adults that answered their doors. If we didn’t have an appropriate trick or treat bag, a pillow case would do and besides the candy bars, suckers and bazooka gum with comics, we would get even more like a popcorn ball. Sometimes we would worry about the occasional razor blade showing up in our candy but candy being spiked with chemicals was rare.

In the nineties, as my son and daughter celebrated the season each year, costume decisions improved after the first fiasco to include Robin Hood and a court jester, a baby. a Power Ranger instead of Super Man and a nerd with a huge dictionary….not a computer… Though there was one Halloween, that costumes were trash bags since the rain was incessant for trick or treating. That didn’t stop us. We also decided that a carved pumpkin was not enough so the house was dressed with lovely rust and yellow floral arrangements and a yard filled with ghosts, signs, funny gravestones, and spider webs throughout.

Now, though there are no grandchildren, nothing has changed with the exception of less children knocking on the door on October 31st. Though the signs have become faded and the gravestones totter, new additions such as a family of scarecrows have been added, floral arrangements refurbished and my 20 plus daughter coming to spend a pre-Halloween weekend, carving the best pumpkin ever, while munching on roasted pumpkin seeds and home-made pumpkin bread.

Once a child, forever a child and another year of adding more pictures to that scrapbook or should I say, Facebook page instead.

The Genius of Play shares some of their favorite family play ideas

We all worry about our kids learning to control their emotions. After all, it’s emotions that so often get us off track and into trouble! The Genius of Play, is a national movement with a mission to give families the information and inspiration needed to make play an important part of every child’s life. Fortunately, play can serve as a key tool in helping your child manage their emotions. Play provides children with an opportunity to not only learn how to express themselves, but how to explore and understand their wide range of feelings.

Through play, children learn to cope with emotions as they act out feelings such as anger, sadness or fear, in a situation they control. Imaginative play allows them to think out loud about experiences charged with both pleasant and unpleasant feelings, creating a safe outlet for self expression and self exploration. Plus, by giving children a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, play can help build their confidence and self-esteem.

Erik A. Fisher, Ph.D, aka Dr. E…TM, Emotional Dynamics Expert at Genius of Play, has been changing the lives of children, teens and adults for two decades by encouraging self-empowerment through play.

He opens our discussion by stating that ” often children take their lead on how they learn about their emotions from the adults that guide them. Many of us received very little education on how to manage emotions or the purpose of emotions when we were children, so knowing what to do with your own kids when it comes to emotion can be challenging. I believe that emotions are all there to tell us and teach us about life. For example, the purpose of Anger is to protect. The purpose of Failure is that it tells us when it is time to learn, the purpose of Guilt is that it lets us know when we have done something to others that we need to fix.”

“Too often, we are taught to ignore what our emotions may be trying to tell us, and all too often, many adults don’t know what to do with the emotions that they are feeling. Unfortunately, when adults do not understand, it is difficult for them to properly educate their children.”

“It is for that reason that I often recommend that parents learn right along with their kids and even let their kids be teachers to them. The Genius of Play is a great way for parents to learn about the value of play in various domains, including emotional realms, and I always encourage parents to take a look. I also recommend my parenting book, The Art of Empowered Parenting: The Manual You Wish Your Kids Came With that discusses power, emotion, and how we can learn to manage these challenging aspects of life.”

The Genius of Play, is excited to share some of their favorite play ideas that focus on emotional development and teach children how to express and regulate their emotions.

Kindergarten

· This is a great time to use role playing and engage imagination to work through emotions. Kids at this age are often playing with dolls, puppets and may be starting to play with action figures. Watch the themes of how they play with these toys and the emotions that they may demonstrate through their play. As they may be playing, be willing to get on the floor with them, play and talk about what is going on with their characters and what they may be feeling. You can also play out some of the challenges that they may be having with others through the dolls and show how they can work out their difficulties by you taking on their role. Ask them what the other characters may be feeling when they may play these roles.

· Many children may be exposed to many of the cards, blocks, images, and emoji that denote various emotions. These images that help children identify emotions can be helpful for kids to visually identify what they are feeling so that an adult can help connect the words with the emotions. As these emotions are discussed, let your kids know that these emotions aren’t bad or wrong. They are trying to tell us something. It is the choices that we make when we feel these emotions that we want to be aware of to change. Understanding protective emotions like Anger, Rage, Hatred, Defiance, Sarcasm, Flippancy and Arrogance are trying to help us look strong when we feel weakness inside.

3rd Grade

· Kids have been in school for a few years. They are learning to grasp emotions and experiencing better emotional regulation as their brains also develop. However, the patterns of emotional expression that they learn now can be harder and harder to reverse if they are reinforced and/or if new patterns aren’t learned. While it is always a good time to work on discussing emotions and what they are teaching us, helping to find healthy ways to express them is also important. Charades can be a great game for kids to act out emotions. Making your own game of emotional charades can be a good way to see how your kids view emotions and even to discuss them after a round.

· There are also many board games and books that help kids become aware of various emotions. Exposing them to the uniqueness of each emotion through play and helping them to understand them will be adding to their skill set in real life situations.

5th Grade

· This is a year that kids are still kids, and some are getting closer to adolescence. For some, they are still interested in children’s games, and the same games, cards and emoji can still be helpful to discuss emotions, while for some who want to associate with “older age” activities, they may show no interest in the games of “children”. The issue is that even though kids at this age want to be older, their brains are not developed and they are often playing the emotional games and “writing the emotional checks that they can’t cash”. Making sure that they are processing and understanding emotions is so important at this time of life. Playing games that involve perspective taking, communication, listening closely to how they see the world can help this. Don’t just listen to them when they are aware that you are around, listen when they don’t realize that you are listening. There are many role-playing games that give opportunities to share emotions and see inside of them, as well.

Most importantly, at any age your kids are, Eric suggests that you play with them, and no matter what you are playing talk with them, ask them about how they see life, how they feel about themselves and others, how they feel about you as a parent…

It is often when distracted by a game that kids will share more. Listen without judgment, and ask more questions than telling them what to do.

Please click on The Genius of Play for more information.

Chicago’s Most Haunted: Bachelors Grove

Another trip many ghost hunters of Chicago made back in the day and still do, was to Midlothian, Il on the edge of Rubio Woods forest preserve, the infamous Bachelors Grove Cemetery. The cemetery sign is long gone and the small burial ground is surrounded by a high link fence. Many throughout the US believe this is the most haunted cemetery in the country. And the road outside of the cemetery has also seen its share of ghosts.

Over the years, after trips, once again, to catch a ghost I think the area is a great place for vandals more than ghosts though ghost experts claim that vandalism is the reason for so many hauntings. I have taken pictures and found nothing unusual after developing my different types of film,video but those that have visited Bachelors Grove feel that using an infrared camera is the best way to see apparitions.The latest haunting took place in 2016.

The Midlothian Turnpike, the road outside of the cemetary, folks claim to have seen ghostly cars causing accidents. The pond, located outside of the cemetary in late 1970’s, was reported by the Cook County Forest Preserve officers to have had apparitions of a horse emerging from the waters. The animal appeared to be steering a plow driven by an old man and the rangers did not know that this was actually a legend connected to the pond according to Living History of Illinois

You tube offers many videos providing images of shadows, possible ghostly figures and white streams of light after taking pictures. You can judge for yourself if these have been photo shopped or the real thing.

According to Prairie Ghosts.com, the vandals first discovered Bachelor’s Grove in the 1960s and, probably because of its secluded location, began to wreak havoc on the place. Gravestones were knocked over and destroyed, sprayed with paint, broken apart and even stolen. Graves were opened and caskets removed. Bones were sometimes found to be strewn about the cemetery. Maybe ghosts rose to fight destruction.

The site saw its first official burials around 1840 and contains 82 plots, many of which were never sold or used. The site is often reported to have been a dumping ground for victims of Chicago’s organized crime families of the 1920s and 1930s, but no evidence of this has been proven.

Hauntings escalated in the 1970’s and 1980’s including a woman sitting on a graveyard that I remember which ran in the Sun-times taken by Jude Felz, which has been the most famous,a phantom farmhouse, the black dog, and the lady who carries an infant during the full moon.

The Ghost Research Society has conducted many investigations and does claim activity. The greatest number of claims include orbs of light. Bachelors Grove has been featured in a program called Ghost Adventures.

If you are planning a trip to Bachelors Grove, make sure you follow the Forest Preserve hours which are generally from sun up to sundown.  It is best to park at Rubio’s Woods, and on foot, cross 143rd Street South towards the power substation, head east a few feet to the closed sign, go around that and follow the path back a couple blocks.

Take a lot of pictures…..many continue to find a weird haze or fog after they have captured shots of the cemetery, pond and road.

America’s haunted tourist attractions

Beginning this trip on the West Coast and making our way across the country, to a once famous ship who boasted five dining areas, lounges, two cocktail bars and swimming pools, grand ballroom and even a small hospital. The Queen Mary was the only civilized way to travel carrying celebrities such as Bob Hope and dignitaries such as Clark Gable. As World War II started, the ship was stripped of its luxury, returned to passenger travel after, and departed on her final destination. She is now a floating Hotel, attraction and event venue that hosts. Dark Harbor, a unique haunting experience that offers an unforgettable scare.

Midwest:

Erebus, located in Pontiac Michigan, is considered one of the largest venues with crushing walls and bottomless pits. The four-story haunted house tells a story of Dr. Colbert who actually built a time machine for the government. He broke away. Did it in secret in this building downtown Pontiac. And every time he put someone in his time machine, the time period looked at them as a virus and wiped them out. Obsessed with trying to make this thing work, he sent more and more of his people into the machine. Eventually he ran out of personnel and ran out of financing. But then he had a brilliant idea: disguise the time machine as a haunted house. Now he had an endless supply of human guinea pigs willing to go in, but also to help finance the program.

East

One of America’s scariest is Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania consistently ranked in the top ten of haunted attractions. This is a massive haunted house in a real prison. Real stories are brought to life in the famed Cell block 12. Visitors have options: they can explore the prison and watch or they can opt for interactivity which includes being grabbed, held back or even removed from their group. Many do believe that the Penitentiary is haunted. Officer and inmates have reported visions or strange experiences.

South

The 13th Gate in Baton Rouge, is one of the largest haunted houses in the South and have been scaring guests since 2002. The areas are both indoors and outdoors which are regularly switched out. They opened a second attraction in 2011 and doubled their size with hundreds of zombie filled crypts and their incredible attention to detail.

 

The Haunting Begins at Home Depot

For me as a child, with the exception of a pumpkin carved for the family’s dining room table, outdoor decorations weren’t as popular in the 1960’s. Indoor Halloween parties consisted of bobbing for apples in a tub set up in the neighbors basement and, of course, orange and black streamers draped with a few occasional flying bats and maybe fake spiders. However, in the 1980s/90s, outdoor decorations were the spooky rage.

Our home for my children was decorated with unique gravestones with family friends names on them, lots of hanging spiders, flying ghosts,  a witch who slammed into a tree, a mummy, lots of pumpkin signs and scarecrows which have now became early Autumn ornamentation. My best selection of scarecrows over the years were from Good Will, handmade.

Now Halloween is bigger and better than ever with even more fall glitz and scary glamour than decades before. Strings of lights outdoors frame the trim sidings of homes and windows in orange and black. Fog machines are in motion at night and larger than life decorations, some motor activated, stand with creepy pride on your front lawn.

Halloween is just around the corner and many Americans, like me, are looking forward to decorating their homes during this spooky season. Consumers have many choices when it comes to décor, and the experts over at The Home Depot are predicting some interesting trends that will take the fright factor to a whole new level, all while keeping it fun:

• Rise of the skeleton animals: Skeletons are more popular than ever! Add pizazz to both indoors and outdoors with pony, spider and dinosaur skeletons such as the 9ft standing skeleton T-Rex This dinosaur is perfect indoors or right out on the front lawn. Make a statement and create your own skeleton family – adding more animals will be sure to give a friendly scare to your guests and trick-or-treaters–many options feature motion-activation and LED lights.  
  
• Larger than life spook-factor: Size matters for Halloween décor, and trick-or-treaters will love walking to your house when they see a huge 9ft Gargantuan Spider, a 16ft Colossal Serpent that that will give your entire neighborhood a fright or the Motorcycle Riding Reaper.
• Themed decorating: Experts predict simple decorating to be a trend for Halloween this year and The Home Depot category experts have categorized product into themes – scary skeletons, creepy cemetery, wicked witches, haunted house, monsters & zombies – to make it easier than ever to deliver the fright both inside and out of the home. Add eerie fog to your yard with the Fog Tube Accessory Kit hooked up to your fog machine.

If you opt to keep things even more simple, but don’t want to lose out on the “WOW” factor, Halloween lighting decor is easier and spookier than ever with the new WindowsFX Plus Projector exclusively from The Home Depot.

• Why is it a top pick? The Window FX Plus Projector is the newest and easiest way to decorate any home for Halloween and beyond.
• How it works: Simply hang the screen, position the projector at the window, select a video and press play to enjoy your fun-filled motion pictures. Animated videos will be seen from outside the home. And the new Plus version also has a HDMI port, so consumers can use the projector with wireless streaming media devices for a bigger and better outdoor movie night and even a football viewing party!
• Great extras: Remote control , tripod stand and 12 pre-loaded videos

For more information visit http://www.homedepot.com/