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Jackolanterns and Stanky Leg 2008
Submitted by: Jim Ford - 11/10/08 5:24 pm

Jackolanterns and Stanky Leg 2008
Boo! Halloween is one of my favorite times of year. Haley and I love decorating, carving pumpkins, scaring kids, and generally having a great time. This year we headed out for our annual trek to the pumpkin patch the weekend before Halloween. Then the night of, I went nuts scaring kids and helping throw a party at my neighbor's where we all danced and boogied down.

Conway has a couple of nice area pumpkin patch/corn mazes. We like to head out to Johnsons Family Pumpkin patch out towards Greenbrier, AR. They have a big area to choose pumpkins, check out some farm animals, take pictures, etc. Unfortunately they were almost out of pumpkins by the time we went. You can see us below taking cowboy and girl pictures, while Haley goofs off with a little spook next to the corn maze.

Since there weren't many decent pumpkins left, we took lots of pictures! I don't know what these flowers are called but they sure looked inviting. We took a hayride behind a big tractor and just had an awesome time giggling, laughing, and spending time together. Afterwards we headed to Walmart which surprisingly had a great selection of pumpkins this year.

Once we got home, Haley helped me set up most of the decorations for Halloween night. Now she's always helped me dig out the guts of the pumpkins, but this year she drew her own design, gutted it, and carved out her own pumpkin! All I did was cut the top off with the big knife and she used special tiny saw/knives to carve her own. I was so proud! She did a great job and made a great Dick Cheney-looking Jack-O-Lantern. I love her so much and we make a great Halloween team.

The day of Halloween I RACED home to finish getting set up for the kids. Got the candy out, lights on, sound system going, smoke machine, you name it. Then carried my DJ sound system, lights, and decorations over to the neighbors and set up for our "after party". Changing into my creepy ghoul costume with wireless microphone and glowing eyes underneath, I scared the kids with my heavily effects processed voice. Many of them screaming and crying, and ALL terrified. As usual, some were too scared to knock on the door and ran away. It's awesome! Think I had about 140 kids the last count I kept up with. Even had people taking pictures of me, saying how cool and scary it was, and several came across town just to see my set up.

Then a quick change of costume to my Lt. Dangler outfit from Reno 911 and on to the neighborhood Halloween party. Everyone brought their favorite spirits and I mixed up a batch of Jim Jones Jungle punch of pga 190 proof, fruit punch, and sprite. We got the dancefloor rockin' immediately. Pimp Master G (aka Gary) and his wife, the Naughty Nurse Kellye had us all rolling on the floor laughing. Pretty much everyone had a great costume. Even some of the new neighbors ventured over to join in the fun. You can see below I was trying to teach the ladies the latest dance, "Da Stanky Leg"... courtesy of my ATO fraternity brother Kyle.

Mike and Cindy's 10 year anniversary fell on the same night so we had a mock wedding re-dedication complete with scary wedding music and vows by shotgun prompt. As the night wore on, you can see we really got our drink and dance on. Being the only single guy there, I ended up dancing with just about every girl whose husband wouldn't dance. You know it's getting bad when we break out the YMCA song. About 3a.m., the REAL cops actually showed up for a noise complaint! I confidantly strode out in my uniform and handcuffs and told them "I've got it covered fellas". Michael decided it was time to belligerently complain to the cops about people speeding down our street... oh lord! Everyone had a laugh and we were happy for the warning. I felt like I was in college again! Finally about 5:30 a.m., we realized it was morning and shut it down for another year.

I have a great group of neighbors and we had a blast. Thanks to all my scarecrows, witches, pimps, mardi gras revelers, mountain boys, convicts, vampires, devils and others for such a great time. Can't wait to do it again next year or maybe do something for New Year's Eve?

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