If you drive by the Skeleton’s Lady’s House on East Ohio, you’ll notice the theme Tami Jones has chosen for this year’s Halloween. Pirates large and small are starting to congregate in Tami’s front yard, many with pirate wigs, red beards and pirate togs.
Next door, a pirate ship has sailed into port, and a mermaid island is scheduled to appear.
This year, you can view the pirates up close, as Tami’s yard, and two yards next to it, will be one of the stops on the Heartland Community Theatre’s Halloween Home Tour and Scavenger Hunt on Oct. 26. It is the first ever event of its kind.
Tickets are $3 for ages 8 and up for Heartland’s Halloween Tour, no charge for ages under 8. The tour will start at organizer Susie Hill’s house, 109 E. Clinton, which will be decorated inside and out. From there, the addresses of the other Halloween Tour houses will be given.
At each house, Scavenger Hunt riddles will be given out, and visitors must figure out the answers to the riddles, and take cell phone photos of their solutions. After visiting each location, scavenger hunters will return to Susie’s house, where small prizes will be given for solving the riddles.
“The goal is not to be the first person to solve the scavenger hunt,” Susie said. “The idea is to take your time and really look at the decorations.”
The Halloween Home Tour is not a haunted house, she said, nor a house of horrors, but is something fun for families or friends to do together. The ticket prices are set to make it affordable. The tour is also being held to raise funds and awareness for Heartland Community Theatre, Susie said.
“There will be four to six clues at each stop,” she said, “and also some clues to look for between tour houses.”
The inside of the Skeleton Lady’s house will not be open to visitors, as it is small, but people can wander through the groups of pirates, visit the jail and graveyard, and get up close to the skeletons and take pictures. The yards of the two houses east of hers will also be decorated in the pirate theme, and be part of the tour and scavenger hunt.
There will not be trick-or-treating, but each stop will have light snacks, Susie said. People can wear costumes if they want, which starts at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 26, the Saturday before Halloween.
“We just want it to be fun and engaging,” Susie said of the Home Tour and Scavenger Hunt. “We want to inspire your imagination.”
Susie said she already has all her ‘ghosts’ made for the Halloween Home Tour. Tami is still working on her pirate- themed decorations, she said, but usually has the skeletons out and ready to celebrate Halloween by the first of October.
Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, is the night before All Hallow’s Day, which was established on Nov. 1 by the church to celebrate the lives of saints who didn’t have their own saints’ day. In many traditions, it is a time to remember all the ancestors who have gone before us.
