Nightmarish on Elm Street

LIMA - It's quite possible that Tina Hawkins has said this before, but it's a good line: "I live on Elm Street. How can I not have a spooky house?"

There are no nightmares at the home on the corner of Elm and Metcalf streets, just an all-out celebration of a holiday that's all fun, no (skeleton) bones about it.

The display has grown, and grown, through the years and this year includes a tribute of sorts to Jesse Lowe II and his Drugs Bring Death effort. Hawkins has attended a few of the anti-drug rallies and considers Lowe a friend. Hawkins always creates several graveyard displays; this year some of the, ah, remains, met their end specifically from drugs.

"See, they've got their guns, and they're smoking cigarettes," Hawkins said, pointing to the skeletons and then pointing to other "good" skeletons at a minirally. A skeleton in a police car next to a body outline on the front walk completes the display.

Lowe has told her he wants pictures for the next newsletter.

The idea of scary decorating sprang many years ago when Hawkins and family members wanted to throw a Halloween party for their children and the children's friends. No party is planned so far this year, with some other actual renovations happening indoors (as opposed to Hawkins boarding up her own house windows outside).

But pictures from years past show that things have gotten extensive.

"My husband built the electric chair," Hawkins said with glee and pride filing through pictures of an Old Sparky look-alike with sound and light effects.

Through the years the children have navigated dark mazes created in a garage covered in black plastic, put their hands into fake bodies to feel spaghetti guts and eaten Jell-O brains out of skull serving dishes. Her own children named one of the decorations. "Steve" has some issues: He's pretty dead, first of all, and it appears that he's been eaten by something.

At night, the house is scarier, with fog machines and motion-sensor sound effects going and spotlights on the big stuff, such as the witch flying near the chimney.

Hawkins said she likes to decorate. She has a flair for the crafty, in many senses of the word. The fence used around the yard came from a house near theirs that was being torn down. She asked for the fencing, got it for free and now stores it, along with oodles of other stuff in a garage at the house.

The decorating takes about two days and Hawkins said it's well worth it. People stop over just to check it out and many people have told her they're having a bad day and get a smile from driving by, if Bloody Mary trying to escape from the attic window is the sort of thing that makes you smile.

This is Hawkins' favorite time of year.

"My husband is from Florida and he had never seen the seasons. And I just love fall," she said. "I love having parties and I love watching the kids. I grew up having Halloween parties and now right after summer, it's all Christmas stuff in the stores. Whatever happened to Halloween?"

It's alive, and dead, at Tina Hawkins' house.