TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Seeking those who go bump in the night

ADVERTISEMENT

By Tom Jackson

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: October 18, 2009

As this is written, a glorious downpour spatters outside, a silvery gray curtain draped through the oaks beyond the windows. Simultaneously, a similar sheeting rain falls on the rectangular screen in the breakfast nook, where "The Picture of Dorian Gray" trundles toward its macabre end.

This is coincidence only, not some bizarre life-imitating-art scenario, although the season for such occurrences is upon us, and the storm outside represented the leading edge of a weather system heralding its arrival.

By now, if the forecasts are accurate, the weather is right for hitting pumpkin patches, pouring up glasses of apple cider and breaking out your stash of Halloween carol CDs.

Except for a brief, teasing respite a couple of weeks ago, any earnest entertaining of autumnal activities has been put off by our genuinely oppressive heat index.

My normal October routine - the nightly screening of one of those wonderful, golden-age Universal Studios monster movies collected in boxed sets - has been thrown off by summer's relentless grasp. When a neighbor braved sweltering conditions to strap her crashing witch onto a front yard palm last week, I couldn't help thinking, "Now? Really?"

Carpe spookiness

Make no mistake: My ardor for Halloween survives undiminished. Which is among the reasons I have been impatient with the weather.

I see where postseason baseball games are postponed by freezing temperatures and maple trees simultaneously decked out in flame-red leaves and snow and what I want to know is, when's it our turn?

Maybe today. If the reliable Steve Jerve has nailed it, it's going to feel a whole lot like witching weather. Florida style, anyway. With the ambient air summoning us to long sleeves, the temps and time will finally be right for doing whatever it is that animates our inner phantasmagician.

Me, I have an assortment of cone-shaped hollies out back that might look interesting dressed up in yellow and orange mini-lights, masquerading as candy corn. And I've been wondering how to bedeck one of the front yard oaks in jack-o'-lanterns in sufficient numbers to replicate Ray Bradbury's "Halloween Tree."

But that's just me.

Calling all creatures

Now, Pasco has a well-earned reputation for extreme haunters, and while many satisfy their passions for the paranormal by contributing to the scare trails and spook houses at local parks, others cannot allow the season to pass without turning their residences into diminutive theme parks of horror.

You know who you are. Your thoughts are consumed by fog chillers and animatronics, by strobe lights, black lights and sound effects, by reapers and flying crank ghosts and the many uses of compressed air.

This Space regards you as a ghoul-mate, and it wants you to identify yourself. See the e-mail address above? Use it to alert me about your haunt. Include a brief description, and perhaps a photo.

A proper roundup of Pasco's creature features will grace these pages (and our Web site) the Friday before Halloween. Trick or treat.

Keyword: The Jax Files, for Tom Jackson's bonus insights.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT