The Joys of Halloween: Arlington couple digs the holiday
Published 11:53 pm Thursday, October 30, 2008
ARLINGTON — As far as Alison and Mark Joy are concerned, Halloween is for adults. Or at least for the kids trapped inside all adults.
“It’s a great day to make fun of what you fear,” Alison said. “Halloween is America’s melting pot holiday. We have the Day of the Dead and harvest celebrations, and friends of all religions can party together.”
Alison, 43, and Mark, 48, may not have children, but they do have 3 acres northwest of Arlington on which to play.
Beginning every Oct. 1, they spend every spare moment and very little money getting ready, using papier mache and spray foam to make tombstones or add embellishments to a few new decorations they’ve purchased at Arlington Hardware.
The primary focus of their effort is their annual Halloween party, which is always the Saturday before Halloween. Hundreds are invited to scare each other, drink Mark’s homemade pumpkin ale and take Alison’s Halloween trivia test.
After that, they gear up for the big event.
Dressed as the Rat Lady who carries the plague during the Middle Ages and the hunchback Igor, the Joys plan to haunt and horrify the trick-or-treat crowd tonight. They’ll sneak around the voodoo swamp and the cemetery in their yard, mix up something in the mad scientist’s lab in the garage and entertain friends in every room of their heavily decorated house. Even the bathroom is scary.
Alison comes by all this Halloween fuss by birth, she said.
In her hometown of Topeka, Kan., she grew up in a family of Halloween celebrants in an old Victorian home that is well-known there as the Halloween House. Her parents are gearing up for more than 700 ghoulish visitors today, she said.
Alison and Mark met 14 years ago when they worked and studied at the Pilchuck Glass School, not far from their current home. Their Halloween display has grown steadily during the past 10 years.
“My poor husband,” she said. “Halloween was something he had to get used to.”
Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.
