Hidden Villa Haunted Trail
Before the Halloween memories fade entirely, I want to post about the Haunted Trail we visited. I'm of two minds about this event. On the one hand, really imaginative, gentle characters giving treats is a nice antidote to the blood-and-guts horrorshow that so many people seem to enjoy at Halloween. As the guide stressed repeatedly, "Is anyone going to jump out at you? Is there going to be anything really scary? NO!" On the other hand, kind of lame.
We saw the mad scientist in the barn, the accordion-playing troll under the bridge, the witch in the haunted house, the long stretch of trail festooned with spiderwebs, Queen Nefertiti who asked us a riddle, a ghost picnic, the pirate stranded by the creek, the elf in the tree, the oversized chick.
We had hot cider and homemade treats, then listened to a spooky story nicely told by a woman in a witch costume. We were cold, so had to miss the do-it-yourself opera that was being staged next.
It was a beautiful night. The moon was full, and the clouds in the sky were glowing in a suitably eerie way. Hidden Villa is beautiful at night. The entry is a large meadow framed by steep wooded hills that make a wonderful silhouette in the night sky. It's very dark, and the hills seem to shut out all the glow from the valley. Walking into the woods was nice, too.
We were in a small group, with a young volunteer as a guide, and I want to close by asking if I'm the only one who finds her costume borderline inappropriate. She was a brick house. The costume itself consisted of a tunic with a brick pattern, ending just below the hips with a small ruffle. The cloth was patterned with bricks, naturally. She had two windows, with open shutters and paned glass, one over each breast, and there was a little doorway situated over her crotch. Of course one little girl wanted to know what was behind the door, but the guide was somewhat coy about this and told her to wait till the end of the walk. It turned out there was a cat behind the door. Perhaps I've spent too much time watching British comedy with an excessive number of bad jokes turning on the cat/pussy double entendre; of course no eight year old or even ten year old is going to pick up on this, especially since using pussy for cat is becoming an outdated usage. Still I felt it struck a discordant note for a children's event. So what do you think?
We saw the mad scientist in the barn, the accordion-playing troll under the bridge, the witch in the haunted house, the long stretch of trail festooned with spiderwebs, Queen Nefertiti who asked us a riddle, a ghost picnic, the pirate stranded by the creek, the elf in the tree, the oversized chick.
We had hot cider and homemade treats, then listened to a spooky story nicely told by a woman in a witch costume. We were cold, so had to miss the do-it-yourself opera that was being staged next.
It was a beautiful night. The moon was full, and the clouds in the sky were glowing in a suitably eerie way. Hidden Villa is beautiful at night. The entry is a large meadow framed by steep wooded hills that make a wonderful silhouette in the night sky. It's very dark, and the hills seem to shut out all the glow from the valley. Walking into the woods was nice, too.
We were in a small group, with a young volunteer as a guide, and I want to close by asking if I'm the only one who finds her costume borderline inappropriate. She was a brick house. The costume itself consisted of a tunic with a brick pattern, ending just below the hips with a small ruffle. The cloth was patterned with bricks, naturally. She had two windows, with open shutters and paned glass, one over each breast, and there was a little doorway situated over her crotch. Of course one little girl wanted to know what was behind the door, but the guide was somewhat coy about this and told her to wait till the end of the walk. It turned out there was a cat behind the door. Perhaps I've spent too much time watching British comedy with an excessive number of bad jokes turning on the cat/pussy double entendre; of course no eight year old or even ten year old is going to pick up on this, especially since using pussy for cat is becoming an outdated usage. Still I felt it struck a discordant note for a children's event. So what do you think?
posted by Sarah at 10:21 AM
4 Comments:
I thought a brick house costume was funny, initially. The windows and doors killed it for me. The cat behind the door...really inappropriate for a children's event.
Sounds like fun. Not that my nervous Nellies would ever do that.
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At school, there was the annual Halloween kids parade (which consists of students walking around in circles in their costumes..) Anyway... there were several parents who came in costume too. One lady had this huge, over sized & stuffed pink polka-dot dress on, holding up a sign that read, "Lost Dog" (with photo, reward, details etc...)And when she turned around, you could see the dog (a small stuffed animal) jammed between her enormous, fake butt cheeks.
I thought it was pretty darn clever, and I can't help thinking it's from a story. Does that sound familiar???
Oh.. and the cat/pussy thing was totally inappropriate for a kids event.
I've seen that "lost dog" costume, in fact, almost bought it. It's all over eBay and Halloween stores.
I'd love to have the brick house costume, and wear it to an appropriate place. Certainly not a kids event. What was she thinking?
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