31 Days of Halloween with The Kelly Society Day 6 - Haunted Attraction Shenanigans!

31 Days of Halloween with

The Kelly Society

Day 6

Hello Halloween Enthusiasts,

My name is Tanya and I’m a cashier at Luna Books. Yes, I work for Donna and Roger, and they are great employers. I recently moved up from L.A. and have experienced Knott’s Scary Farm for many years. I’ve also had some funny incidents at the park as a customer, and Donna asked me to share them on this fabulous blog.

Most of my stories are from the 80’s and 90’s, since I am shall we say, “A woman of a certain age.” So, for anyone who remembers the 80’s, Candies was the name of a very popular shoe. Now to be clear, Candies shoes are still around today, but back in the 80’s every teenage girl had a pair.

My sister and I attended Knott's Scary Farm almost every Halloween and enjoyed all the scary rides (scary meaning that costumed characters would pop out inside the dark rides to give us a scream). After we finished the main rides, we jumped inside as many haunted mazes as we could. Each one had a different theme—everything from a clown city where we wore 3D glasses and tried to walk upon multi colored speckled paint that rose and fell, to a horrifying house of wax.

One of these mazes is installed into the Haunted Shack each year. When it is not Halloween time, the Haunted Shack is an attraction that plays with your senses. The floor is slanted, but a broomstick stands straight up on its straw end without holding the handle.

So, here we were going through the Haunted Shack, and I’m wearing my favorite Candies sandals. They were thin flat beige plastic material with a thick black canvas strap just across my toes. I got to the part where the floor was slanted and a ghoul was to my left with a harsh hangman’s noose threatening to cause me harm. My sister got past him in front of me and we were both laughing. I wanted to run past him, so I took off! Because the floor was at an angle, I slid back to the doorway behind me. The ghoul continued his job, snarling and hissing at me to create that fun fear. So, I tried once again to run past him. My plastic shoes slid me back again, and I fell down. By this time, people are waiting outside the door to get in and get their scare on! I’m holding up the line. Also, I couldn’t stop laughing, because I was embarrassed, scared, and amused all at the same time!

My ghoul had no choice but to stop acting. He took me by the arm, gently pulled me up, and marched me to the other side of the small room to the exit door.

“I’m sorry,” I kept saying to him. I wasn’t sure if he could hear me through his thick monster mask covering his entire head, but I kept explaining. “It’s my shoes. I can’t…I’m sorry. My shoes!” It was hard to apologize, because I couldn’t stop laughing. But I know that annoyed ghoul transitioned to full happiness when I got out that door!

In another maze my sister, a friend, and I walked (and sometimes ran) through, until we reached an open area with a trestle above our heads. Falling from this trestle ceiling were grey nets, arms, limbs, and hands that looked as if they’d been cut off from a human body. Feeling cocky, I flicked one of the low hanging hands and chanted, “Look! A hand! A hand!” Then, I glanced up to see an arm and a face attached to the hand. It was a real person laying on top of the trestle framework. “Oh, my God! It’s a real person!” The three of us busted up in laughter the rest of the maze.

We also wore matching short black long sleeved sweatshirt dresses one year to the attraction. We both have dark hair as well, and we were in the women’s bathroom at the sinks. A teenage girl entered the restroom and screamed! My sister and I whirled our heads around in surprise, and then the young girl laughed. She explained that all she saw when she entered was a black figure with dark hair, and she thought my sister was one of the cast members (ghouls hired by Knott’s Scary Farm to scare patrons). We all laughed and went on our way to continue the frights.

At the end of the evening, we stood in the Ghost Town section of the park. In Ghost Town (which is an old western town), benches are placed for people to sit, but some of them have a plaster statue of a saloon girl, or a gunfighter for people to use as a photo opportunity. Well, on Knott’s Scary Farm nights many of those “Statues” are real cast members. People will take a photo with the figure, and then the figure comes to life and shrieks!

We watched a few of these scares and cracked up laughing like it was the first time every time.

This year I’ll be getting my scares from spooky movies, and on zoom. My friends and I will be sitting in costume for our 2020 Halloween party. We shall drink, watch a movie together, and tell some real ghost stories.

Have a delightful Halloween everyone—whatever you do!

Tanya for

The Kelly Society