When I was in high school in Lynchburg, VA, I worked at the well-known haunted house called Scaremare every year. We don't even celebrate Halloween, but I have some very fond memories from those 4 years (1987-1990)!
With Halloween just passing this year, Scaremare has been on my mind again lately. I've been sharing some of my memories with my children, like when I was spit on in the "Glow-in-the-dark room". We got the bright idea of putting the make up on our faces in addition to our hands, and though it looked really cool, it gave people a perfect target. *sigh* The guy in charge of the room, Karl something, told me later that he almost laughed when the lights came on because I was still glowing! Haha! I felt pretty dumb, but it was funny (later on).
One of the rooms I worked in was the Dining room, where everyone sat, frozen in time. I loved that room. There were even little white mice (pets) running freely all over the table, and they would climb on us while a group was going through, and we couldn't move! There was a couple frozen while dancing while the music played on, and one night, the girl passed out. I never did find out why, but she was okay. What was impressive though was that the guy just held her in position the entire time until the group passed through! No one knew she had fainted! It didn't take long for everyone to get through the room, and I'm sure he knew she'd be okay for a few more seconds.
Other rooms I worked in were:
The Wedding room, where I had the hiccups one night, and Wells Cornelius scared them out of me in between groups. He had little finger puppets that were making me laugh, and he just sprung them out in front of me without warning! It didn't really startle me, but the hiccups went away. :) He was the groom in the room. I was sitting on the bench in the back as a mourner (it was supposed to be scary or something). What's really funny is, once I moved back to Oklahoma and met my husband a few years later, my husband's doctor was Dr. Cornelius, Wells' dad!!! Small world! I haven't seen Wells since though, but I know he's in at least one movie....under a different name. :)
The motorcycle wreck room. I lost my voice in this room, but it was SO worth it! I believe there were only 4 of us in there, maybe 5. As the group began to walk through, I was coming back into consciousness. My character had obviously been in a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend, "Bobby". As I realized what had happened, I looked over at Bobby and started to call for him, which quickly became panicky, then into screaming and sobbing as they covered him with a cloth. Yep, he died (many times, HA!). That was probably some of the best acting I've done, but I think it only lasted a couple of nights since I lost my voice. Fun times!
The Funeral Home room: I got to lay in a coffin and pretend to be dead, then as the group walked past me, I slowly sat up and looked at them. It was awesome!
It seems like I was in the Checkerboard Room one night too, though I don't have any specific memories that stand out from that. It was a really cool room, too. Everything was black and white checkerboard, including the costumes, makeup and hairspray we wore, then we'd stand against the wall to blend in while a strobe light would make it extremely difficult to visually separate the people from the walls. It was pretty spooky going through it, but having worked there, I knew they weren't allowed to touch anyone!
Other memorable rooms/displays that come to mind are the mounted heads as you go up the stairs. My college friend Kerry Malinosky (sp?) was one of them, and I could NOT make her smile! She did great! She told me later that she was biting the insides of her cheeks to keep from laughing. lol A friend of mine from school was in the graveyard. He would jump out of an open grave as people walked by. I'm pretty sure he loved that. :) And the car wreck room, always at the end. It was there every year, and probably still is. It was a very solemn moment, walking around the car with a "dead" person laying through the windshield. :( It always made a huge impression.
The whole idea is to get the person touring the haunted house to thinking about death, then at the end they present a 3-minutes "Do you know where you'll go when you die?" message. I don't think it's the best approach to winning *genuine* converts, but I do think it's a great ministry. Even just for the workers, I met some awesome people there. It was mostly college students, too, so I'm sure they'd have even more memories as many of them were working with people they already knew.
At the end of every night, the workers all met in the make-up room and sang LOUDLY together, the same song every night. I should remember what it was, but I *think* it was "It is well". Awesome song. Dave Adams always did a great job leading that song and heading up Scaremare. His son, Jeremy Adams, was in my class, and though we weren't good friends, I always liked him. He was the class clown and just a really nice guy.
Okay, so my question, the entire reason for posting this is......in the Dining room, the music they played was like oldies swing/big band music. One of the songs has stuck in my brain all these years, but I cannot find it anywhere! The only lyrics I remember is ".....true love, tell me it's true love, so you'll be mine and you won't disappear. Da da da da da da" Something like that. I remember the tune, too, but I can't really write that on a blog. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS SONG IS?! It's been bugging me for years that I can't find it, and I just want to listen to the whole song again! Silly, I know, but it's just part of my fond memories of that scary haunted house in Lynchburg, VA called Scaremare. :)
