HOW DID KINGSBURY CEMETERY GET STARTED?? I don't know really, maybe too many episodes of Scooby Doo when I was a kid? I've always loved Halloween since I was in grade school. The Halloween parties, trick-or-treating, and the costumes, most all of them handmade for my sister and myself by my talented Mother. (My mother is an excellent seamstress and I must give her credit for creating in 2006 my most recent costume, a very authentic late Victorian style tailcoat and vest.) Though I loved Halloween and did have a fascination with all things spooky, I was really a big chicken when I came to anything I thought was really scary, and that included haunted houses! (Go Figure!) I can still remember going to my first "real" haunted house, put on by a Youth Group at the neighborhood Methodist Church. I can't remember how old I was, probably 5th or 6th grade, but I do remember my sister (who was three years younger) being a lot braver than myself. I also remember though making numerous home haunted houses with neighborhood pals, my sister and cousins when we were kids. (And there was the time we got in big trouble for bringing a whole bunch of fresh garlic in from the garden to the basement of my Grandmothers house. We thought it would ward off Vampires. But that's another story.) I have vivid memories of a house down our street where a Medical Doctor lived. (Dont remember his name) He had his office and practice attached to his home. For several years in a row I remember him putting a red light bulb on the porch and having a real medical school skeleton sitting in a chair in the entryway to the house. As a teenager I worked on a couple of Haunted Houses with my church youth group . Those I liked a lot, probably because I was the one in charge of doing the scaring, instead of being the victim. (Guess that still holds true today:) I guess also that deep down I've always really loved entertaining people. I played the Cello from 4th grade to 12th grade in school. (I gave up cello upon graduation from High School, but I recently purchased a new cello and have begun re-learning to play after a 20 year hiatus.) Just before the end of High School I began learning to play the Highland Bagpipes. I have played the pipes ever since. In addition I recently purchased an electric bass (something I've always wanted to play) and have begun learning to play that. So I've had plenty of time with all my different instruments performing in fornt of people. |
I think that I've pretty well mastered my fear of performing in front of an audience.
In addition to my love of music I love live theater, opera and movies. I
also have a keen interest in model making and all kinds of special effects. I spent
ten years as a part-time professional Pyrotechnician with Young Explosives
Corporation, entertaining people with fireworks displays all over upstate NY and
Pennsylvania. I often think I think that I should have gotten a job in movie
or theater special effects or stage design and management. A bit late for a career
change though now. I was lucky enough to get a good college education and
a job that allows me to support my eclectic bunch of hobbies including Kingsbury
Cemetery.So that is some background……. Back to the original question. How did
Kingsbury Cemetery get started?? One day surfing the net sometime in August 2000,
I came across Doug Fergusons, Phantasmechanics website and instructions for
his now famous Flying Crank Ghost (FCG). I like to tinker with mechanics and electronics,
so it looked like an interesting project. That year the Flying Crank
Ghost mesmerized trick-or-treaters and adults alike, flying in the dark garage,
illuminated only by a black light. Accompanying the FCG was an assortment of
tombstones and a cemetery fence with the cemetery name, taken from the street
name, Kingsbury Avenue. On top of this I decided to dress up to hand out candy
and had a fog machine and spooky sound effects in the front entryway of the house. There were a lot of positive comments generated that first year in 2000 from people who viewed the display and there were several trick-or-treaters who were ready to come on in through my house, thinking that I was offering a haunted house tour! This inspired my first attempt at a walk through haunt the next year in 2001. Lots of work, web surfing, and prop building later, along with the important help of a volunteer crew of about 20 friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and church members, the first incarnation Kingsbury Cemetery Haunted House came to life. The cemetery, which in 2000 had only 6 lonely tombstones, expanded to take up most of the front yard with fifteen tombstones. We now have four to six fog machines running now, often filling the whole neighborhood with fog on a still night. On the off season Halloween props fill up my attic, garage, shed basement and many other nooks and crannies throughout the house. From the start I wanted to do something positive for the community with the Haunted House, and didn't want to look like I was doing it to turn in a profit, so we collected cans of food as admission and donated the food to the Corning Community Food Pantry. The idea worked well, and ever since the Food Pantry has been our beneficiary. We've collected thousands of cans of food over the years and this number keeps on growing. Most years we are able to fill the back of a pick up truck with food and drop it off to the pantry. Over the years I've continued to add new props both purchased and home built. The complexity, technology and cost of some the fancier special effects has really taken a leap forward. I hope we've continually raised the bar on the quality of the show each year. On top of all that I get a big smile when its the middle of the summer, I'm doing yard work out in front of my house and I see neighborhood kids walk by pointing and whispering to their friends "that's the Haunted house!" Just like that doctor im ny own neighborhood when I was a kid, I've made some indellible childhood memories of Halloween for the Kids here in Corning NY. |
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