TERRIFYING TRIMMINGS
Porter County brothers capture spirit of the season with home displays
Tom Pruitt’s Liberty Township front yard is littered with bodies and the tombstones of famous celebrities in what he’s dubbed “The Alfred Hitchcock Cemetery 1899.”
A victim awaits the guillotine, and a container under the contraption holds the skulls of past occupants, while a were- wolf lies on its back, face upward, and pinned down with bloody spikes.
A few miles away in Portage, Rich Cu mm ins, Pruitt’ s brother, focuses on a train scene illuminated with orange and purple lights. Granny rocks furiously in a chair on one side, the ticket booth at the “Death Depot” is staffed by a ghoul, and the Devil himself rides the back of the train, which occa- sionally puffs steam.
Pruitt, a computer programmer living at 609 Partridge Path in the Woods of the Winding Creek subdivision, and Cummins, an auto technician who lives at 2691 Teresa St., pitch in to help one another with their decorations, often made from reclaimed wood, like the old pallets that serve as a train platform in Cummins’ front yard.
“I started when I was really young. My mom taught me how to make a dummy and it escalated from there,” said Cummins, 38, adding he learned the hard way that a coffin made of cardboard doesn’t hold up in the rain.
The brothers aren’t alone in their holiday tradition, which both said draws onlookers, the curious, and come Halloween, a number of trick-or-treaters.
Halloween decorations are big business. According to an annual survey released in September by the National Retail Federation, American consumers plan on spending $2.7 bil-
lion on decorations this year.
Overall Halloween spending, including candy, decorations, costumes and greeting cards, is expected to reach $9 billion, the second highest in the survey’s 14-year history. The figure is relatively the same as last year’s previous record of $9.1 billion.
The survey goes on to note that celebrants are planning to spend an average of $86.79, up from last year’s $86.13, with more than 175 million Americans planning to partake in Halloween festivities this year.
In all, 50 percent of the survey’s respondents plan on decorating their house or yard.
It’s unlikely that most of the survey’s respondents go to the extremes that Pruitt and Cummins do. Both get their decorations up by late September or early October, and have them stowed a few days after Halloween.
“I finished a week early this year. I actually turned the lights on Sept. 22. I usually wait until Oct. 1,” said Pruitt, 38, adding the early display still drew onlookers. “They look forward to it. It’s kind of a community service.”
Pruitt had his display up in time for his subdivision’s annual fall festival, and Cummins said two buses from the Bonner Senior Center recently rolled past his home.
Pruitt likes to mix his themes up year to year, while Cummins always sticks with trains, but both said they work on new elements every year and figure out how to expand their creations.
Once Cummins takes his deco- rations down, he’s done for the year. Santa and snowmen don’t take their place.
“I used to but I don’t any more. It’s too cold,” he said.
Pruitt, on the other hand, will stash his Halloween decorations, mow and do other yard work, and gear up for his holiday display, which he lights on Thanksgiving.
“It seems like a tradition because we have a parade of cars that day, so they know,” he said.