The Valdosta Daily Times, Ga., At Random column: At Random: JoAnne McGehee

Oct 20, 2008 (The Valdosta Daily Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- DIS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- If Disney's Halloweentown was a real dot on the map, JoAnne McGehee would be its mayor.

It's quite possible no one in South Georgia looks forward to Halloween more than she does, and if it were possible, it would be Halloween in her home all year long.

The South Georgia Medical Center nurse is a Halloween aficionado, dedicated to decorating her house and encouraging others to participate in the fall holiday.

"I love the holiday. There is no gift-giving, no exchanging or waiting in long lines or wondering if something fit," McGehee said. "You just get out and have a good time."

McGehee's house on Sherwood Drive is a constant source of frights and bountiful treats on Oct. 31 of each year.

"As a child growing up in the 1960s, Halloween meant dressing up and trick-or-treating," McGehee said. "You never heard of anybody doing anything bad. It was for fun, and I think that's why I have enjoyed it so much because I have such fond memories."

McGehee switches up her Halloween displays annually. This year's decorations play off the classic films of Bela Lugosi -- complete with a cemetery and plenty of dead bodies.

McGehee said she will be dressed as a gypsy and tell the story of a werewolf.

To build her front yard cemetery, McGehee is borrowing two caskets from a man who, at one time, decorated as extensively as she. One even has a body that will pop out, she said.

McGehee expects to have her front yard completely set up at least a week before the holiday. To make authentic cemetery plots, McGehee plans to get dirt, headstones and a few much-needed caskets.

In addition to her cemetery, McGehee has already set up an eerie grim reaper on her front porch that is remote control activated, a fact that keeps her from handing out candy on the porch because she doesn't want any trips or falls to occur in the event of a hasty exit by a trick-or-treater.

"I try not to get too scary with the kids on the front porch. I've dressed up as Big Bird before," McGehee said.

But one of McGehee's favorite scary characters and her favorite costume, with the exception of this year's gypsy, is the Bride of Frankenstein, she said.

"The girls at work call me a costume shop because I keep all my costumes," McGehee said.

Seeing the smiling faces and cute costumes are a large part of the enjoyment McGehee takes away from the holiday, she said.

While she thoroughly enjoys seeing her diminutive revelers marching their costumed feet up to her front porch, McGehee's celebrations of the holiday extend beyond the exploits of children.

Since Halloween is on a Friday this year, she plans to have a costume party for friends after all the Halloween candy is given out -- or left strewn about in her yard from quick departures.

While McGehee said her husband Billy dresses up and participates out of love, he has given his wife some sage advice about what treats to procure.

"Billy said to get something good because we may end up with a lot of candy," she said.

Neighborhood children begin

questioning McGehee weeks before Halloween about the excitement she has in store for the frightful night.

"I love to be scared. I love a good scary movie. I may be seeing it from one eye, underneath the covers, but I love to have a good time," McGehee said.

McGehee's decorations are not only found outside. The spooky decorations can also be found arranged within.

Inside her home is a tiny village composed of ornate Halloween houses -- a setup that takes McGehee three days to unpack and build. Each year, the town is a little different and the more than 200 people, graves, ghosts, ghouls, churches, diners and houses have their own special place in McGehee's spooky heart.

During a trip to Minnesota with another nurse, McGehee stopped into a collectibles store and spied her first piece, a house called Grimsley Manor.

"When I went into the store, I heard something hollering and screaming, and I found Grimsley. And me being a big Halloween fan, I had to have it," McGehee said.

That was 12 years ago, and to this day, the creaking, witch-shrieking manor resembling the Addams Family home is still her favorite piece.

The collectibles appreciate in value. As some are discontinued by the company, a single piece can cost as much as $800, she said.

As for the human or vaguely or formerly human beings that populate her village, McGehee's favorites are Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein, who stand on their front lawn handing out candy.

"I decorated like this even when I was a kid," McGehee said. "My mother could tell you some stories."

McGehee's love for Halloween sprang from her parents, who each year got in the spirit of the season by taking their children and usually a gaggle of friends to haunted houses in Memphis, Tenn., she said.

The frights and scares from her childhood were never psychologically damaging, she says with a laugh, but where adrenaline rushes and a good time she still enjoys to this day.

"We would get in the back of the truck -- back when you could ride in the back without being in trouble -- and drive out about 15 minutes and then take a winding road to a place called the Jaycee Shack," McGehee said.

Her father knew many of the people that organized the house, but one trip through the building is a particularly strong memory for McGehee.

After letting her dad take her brother and his friend through, her mother and another group went in, leaving McGehee and a friend named Debbie by themselves.

After being told that the house can only hold so many people at one time, a haunted house worker promised to walk through with them, she said.

Unbeknownst to McGehee, her father had already found out that she and Debbie were on their own. As their screams got closer to the end of the tour, her father devised a devious plan. Before exiting the house, he had told the last ghoul, a werewolf, to take special care in giving his daughter an excellent fright.

"My daddy then took his big size 12 foot and put it against the door so we couldn't get out," McGehee said. "Me and Debbie, when we finally fell out on all fours crying, screaming and laughing, my daddy and momma had to give that man money to buy him a new shirt because he had no buttons left."

McGehee and her friend had attacked the werewolf in their excited attempts to exit.

McGehee's has shared her love for getting scared and giving a fright with her own children.

While she does love to head down to Orlando to check out the various Halloween screams available at the theme parks, she feels that the guys and girls at Moody Air Force Base have a particularly good knack for evoking screams at their annual haunted house.

While their children were students at Valdosta High School, McGehee and her husband loaded them and their friends up for an excursion to the haunted house at Moody Air Force Base.

"I've become my mother I guess," McGehee said.

With her father's taste in scare tactics.

The convoy, with McGehee in the lead in her Mustang convertible, arrived with her daughter, Christina, swearing she wasn't scared.

"When she came out, she had literally pushed me through the entire haunted house," McGehee said.

After exiting the house, a participant with a chain saw decided to continue the fun and chased her daughter out into the parking lot, McGehee said.

"She ran to the car, got in and put the windows up with the top still down," McGehee said.

The guy relented, but as the group prepared to pull out of the parking lot, McGehee stopped and told the masked man with the power tool to frighten the car full of teenagers right behind her one more time.

McGehee said he climbed into the back seat and eight teenagers tripped over each other climbing out, her daughter screaming for her mother to make him stop.

"They still like to tell that story," McGehee said.

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