Don't Go There After Dark

It seems to me that every kid has a house close to theirs that's somewhat scary. It could be a neighboring house that's been vacant as far back as they can remember, and no one knows why it can't get sold. Maybe older kids tell stories about something that happened in a house nearby. Maybe a crotchety old widower yells at anyone who steps on his lawn, and he doesn't even mow it so it's all overgrown and home to mangy, stray animals. When I was a kid, the scariest house that I could think of was over by the public library. It looked like The Munsters house (I think the iron gate seen on the side of the house below used to wrap all the way around the front), the wind always seemed to be shaking the trees, the windows were barred, it was ghetto, and it still is. When I went back to the town where I grew up for my baby brother's wedding, I made a point to drive by this house and take the pictures shown below. The biggest difference between my "haunted house" and those of other kids' though, is that I wanted to live in mine. I wanted to buy it, put gargoyles on the gate, park a hearse in the driveway, and become the scary old guy that the neighbor kids called "the lizard man." My haunted house would be the best in town on Halloween and teenage punks would dare each other to trick or treat at my door.