I am back from the hospital. More or less. My left arm is in a sling tied tight to my body. I am told to do nothing for two weeks. Oh well, I do take Saturday off. I putter around and work on my to do list. Sunday I pick up steam and Monday I am rockin'. I complete the perimeter and begin to extend the central corridor. Tuesday a freak storm takes down the perimeter I have put up. I get half of it back up and leave the rest. The castle is not ready to open. I work at a break neck pace and open Saturday, three hours after the park opens. The NERO volunteers arrive Sunday and the castle perimeter is in place to stay.
It is here that I create my persona as The Mad Hatter. I trade one of my books for my large red and white polka doted hat and become the character I am destined to be (or already am). The hat, a pair of wrap pants and my dragon shirt makes me difficult to miss. I bark at the entrance to my castle, enticing patrons to challenge the labyrinth. Each week I change the degree of difficulty, create new panels and unique ways for them to move. I provide a clue to those willing to listen. And as it turns out, the clue points the way out. Some customers, in their desperation to escape, scale the walls. Others give up and exit the way they entered. The labyrinth confounds over half of the customers. Those that do not give up ask for more clues and some are able to crawl into my mind (scary thought) and solve the mystery. My customers love the Labyrinth and I think that I am really on to something. I make enough money to cover expenses, pay rent and purchase materials to complete the castle in time to be opened for Halloween the last two weeks of October. The first task was to complete the roof. This done the castle interior was completed. Speakers, effects, lighting and props had to be installed before opening. Another deadline I missed. The castle was not ready opening weekend, but it did open. Arriving customers saw fog oozing out of the cracks in the walls of the castle, after purchasing tickets they entered the grounds and walked three hundred feet through an eerily illuminated forest to the Grand Entry of Castle Dragon. The first week I had a small cast of actors. We kept the customers guessing with quick changes. The second week the cast increased, business picked up and Halloween night the line was four hundred feet long. Castle Dragon was missing Skull Cavern (a mini version was installed) and the Lava Pit (floor panels illuminated from below). New elements were added, but they were weak in presentation due to lack of time, help and money. The hall of knives was to be a blacklight scene. Customers walked down a 16' hallway with various sharp objects on the wall illuminated with blacklight. An actor (in a black set of clothes with hood) on each side would hold one or two knives against the wall. As the customers moved through the scene the knives would seem to float towards the customers. Sounds great, no money for the blacklight tubes. The storeroom was a series of crates the customers had to walk through. Air rams would rattle, move or pop the crates tops. Not enough time to install the air rams. The scenes were modified in unique ways. The hall of knives became the suddenly appear scene. The actor in black would turn around holding a glow in the dark head. The crates grew legs and walked at the customers. This got laughs and caused some major scares. My ad budget for 1997 was $41. The good news is that I paid all my bills, made money and had a good time. I was back in the Halloween Spirit of Scare again. The castle had its good nights and its bad nights (not many of those). Halloween night was my money night. Till then I was not seeing black. The bottom line was that I no longer had to worry about where the castle was going to be or spend money on erecting it each year.Mad Hatter
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