Splinter

Summer of 1982 I stumbled across a deal. An old mall was being renovated into a high-class flea market. They were spending big bucks to reopen Lochwood Mall and to make it look modern. I knew one of the organizers and talked him into letting me place a puppet theater in the basement. It was a huge success. Not that we made big bucks, but along with the puppets we used our students as actors on stage for some great entertainment. And my students enjoyed live audiences. The admission was free and the mall promoted our weekend and holiday shows. I made out by attracting more students. Our TV show ******* was in Town East Mall and we filmed some sequences at Lochwood.

Halloween became a thought and I asked the mall for use of additional basement space for a haunt. They said yes. We provided four free passes per vendor in the market and opened Thursday the 14th through Sunday the 31st. We had special shows during the day Saturday and Sunday. As before I wandered into the space and started building in one corner and worked my way around till I ran out of space. Most of the haunt was of plywood, but we had more space than we had money, so sheet rock made a return. Lumber was cheap, but there was an even cheaper grade of 2x4 available and I bought it.

The haunt was not remarkable. It contained several of my standbys, the carpet tubes, crawling maze and several rooms. It would take an average of 15 minutes to get through and we now had as a permanent feature the ability to swing a wall and send you around through most of the haunt as many times as we wanted or as time would allow.

We operated the puppet theater, the haunt and performed additional skits in the open area on a stage between the two. $3 per person and you got your moneys worth. It was easy to spend an hour in the basement, and little of that time standing in line.

The haunt was a technical nightmare. Wires, extension cords and pull cords running everywhere. No one came to inspect and no permits were required. This was the first year where the exit and entrance were one in the same. Not because I wanted it that way, the space had only one-way in and out. The new customer base was rough on the haunt. I had been building one style of haunt, but this year it became obvious that not all customers are alike. It would take an hour or so before opening to repair damage. And during operation I had to shut down once or twice per night to fix something. The worst was the pulling down of extension cords and clamp lights. It seemed that some of the customers only came to destroy.

The stage was set. Halloween night 8pm another little girl being carried by another dad got a big splinter in her hand. And another emergency room bill this one $129. It was one of those bargain 2x4s. I figured out latter that had I bought the better grade of lumber I would have had money left over from the $129 I spent. Hindsight is always 20/20. At the end, I also discovered that I could have almost paid for plywood instead of sheet rock, I was replacing it on a regular basis. Well, not actually replacing, more like nailing another sheet of ½ inch over a damaged one. It took hours to clean up the sheet rock mess and haul it off. And I trashed the crummy 2x4s as well; they were doing a wiggle and enough nails in them for a nice sized anchor. The sheet rock maze had many lessons.

But on the brighter side the event was a tremendous success. The students and their parents had a blast. Our audience was entertained and we had money to play with. Our costumed characters roamed the mall during market hours. The merchants were pleased and so was the mall management. After all, the entertainment was free and effective. Merchants recalled this season as being the best yet for a new flea market.

We continued right through the holidays, converting the haunt into Santa's Workshop and presenting holiday shows. We made a killing selling photos with Santa.

I was learning the value of entertainment. We entertained and the crowd loved it. Next year I would learn another lesson, crowd mentality. But for now it was clear that superior building materials had to be used and that all raw lumber should be painted. This would add considerable cost to the final event, but then it would be worth it. We now had a nice collection of props, set pieces and building materials.

Next Week, 1983

Mad Hatter

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