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Lifelong Sylvania resident Dave Spiess is known as an upstanding community leader; elected member of the school board for 16 years (and president for three), former chair of SAJRD, trustee of the Sylvania Recreation District, and respected health insurance consultant.
But once a year Dave goes undercover and emerges on Halloween night as … Count Dracula or some other ghoulish character. No matter what the weather, he spends all evening in his elaborately decorated front yard surrounded by eerie lights, spooky action figures, a 12-foot skeleton and scary sound effects.
Spiess has become famous for positioning himself motionless in a casket for hours with a bowl of trick or treat candy just in front of him. As they slowly approach, costumed kids (and some parents) speculate if the occupant is fake or real. Just as they reach for the sweets “Dracula” comes to life with a frightening “boo” that always produces the desired level of shrieks. Other times, he will stand to the side, observe the trick or treaters, and sneak up to startle them. He admits that, “The ultimate for me is when I frighten an adult.”
Dave has maintained his tradition for more than 30 years, making him one of the first of a growing number of local homeowners who are installing extravagant displays for Halloween. It’s a trend that’s become part of one of America’s most popular holidays.
He told me that the obsession started “very innocently” after his family first moved into the Lincoln Woods neighborhood. “I put on a pair of fishing waders, a sweatshirt and mask—kind of a Freddy Kreuger look—and my son and I stood on the front porch giving out candy. It just kind of evolved.”
Now, Dave has an off-site storage shed dedicated to the Halloween decorations, makes 2-3 trips hauling the stuff to his yard, and spends some 25 hours setting it all up. “For me it’s a bit of therapy, but I do have a reputation, too. There’s an expectation in the neighborhood … and I never want to disappoint them.” Dave admits that while wife Sue tolerates the activities, it’s really his thing.
Meanwhile, Halloween is definitely a family affair for Annette Decker, who started her “Brookhill Boneyard” four years ago in her yard across from Ravine Cemetery on Brookhill Court. She gets help from son Kaden, a UT student; mom Rhonda Kalina, who makes costumes for the skeletons; son Bryson and two friends, Skot and Kaylynn.
What makes the Decker display unique is that they will roll out a new and different scene every day in October. “As soon as it turns dark, we re-position the skeletons,” Kaden says. “We wanted to go very big this year, so we started planning in July and began the costumes a month ago.” The Deckers also post photos and a commentary by Kaden every night on Instagram at brookhillboneyard.
Halloween now ranks as the third most popular holiday in America, just behind Christmas and Thanksgiving, according to Dr. Matthew Donahue, professor in the Department of Popular Culture at Bowling Green State University. More than 75 percent of adults do something to celebrate Halloween.
“Today, you can’t deny there is a commercialization aspect to it…stores offering more and bigger decorations. But if people weren’t interested in these big Halloween displays, the stores wouldn’t stock them. It speaks to America’s embrace of a holiday where kids love going to a house with the most over-the-top decorations,” Dr. Donahue says.
A bittersweet footnote to this tradition, locally, is the loss of one of Sylvania’s most popular Halloween displays in front Keoni and Lynn Gibson’s home on Woodland Lane. Soon, they will be relocating to Texas after the recent passing of her mother and the pursuit of a new job opportunity for him.
The couple started about 20 years ago after taking their six-year-old son, who has epilepsy, trick or treating in the neighborhood. “We encountered a house with strobe lights and he had a seizure,” Lynn explains. “After that, we felt we needed to do something at Halloween that was more conducive to all children and started decorating the yard so he could enjoy the holiday at home.”
Since then, the Gibson yard has featured boney fishermen in a rowboat (which later became a pirate ship) and an outhouse with a door that flew open to reveal a newspaper-reading skeleton on the commode, to name a few. “In the beginning we had just three or four trick or treaters but in recent years we have seen more than 400,” Keoni added.
Fortunately, this transition has a happy ending. The Sylvania Recreation District has taken ownership of the entire Gibson collection—after discussions that began last year, fittingly initiated by Dave Spiess. The rec district will continue to make “The Woodland Lane Cemetery at Centennial Terrace” available to the public starting soon, as detailed elsewhere in this week’s Advantage. District operations manager Mike McMahon makes it clear that, “Sylvania Recreation is grateful that the Gibson family has trusted us with the tradition that they have built over the past 15 years.”
Meanwhile, Spiess is preparing himself again to step into the coffin as a ghoul. His reason summarizes the rationale for many dedicated decorators. “What’s so great about it is I can step out of my business role once a year and assume a totally different identity. That … is just a lot of fun!”