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Community Corner

Caruanas Finish 15 Years of Haunted Houses

Dudley Avenue Halloween tradition ends.

A long time Westfield tradition will come to an end this Halloween, as the Haunted House on Dudley Avenue spooks its last guests.

The homeowner, Town Councilman Sal Caruana, said “the time is right to call it a day.”

Thousands of people come from near and far to see the spooky spectacle that started more than a decade ago. One  year alone, Caruana and his wife Darleen gave out 3000 pieces of candy. “When you consider that’s just kids, there’s no way to tell how many kids plus adults there are.”

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There weren’t always thousands of trick-or-treaters on Dudley Avenue. The Halloween scene was a different story over a decade ago when the Caruana’s moved in.  

“The first Halloween we spent on Dudley Avenue, we had five trick-or-treaters,” said Caruana. “I’m sure Halloween was big, but it wasn’t big on our block.”

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With daughters then ages 4 and 2, he thought “if we could put a couple of decorations out, maybe that would bring some Halloween spirit to the block.”  

“Some” turned out to be an understatement.

The tradition started with a 10-foot plywood skull given to them by a friend. “We mounted it on our roof and that was the beginning.”

What started with just a few friends and their kids being invited into the Caruana home to enjoy some decorations has evolved into thousands of visitors waiting in line for hours on Halloween to walk through an elaborate Haunted House.

The decoration collection “has grown and grown” over the years, said Caruana. The family begins decorating October 1 and spends eight hours a day for three weeks perfecting their haunted house.

They are constantly updating their decorations to stay current.

“Now there’s stuff that’s computerized or motorized,” said Caruana, adding they didn’t have those decorations ten years ago. There’s also digital technology. “It’s not unlike people who have other kinds of collections. Halloween stuff you can find all over the place all year long.”

“If you follow the trend locally and nationally, it seems like it’s just getting bigger and bigger,” he said, referring to the Halloween superstores popping up on Route 22.  

Caruana said his girls, now 19 and 21, always enjoyed turning their home into a Haunted haven. “My kids were big participants…they were torn on Halloween between going out and trick-or-treating and staying hom and having all the fun come to them.” He said. “They’d finish their trick-or-treating by coming back to our house with their friends and really enjoying it themselves.”

And while Caruana and his family are deep in the Halloween spirit, he said his wife gets all the decorating credit. “She does it all herself. I am an insignificant player in this game.”

And this “game” is certainly nothing the family takes lightly.

Ever since his home was featured on the John Walsh show on NBC in 1997, and in The Star Ledger a couple of years later, the tradition grew bigger than expected.

“We’ve had people here from all over the place. The furthest we’ve had anyone drive to see our home was from Virginia,” said Caruana. “It’s quite flattering.”

The family has received thank you letters from around the state. “We were really touched to find out how many people are affected emotionally by seeing a house decorated for the holidays consistently.”

So why put an end to a good thing?  

“It’s really grown into something almost bigger than we can handle, in terms of the number of people,” said Caruana. “We’re also sensitive that it’s been a lot for our neighbors to put up with.”

Neighbors contend not only the crowds, but the vast number of trick-or-treaters who knock on their doors after the Haunted House.

For the last few years, Caruana has privately hired a town police officer for crowd control. “There really is not one bad experience that stands out. We do get people who are very irate when we close the doors.” He added, “some people will continue to ring the bell all night.”

Caruana said they’ve been fortunate, all these years, to have no vandalism. “I don’t want to jinx it,” he said, adding it’s very positive. “That sends a special message to us really.”

He said close friends and family always get a sneak preview the day or two before Halloween to avoid the rush. And about 15 friends help out with the Haunted House every year by dressing up and greeting guests. They’re “almost like actors in a show.”

And when the Haunted House tours wrap up on Halloween, the party just begins at the Caruana house.  The councilman and his wife throw a big dinner in the “haunted” dining room as a “thank you” to the “actors.” ‘It’s been tremendous fun for us,” he said.

So what will become of the thousands of decorations now that the Haunted House is no longer?

“We’re still going to decorate our house,” he said. “We’re hoping that our kids will pick the tradition up somewhere along the line.”

The theme for the final Caruana Haunted House was vampire wedding. The mannequins and the “actors” will all don wedding attire. “It’s everything you would find at a wedding with a vampire twist.” Caruana said the theme was fitting with shows like True Blood and Twilight being so popular.

Past themes have included other takes on weddings, witchcraft and the Addams family which is “kind of nice given our proximity to the Addams Family house,” he said referring to the Victorian home on Elm Street that inspired cartoonist/writer Charles Adams to create The Addams Family.

The house takes about three minutes to tour, and Caruana said young children are usually greeted by “actors” outside to sense their reaction before entering the Haunted House. “Some of them are frightened by things that would surprise you,” he said. “We’re sensitive to that and try to work with the parents who come.”

“Most of all I’m hoping that somebody else picks this tradition up and can appreciate what it means to little kids, to the young and old,” he said, adding he’s thrilled about the Haunted House re-opening by the Optimist Club at Memorial Pool. “That was a tradition that was around for a long time …it’s a fabulous, fabulous thing.”

“One of the fellows said ‘we’re picking up where you left off.’”

Caruana, who plans to dress as Count Dracula as he has for the last 14 years, said he couldn’t be happier about his home’s legacy. “It’s been a joy for us.”

 

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