DAVID BATES, 258 pettaconsett Ave., Warwick
ALLOWEEN WILL NEVER BE CANCELED FOR DAVID
Bates. Every year, he spends countless hours building and
creating a scene on his front lawn, which, in the past,
included a walk-through maze in a creepy barnyard he built
himself. For the last several years, the theme has been a
haunted farm with an illuminated barn, windmill, a wagon,
water tower and more, plus haystacks, hay bales, scarecrows and cornstalks.
“I have a little country in me,” Bates says. “I love the whole farm thing —
pumpkins, scarecrows, cornstalks — it just screams Halloween.”
But this year, with COVID-19 changing up plans, he decided not to offer the
walk-through section in his yard. “People have gotten to know us by the walkthrough,
so I know it’s going to be disappointing, but we wanted to come up
with something that would make up for it, and would be just as good set up as
a drive-by display.”
He got to work way back in March during quarantine, creating a scene he
hasn’t seen in anyone’s yard. He kept the idea under wraps until he began setup
in September, and he recently sold off the farm scene to a New York Stater who
builds a massive Halloween attraction at his home. | | CONTINUED ON PAGE 118