Halloween Haunt

I've never been the kind of person that enjoys being scared. I don't like watching scary movies, or even going into rooms with the lights off after the sun goes down. I never even dreamed that I would ever enjoy something like Knott's Scary Farm.

But then I met Big Drew.

We were both staff members at Quaker Meadow in 2006, back when I was 18 and he was 17.

We were on staff together again in the summer of 2007, and that fall, he got a job as a monster at Knott's for its seasonal Halloween Haunt, also known as Knott's Scary Farm.

A couple of other staff members were going to Haunt to see Drew, and they invited me to go along, so I did. I was so scared... until I realized that all the monsters are just people like Drew, and it's just fun for them to try to make you jump. That made it a lot less scary, and a lot more fun for me. In fact, I ended up loving it!

In 2008, I couldn't wait to go to Haunt again, and I went with several of the new staff members from that year.

It was a ton of fun! We were able to visit Drew in his maze twice, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures in there.

We made friends with some of the other monsters while we were sitting down for a break. They had fun smashing a penny for us!


The best part for me, though, was watching my friend Beth (the girl with the red hair) getting scared by the monsters. You see, when I get scared, I try not to react, and then the monsters leave me alone. But Beth always screams and runs when a monster scares her, which is exactly the type of reaction they like to get.

Any time they find people who react like Beth, the monsters keep scaring them for as long as possible, chasing them through the rest of the maze or around the streets. They also point out to other monsters ahead of them that this person is coming, so those monsters scare her too! I figured out that if I just stood back a little bit, then all the monsters would scare Beth and leave me alone. It worked beautifully, and I had a ton of fun watching Beth get scared in the process!

Just this past Sunday, I went to Haunt once again. Beth and I had been trying to get a group together to go for the past month, and it finally worked out. I was sooooo excited to go again!! I had no idea I had fallen so in love with being scared!

Drew was promoted to being a "street monster" this year, which means that he gets to wander around the streets of the park rather than being stuck inside one little, hot maze. It also meant that we got to hang out with him more and take pictures with him!

Drew just got married two weeks ago, and his wife was a monster this year as well. She had to quit just before we went, though, so we didn't get to see what she was like as a monster. I was kind of sad about that.

But, it was a very fun night anyway. Once again, Beth attracted all the monsters and I got to just stand back and laugh. We were able to go through all 12 of the mazes, plus ride a few rides, and get home before 1am- which gave me just enough time to get some sleep before taking my rehab final the next morning!