Even though school has just started, I am already thinking about and working on my Halloween Graveyard display. Admittedly, it’s not that great, being dwarfed by the house and trees. It started several years ago when I got the notion to make a corpse bride. I bought a cheap but beautiful wedding gown on E-Bay. It has tremendous detail, being satin with a self-train and having embroidery and pearl accents set it. It appears not to have been machine made and is actually nicer than my own wedding gown was. Sadly (but fine for me), it’s out of style, and someone sold it for $25. I dyed it black 2 times, with plain Rit Dye. It came out a suitably Victorian shade of gray—like a mourning gown. After I put together the corpse bride in my living room, I scared myself a few times when glimpsing the black figure out of the corner of my eye. It was actually scary and creepy. However, in the transition to the wide-open spaces of my front yard, it became clear that this was not enough for a Halloween display. Next I added a few tombstones. I favor the do-it-yourself and make-it-up-as-you-along school of design. I don’t have any helpers willing to do carpentry or major setup, and I can’t do backbreaking over-the-top labor. So I bought a pack of cheap Styrofoam tombstones from the local drug store and embellished them, adding silly names and sayings I found on the Internet, such as “Izzy Dedd.” I don’t really want to scare kids, just amuse them. I also find jack-o-lantern patterns on the Internet and try to model mine on those. (Hint: if you carve too much out of the pumpkin, wild animals view it as having kindly been softened it up for them, and they will eat the face off of it.) The jack-o-lantern is another big element in my Halloween display, and I change it every year. Lately, I have been painting the pumpkin black to create a silhouette effect, a la Martha Stewart. After a few years, my graveyard is looking tired, and I’m less enthralled with it. This year I bought some plastic chain and yard signs I will use to make a fence around the tombstones. The dollar store yielded a couple of pretty good crows. I may add a few gory bones and other touches but will gratefully accept ideas on how to proceed. I have also painted a tray of ping-pong eyeballs but as yet can’t figure out how to stick them into the skulls. In general, I favor a more creepy and symbolic profile than something outright gory and disgusting, though I’m not totally opposed to gory and disgusting. I also like my figures to make literary or films allusions, which are mainly lost on kids, but somehow make me feel justified in spending my time on a rather inane pastime. Not sure on whether to stay with the corpse bride or go with a witch. At least I am not to point of dressing plastic geese in holiday costumes. Maybe a plastic goose with an ax through its skull?