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How "Embellished" is your Haunt?

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  • How "Embellished" is your Haunt?

    How far do any actual "Truths" become stretched? Distorted?
    How many sq. Feet? How long to go through? How succesfull? How to measure "success"?
    I put on a highly narrated show/experience here. I have always believed the old saying--"Nobody has a good enough memory to be a totally successful LiAR!".. they sort of scoop up , weigh" the lies eventually.
    I talk about the actual history of this house. "History" as mostly defined by actual human experiences here. How do I find out about such things? I listen to what people tell me, then decide how truthfull they seemed to me. I do discount some of the extreme "Holly Wood Movie stories" Some will be telling....
    A huge number of people have stories concernig this house from they themselves living in these 3, later 5 apartments or stories told to them via their relatives who once lived here.
    Another large block of stories also come from past patrons of my house and former employees ( a few of which went running from here , some never to return), my Ex-wife, my Wife, and of course my own personal events while on this property.
    Old courthouse records , going on-line serching old newspaper accounts have shed some new light on the past owners and their families, information open to several interputations.This house has been a Haunted House long before I was born, and that is a long, long time ago!
    The tally of the hours I could speak concerning such things is more than I could ever accomplish for any one tour of the house.
    My "Embellishments" only happen as to my choices as to the style of the storytelling as far as going for their entertainment from the storytelling style, word choices, and the end result I think they wish to have from it. But the facts are "Facts". No embellishing.
    Not a common thing, but sometimes re-telling these stories I actually do become emotionally involved and even overcome on rare times by these events but then early death, prematurely leaving this life at the hand and whim of a close relative .....well, there just could never be anything worse, but such a thing is within the History here.
    The victim's grave markers are on the next hill in the city cemetary, some of "them" might still be ... here...
    hauntedravensgrin.com

  • #2
    I costs a lot of money to buy those sort of facts... damnit!
    How can a man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers and the temple of his gods.

    What you put into your mind- you put into your life.


    www.zombietoxin.com

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    • #3
      I underplay it

      Just doesn't seem right to broadcast the fact that one of the family members of previous farm owners shot himself in the swamp a few hundred feet from my haunt. And then the family found him after the buzzards were circling. Yes what a HELL OF A BACKGROUND STORY!!!! But NO I AM NOT using that to sell more tickets. I am Wicked Farmer.....not asshole.

      Wicked Farmer

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      • #4
        I was at "Kinkos"

        ,, and the man using a copying machine next to me had blue prints of a Barn he was copying. He had a Go-cart track and was looking for an October venue to add income to his operation. He had bought this small barn for $15.00, was moving it to his place, it was going to be a "Haunted Barn".
        Then he asked me where he could buy the "hanging man"effect with the swinging/kicking hooded ,hung man?
        He decided this would be a good choice for this small barn because the Farmer that had sold it to him really wanted to get it removed from his place because his 16 yr. old Nephew had...hung Himself in that little barn......
        Last edited by Jim Warfield; 02-05-2014, 05:55 PM.
        hauntedravensgrin.com

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        • #5
          "shot himself in the swamp!"

          This tells me the unfortumate suicide must have used a handgun, since a rifle would been too long for him to get the end of the barrel pointed at his own "Swamp'. ( A VERY painfull place to take a bullet! Butt then all body places are)
          So, Wicked Farmer, by you saying that you are NOT an "azzwhole".... does this indirectly take on the meaning that then I must them be one?
          If this is the case,(if prescribed by you?) would this be because you assume I am advertising and promoting my business by telling stories about former unlucky inhabitants of my property?
          That wouldn't begin to ever work, nobody would care about such things,and would eat-up way too many column inches and ink as paid ads anywhere..
          I often speak of "people" who once lived here but I use no names unless the one's I'm mentioning have been dead, gone, moved away 150 years ago, left no relatives behind..mostly the way it is.
          I didn't tell any odd stories from the history of this house until people coming through this house began seeing the same ghost that many old people in town told me about before I bought this house. By telling of such events a percentage will assume you are full of B.S. or just a liar.
          I imagined that without my telling some certain people about the resident ghost that my not warning anyone could lead to problems for some highly nervous types , thinking the ghost was somehow threatening or aggresive toward them, or maybe put the infamous azzwhole curse upon them, thereby ruining their very existence!
          hauntedravensgrin.com

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          • #6
            No

            I would be; if i did. Admit I skimmed your history , did not look for your imbellishments. If there is family around of those who were your places unfortunate history...it walks the line of being improper. A thing about farmers; we do not refer to a farm by the current owners. The farms I own are still refered to as The Anderson Farm, The Dietz Farm though the farmer was planted 6 foot deep years ago. My haunt is on the Rabidou Farm. The community is a very close knit community. Society would eat up "Old man Rabidou was torn apart by vultrures in the swamp, a poor unfortunate soul tormented by his demons. His old delipadated barn was torn down where you now park your cars in the parking lot. His cache of old whiskey bottles was found stashed inside one of the walls of the old sheep barn that he kept hidden from his wife." But like I said...I'm Wicked Farmer. I don't need to rub salt in wounds of the community just for a story line. A few generations down the line it might be "enough time has passed" and be OK.

            Wicked Farmer

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            • #7
              Exactly The Same Thing Here.

              Mount Carroll, Illinois Pop. 1,700 a fairly stagnent population ,My Family has been here since maybe the 1830's.
              I have So many relatives buried up on the "Hill" across from my house from both sides of my Family.
              My own Greatgrandfather once worked right here in this house as a part-time Bartender 120 years ago. Life was not easy back then, much grief and hardships.
              The true story I sometimes tell that is a family tragedy of murderous proportions is not something I will ever tell with children listening and I will ask adults if they have to hear it and I also get upset telling it often times.
              There are lessons we all should be learning from "History", but names attached to the players really aren't needed to make the lessons more effective.
              The common answer as to "Why" a place has supernatural activity elludes us still and of course a history of past events seems to sometimes hold answers.
              Some things that have happened here are also highly coincidental to the degree of defying mere coinidence mathematics.
              Just trying to possible figure some things out, if possible?
              I also give a tour of me just being funny and we also modify a tour for children yet maintaining parts of it to entertain the adults too.My Wife, Jessica gets 99% of the credit for our very successful child tours , since craggy "Old Man Jim" is pretty scary looking to quite a few small children. We take time and care with every person who has decided to support us.
              hauntedravensgrin.com

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              • #8
                But did I mention...

                ... we are 871,000+ square feet? That is 20 acres. I do use the 20 acres and 3 miles of maze paths (not haunted) and 1/3 mile haunted trail. Now that 20 acres is the part of the 40 acre field that we actually use. I do not count the whole field.

                Wicked farmer

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                • #9
                  what acrerage?

                  Would a mere 125 feet by 75 feet happen to be?
                  That is my lot size. During the Summer vines almost cover the entire West and much of the South sides of the house , allowing only Peeks through it's foilage.
                  "$15.00 to go through this little house!?"
                  90 minutes later they may be walking from the Exit and they can't believe how 90 minutes seemed to pass so quickly.
                  The really odd thing is , I sometimes can't believe it either! But the watch doesn't lie, and sometimes my Wife becomes upset because the tour took even lomger than 90 minutes.
                  As a teenager I learned sometimes people lie with out saying a word. They can also be thought to be lying by telling the truth, especially if that truth seems very odd or unusual, going against the common thinking or the usual experiences.
                  The whole "Embellish" term/word/idea as applied to Haunting actually came here from Larry's using "Embellish" to say he thinks too many haunters embellish their stats to sell it to the customer who may be ignorantly guaging the quality of their Haunt experience by mere physical attributes which may actually mean next to nothing as far as the real value found there.
                  Sometimes we see a person or couple who Really needs to take the tour here but can't invest the full amount of time and want a shorter, quicker showing of the house. When I try to do this I am investing much more purely physical effort than I would normaly need to provide.
                  The real Butt-kicker" about such a situation is that many times once we are moving through it, they begin asking all kinds of questions and they expect answers and this all requires more time to pass... an hour later, they are still slowly moving along, asking questions, gauking .
                  Sometimes I just can't "Win."
                  hauntedravensgrin.com

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                  • #10
                    .215 acres

                    A plot that size is hard for me to turn my tractor and soil finisher around in. And too small to turn my sprayer around on. People spend typically 45 minutes - 1 1/2 hours in our non-haunted maze depending on how serious they are or just out for a stroll. Groups of college students or school kids typically 45 minutes to an hour. Couples on a date hour to hour and a half. Directionally challenged people....two hours. But we have 4 security towers overlooking them at all times and signed OPTIONAL exits roughly every 15 minutes after completing the first half hour of the maze. The haunted trail adds another 1/3 mile of a one way twisting path of 20 actors, vortex tunnel, and lots of eye candy by Poison, Scarefactory, Ghost Bust, and Distortions. $20 gets you the maze and haunted trail combo.

                    Wicked Farmer
                    Last edited by wickedfarmer; 02-05-2014, 07:16 PM.

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                    • #11
                      Crazy Acres

                      Was the name of a place 18 miles from me, go-carts, batting machines, miniture golf and a maze built on a concrete floor outdoors , plywood sheets . they made a game out of it by having a timed search for a couple of little numbered signs(or something?) then you had to find your way back to the time clock to punch it and prizes were given.
                      My Great Uncle owned it once but the Night Club he owned just up the road is where he got rich, and he built the whole place himself, I guess that he was very talented , I never met him.
                      hauntedravensgrin.com

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                      • #12
                        You know, the weird part for me is that the actual history of our place, with Murders, suicides, Bonnie and Clyde, rich oil barons and such, the embellished, fabricated parts of the stories seem to carry the most weight. It's odd, the true stuff is so much more awesome but people really buy into the fake parts we made up.
                        Alex Lohmann

                        Owner/Operator 13th Street Morgue Haunted House www.13thstreetmorgue.com
                        Owner/Operator Dungeon of Doom Haunted House www.dungeonofdoomtexas.com
                        Owner/Operator When Hinges Creak LLC. www.whenhingescreak.com
                        PR Director for Reindeer Manor Haunted Abusement Park www.rmabusementpark.com
                        Founder of Dallas Trocars Hearse Club www.dallastrocars.com
                        Rev Yum Yum

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                        • #13
                          Here I tell it in various styles

                          Seriously can make some too scared, so I usually interject some attempted humor to thereby provide them with a choice , to go with the funny parts or to believe the truth of what I am saying.
                          You seriously take the time to tell some people a true, scary story, right in the old house that the event(s) actually happened in, some people wil not be "Happy" with the experience.
                          I do often ask them what they prefer and go with it. Sometimes I just try some of each and try to judge what they seemed to like between the two.
                          I introduce them to the house by telling them this is not like a Hollywood horror movie, no extreme things happen or have happened here .
                          hauntedravensgrin.com

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                          • #14
                            Amazing...

                            Jim, I so need to make a trip to experience your place one of these days.....I'm dying (no pun intended) to take the tour....One of these days, Jim...one of these days.....

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                            • #15
                              Thank You For the Compliment.

                              It's more than a hop. skip. jump from where you are to here.
                              "Only minutes from anywhere, if you drive FAST!!!"
                              Last night a woman brought her Brother and Sister here as we were told she plans upon getting Married in June and that she would love to bring as many of the wedding guests HERE as she could then.
                              She was talking maybe 55 people?
                              I would be taking then in in small groups. One time a man organized a team event that involved cross-country biking , swimming across the Mississippi River, back to the bikes, riding here , they walked in the front door and out the exot tunnel, got back on bikes?
                              This "Quest" began that morning . The "sport" who organzed it started them on their day by hiding their bikes!
                              This sport involved more than 100 people that day.
                              We have had some strange events here.
                              Use to host Murder Mysteries, still do Hyde & Shreik Parties, tried some scavenger hunts, done Ghost-Seeker's Night....
                              hauntedravensgrin.com

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