Behind the house, we have a deck surrounding a gazebo that encloses our spa. We drove poles from an old swing-set into the ground around the deck and ran chord from them to the roof of the house and the gazebo in a criss-cross pattern about seven feet high. We suspened black tarp from the chords to form a maze, and planned on all kinds of things to be in there, but had to go with what little we could:
- some dead plants
- a monkey puppet crucified to the wall
- a sound-activated shaking and wailing ghost
- a poster of Marilyn Monroe (well, in the dark in a corner, it made you look twice)
- a devil mask with red strobe-light eyes
- a couple rubber bats hanging at eye level for you to brush into in the dark
- a dummy head hung from a noose
- a black light under the steps down off the deck (didn't want any drunks falling)
And the two big things:
Dana and Amanda put up a ten foot long spider in the gazebo, covering the whole thing in
cobwebs, with a strobe light flashing on it and a fan blowing to make it move jerkily about. We
had several rubber hands wrapped up in the web, and wanted to put a sign that said "Hands Off!
Do Not Feed The Spider!"- At the very end of the maze, beside the blocked exit, we put a small book shelf behind a carpet laying in the grass. Rowland sat on this, next to his copy of The Necronomicon, doing Tarot readings by candlelight for a little over an hour, before he ended up as DJ.
Although we did a much better one in 2002, this maze was still quite an elaborate attraction, if just for the sheer excess for a backyard party. Throughout the night, it provided a place to hide, scare your friends and make-out. By morning, more than one couple were passed out inside.
| The House | The Tunnel |
| The Maze | The Courtyard |
| The Yard | The Garage |
| The Patio | The Back |