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Finlayson Drive ramps up the Halloween competition Simon Whitehouse Northern News Services Published Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Here, an entertaining and friendly competition has grown in recent years between two neighbours who seek to have the most festive Halloween front yard for greeting trick-or-treaters.
For a number of years, Jackie and Ed Hardy of 5009 Finlayson Dr. have showcased arguably the loudest Halloween front lawn set-up along this route. It is clear, however that Matt and Melanie Pond across the street are hoping to catch up. "I saw them at Canadian Tire this year and I called out saying that 'We're the competition this year and we're going to beat you,'" joked Melanie on the weekend before Halloween. There is an obvious difference between the two households, however. While the Hardies go all out for Halloween, they admit they choose to have a more modest set-up for other holidays such as Christmas. The Ponds say they go all out for everything with everything from the Grinch to Mrs. Claus to red and green pot lights. "We're just 'celebrational,'" suggests Melanie's daughter Cayla. It is clear in the Pond household there is a genuine respect for the Hardies' yearly efforts. Among the kids, the work of Ed and Jackie is legendary. Cayla expressed her appreciation for the inflatable costume the Hardies have been known to use in the front yard where they have had a member of the family dress up and stand still when children come to the door before jumping out to scare them. Ed has also had one of his sons dress in a full body morph suit and lay in a casket equipped with a smoke machine to surprise trick-or-treaters. The Hardies also add strobe lights in the upper windows of the house to make it look like the building is moving, put wireless speakers in the driveway to provide scary sound effects and erect a mummy that glows and makes noises. Much of the material is purchased in town, they say, but they often keep an eye out for useful ornaments when going to garage sales or specialty stores when out of town. This year, they were looking forward to having a new Frankenstein figurine to add to their scene. The Hardies explained that when they first moved to town in 1987, they began accumulating Halloween decorations gradually. They purchased two to three inflatable figurines in their first year and they have added a new one every year since. Now, 24 years later, they have enough lawn decorations to have rotational displays so they can keep visitors guessing how and what will be presented. It is this element of guesswork which has helped spurn the competitive edge among the Ponds who admitted to keeping an eye out for what the Hardies display. Ed has also admitted to leaving some important decoration decisions to the very last day, thus thwarting the Ponds' efforts to top his front yard attempts. The displays by both families have resulted in increasing trick-or-treat volumes, which they both say have been higher than normal. The Hardies admit they had prepared 300 bags of candy to greet children this year. As for the Ponds, Melanie said she ran out last year with 169 bags, but had a neighbour provide their leftover candy, before having to resort to giving out school snacks. Whether this was due to the decorations themselves, to Melanie there was no doubt. "Oh, guaranteed," she said. Melanie said often on Halloween nights she will see cars driving by before immediately stopping, backing up and visiting her door. In the end, the two households were hoping to offer trick-or-treaters a bit more of a fun experience and were looking forward to adding to the spirit of Halloween on the streets of Yellowknife.
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