A haunting experience

Though toned down from years past, the annual Haunted Schoolhouse still will provide a few chills.

By BILL COATS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 26, 2001

LUTZ -- The mad scientist will return to his bubbling beakers, and a graveyard will reappear.

But the Old Lutz School Building will be tamed more than haunted this Saturday night . Instead of aliens hovering overhead, there will be Sertomans selling popcorn. Instead of swamp monsters, there will be Brownie Scouts. Instead of the annual Haunted Schoolhouse, there will be a carnival.

After 21 consecutive Halloweens of terror, the Haunted School House was derailed this year by fire codes. Requirements for visible exit lights and fireproof materials essentially outlawed the pitch-black mazes that guided guests from fright to fright.

Saturday's event is something of a reunion for the schoolhouse's past ghouls.

"We wanted to have a get-together for Halloween to keep up the continuity," said William Hoedt, historian for Citizens for the Old Lutz School Building, which maintains the schoolhouse.

The Haunted School House was the key annual fundraiser that covered the building's expenses, but Saturday's carnival won't be. The money shortage was relieved somewhat during the summer with $3,100 that candidates raised in the July 4 contest for Lutz's honorary "guv'na."

Admission to the carnival is free. Civic groups will charge nominal prices for games and food. Donations to the schoolhouse will be accepted.

"We're just doing it to involve the kids in the community and have fun," said Janet Kaufmann, who is coordinating middle-schoolers from Tims Memorial Presbyterian Church. They plan to help children decorate Halloween cookies and guide them through a ball-toss and a booth of scary "feely boxes."

The Lutz Sertoma Club will offer $1 sessions with a computerized machine that analyzes you based on your favorite colors, said president Jerry Myer. "It's the darndest thing we've ever seen."

Phyllis Hoedt, who co-chairs the preservationist group, said a funeral parlor, graveyard and mad scientist's laboratory will be recreated in the school, but without the mazes and some of the props. Her son Wally Hoedt, who has portrayed the mad scientist for nearly 30 years, plans to go berserk once again.

"My scene's going to be pretty close to the way it was," he said.

- Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 226-3469 or coats@sptimes.com.

IF YOU GO

The carnival will be 6-10 p.m. Saturday at the Old Lutz Schoolhouse, U.S. 41 and Fourth Avenue SE. Admission is free.

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