Homeowners go all out for Halloween

Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

Motorists passing under the railroad trestle on Cemetery Road in East Wilton are greeted with a large handmade spider web and signs along with numerous gravestones scattered about the yard.

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- Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

A sign warning visitors to "give up all hope ye who enter here," along with numerous gravestones with other sayings, are scattered across an East Wilton home that bears the address 13 Cemetery Road. Motorists traveling under the railroad trestle toward Route 2 are also greeted with a Happy Halloween sign and a large, handmade spider web.

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- Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

Motorists traveling Cemetery Road in East Wilton toward Route 2 are greeted with a yard full of gravestones and decorations, including a handmade spider web. The 13 Cemetery Road address is a perfect setting for creating a tradition of Halloween decorating, owner Ed Leahy said.

 

 

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- Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

Motorists traveling Cemetery Road in East Wilton toward Route 2 are greeted with a yard full of gravestones and decorations, including a handmade spider web stretching from the railroad trestle to the ground. The 13 Cemetery Road address is a perfect setting for creating a tradition of Halloween decorating, owner Ed Leahy said.

 

 

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- Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

WILTON — With an address of 13 Cemetery Road, Ed and Trish Leahy couldn't help but develop a tradition of decorating their yard for Halloween.

"It's not a good Easter address," Ed Leahy said Tuesday at his tombstone-covered East Wilton yard.

Living in the home since the mid-1980s the couple have seen many young children come back to trick-or-treat each year, and now they come back with their children, he said.

Many of the gravestones are handmade, as is one of this year's newest additions — a large spider web that grew until it reached the top of the old train trestle that runs along the side of the property.

Thinking he'd buy a web, his wife urged him to make his own. A trip to the store for string ended up being another trip and then another, he said.

"Everything's on a low budget," he said.

The other new addition to the collection, which includes a lit balloon arch and other lights after dark, is a tall pumpkin-head scarecrow that he named after his sister, Beth. Placing eyes and lashes on the fake pumpkin, it didn't look scary. His wife had created a head that looked happy and like his sister, Beth, who had died recently, he said.

After his own children were too old to trick-or-treat, they would dress up in costumes and interact with and sometimes scare young trick-or-treaters. Now either he or his wife, not both, have the honor.

One memorable Halloween his wife, with ghoulish hands and mask, ran around the outside while he opened the front door to a small group of teenage boys who had visited every year since they were young, he said. She stood behind them and after they received a candy bar, they turned to find her standing there. They all screamed like girls, Ed Leahy said.

"It's funny, we spend 364 days a year telling children not to take candy from strangers, but on Halloween it's, "Here, come help yourself,'" he said.

abryant@sunjournal.com