• Scary Dairy 2017

All I can say about the inaugural Scary Dairy event is WOW!

Once through this portal, you wandered through a dark maze filled with strobe lights, fog, unsettling music, and ghouls around nearly every corner.

Sometimes the doubting Thomas in me sees the glass as bone dry, and after opening night was cancelled, I really thought this wasn't going to happen.

However, many hundreds of people showed up en masse and proved me wrong.

Even though the event on Friday was canceled several hours before it was to kick off, it was estimated that nearly 300 people still showed up at the dairy for the opening night of the two evening event.

There were two mazes, one a tame one for the wee tykes, and the other geared to the older kids and adults that could handle a good fright.

If you guessed that this delightful creature was in the "scarier" maze... you'd have guessed wrong. He was around one of the first corners of the kiddie maze.

Originally both mazes were going to be outdoors, but winds made it impossible for the structures to stand up. In my view, that was a blessing in disguise because it had to be moved into the feed barn and that turned out to be the key to it all.

The crowd of people was very thick and to alleviate traffic the back gate of the dairy was opened and for a brief time Bundy Canyon and Mission Trail went from a three way intersection to a four way intersection.

Once inside, there were sturdy walls that maze could be attached to, so no worrying about the wind. 

This was one of the corridors that greeted the brave of heart that dared enter.

Not to mention that it allowed for great echos where howls, shrieks, and screams were continuously heard over the spine chilling organ music.

What a couple of the lines looked like at about 8:30pm. The line to the children's maze went quickly, but was always dozens deep until about 9:00pm.

This event was a fundraiser for the Wildomar Rotary club, and couldn't have happened without the hard work of Dana DeJong and Jon Favillo... and of course there were many others that pitched in long hours too, but no need to name them all like this is an Oscar's award speech. ☺

Members of the Rotary Club are shown serving the guests... where earlier in the day they'd spent all afternoon getting the mazes ready for the night's hootin' and hollerin'.

Let's not forget another key to the success of the event; hats off to Herman DeJong for being so generous with the community and having the event at his family dairy. He was on hand the entire evening.

To all of us it's the place to get milk, eat a fudgsicle while reading a book at the Little Free Library, or take the kids to look at the animals, but to the DeJong family, this is their livelihood. 

Thinking to next year, with more time for event leaders to plan out the event, I suggest that everyone mark their 2018 calendars now. It's going to be even better. ☺

Remember that Trunk or Treat is coming up next Saturday evening. This will be the 4th running of the event and each year it has gotten larger and more entertaining. Hope to see you there.

•                •                •

Just because I cannot see it, doesn't mean I can't believe it.
– Jack Skellington.

If, Wildomar Rap were a Halloween confection, it would have the texture of a tamale, taste like a brownie and have a kick like an IPA.