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Ramona

By JESSICA GILBERT

Ramona correspondent

Eerie noises emanated out of the old 2-story farmhouse, and pounding was heard as though heavy-footed ghosts were ascending the stairs. But alas, on a Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, there were no ghosts yet at the haunted house site east of Ramona — only humans working hard to get everything as dark and spooky as possible so ghosts would be comfy for Ramona's fifth Haunted House event.

The pounding noises were made by Art Stroda who, along with his brother-in-law David Staatz, was installing safety measures in the haunted house. Jeannie Goza was finding the perfect places for strobes and black lights, while Angel Harold was reviewing every scene for props and Jayme Brunner was hanging the last of the black plastic so the right spooky atmosphere prevailed. This intrepid crew of Ramona City Council members, along with friends and family, worked for several weeks to prepare a "spooktacular" and haunting experience for everybody who came to the Haunted House last Friday and Saturday nights.

"Art Stroda, Jeannie Goza, Jayme Brunner and my husband Johnny were the main work force that created the haunted house," said Angel Harold, coordinator of the event. "I told them what would be happening in all the rooms and they created it."

In early fall, the haunted house committee wondered if there'd be an event this year because the house they used in downtown Ramona last year was torn down by the owner. So they went on the hunt for a new location. Jake and Terri Turley, Ramona country residents, came to the rescue.

"We had this old house on our property and hadn't gotten around to taking it down," said Terri. "Offering the place for Ramona's haunted house got us motivated to remove the last of the junk we'd stored in there."

"This is the biggest space we've ever had for a haunted house," said Jeannie Goza, who's talented at creating scary spaces. "This old house has so many rooms and closets so we've added more spooky experiences."

The more benign experiences were on the second floor — I was dancing with a skeleton in the Eternity Ballroom, Art Stroda's daughter Sara, from Salina, was an eerie fortune teller in the closet next door, and Solomon and Kaitlin Brunner (Jayme's children) were frightening in the "kids room," where possessed children with blood on their hands were stabbing their toys. In another upstairs bedroom were Little Red Riding hood and the wolf (played by Angel's son, Clint), with the wolf leaping from a dark corner, which caused screams to float down the hall.

Downstairs was where the real fright came in! I could hear the screaming below me — they often drowned out the spooky sound effects projected throughout the house. On the first floor was Art Stroda, a creepy mummy in a casket, and his former wife, Mickey Stroda, was an eerie witch with white face, Jayme Brunner ran a fake chain saw and, along with Johnny Harold, acted as "floaters," which meant that at any moment they might reach out and grab an ankle or an arm as you walked through a dark maze. Angel's son, Caleb, was the talking head in the butcher room scene, and her other son, Clint, acted as wolf man, appearing throughout the house. Although Joey Brunner doesn't live in Ramona anymore he'll always be considered a "Ramona boy" and he was another scary character roaming about the downstairs area.

"We depended on family and friends to be the scary characters and the guides for taking guests through the house," said Angel. "This was really a great cooperative event. Folks would do whatever was needed in order to make it work."

Other Ramona residents helped the haunted effort — like Matt Leach who was a guide and David Staatz who rode the hayride to be sure everybody stayed safe. Mike and Tonya Eklund offered their yard as a gathering spot for the hayride to the haunted house, as well as a place for the concession stand whuch had everything from hot drinks to fries and hamburgers.

Providing trucks and trailers to haul folks to the haunted house were the Ecklunds, Mike Beltz, and from Tampa, Tom Moldenhauer.

"When folks came back from the haunted house, they had so many great comments," said Jeannie Goza, who sold tickets on Saturday night. "Some even compared Ramona's haunted house with what they'd experienced in Kansas City."

Bill and Rohani Alcorn added another dimension to the haunted fund-raiser by contributing Coleman products (stove, lantern, ice chest), along with a mini-motorcycle, which were part of raffle. The drawing was held Tuesday and I'll announce winners in next week's column. The proceeds from the raffle and half the haunted house precedes go towards building bathrooms in the Ramona Park.

"Part of the haunted house profits will be used to build next year's haunted house," said Angel. "We will not be able to use this year's house again, since the Turleys need to remove it from their property. So we're looking, once more, for a house or barn in the Ramona area, where we can build a haunted event in 2007. If you have such a place, call me at 366-3619," said Angel.

Angel also wanted to express thanks to everyone who helped build the haunted house, who inhabited the house, and who helped in all the many aspects of pulling off an event of this size. "It was the best haunted house yet. The feedback was tremendous. We had 85 guests Friday night and between 95-100 on Saturday."

Art Stroda laid down his hammer and saws Sunday afternoon, put away his mummy costume, and instead was collecting punch bowls and other paraphernalia for his daughter's bridal shower at the Lutheran parish hall in Ramona. "Sara is marrying Scott Smith on Nov. 18," announced Art as he collected a punch bowl from me.

"The bridal shower was lovely. She got lots of nice gifts," said Sara's grandmother, Marge Stroda. "Family and friends from both sides were there. Lots of little kids were running around, too, since many of Sara's cousins have children."

Lisa Hanschu was having an commercial party at her home Sunday afternoon. Ramona ladies attending were Marissa Makovec, Marlene Anduss, Deb Wiles, Irene Beames, Julie Deines, Jeanetta Hanschu, and myself. After eating dessert, we got a tour of Lisa and Ronnie's beautiful country residence.

"The downstairs is the latest project to be completed," said Lisa as she led the way to the basement. "It was an unexpected remodeling job — we thought the outside of the house would be the latest project. But in order to provide additional office space for my work — we went ahead and remodeled the basement."

Lisa has two employees working downstairs with additional office space for her sister, Lori, who works from her home. "Sometimes Lori needs to be here for special projects, so she has a desk here, too."

Lisa began her home-based business back in 1999. "I happened to be working for another publication when MachineTools.com sent in an ad for positions available. It sounded interesting so I responded and took the job. I've been with them since they started the company."

MachineTools.com is strictly a web site business. There's no storefronts, no other publications. "The web is a perfect place for connecting buyers and sellers in the metalworking industry," explains Lisa. "The company now has nine offices in the United States, and offices in India, China, Latin America, and shortly in Germany," continues Lisa. "When you go to our website it can be translated into the languages of each of these countries."

Working at home was a "God-send" according to Lisa, especially when she was sick a couple of years ago. Now that she's recovered from leukemia, she and the business are thriving. "I get to travel to trade shows," said Lisa. "Next week I'm going to Atlanta, then Michigan, Las Vegas, and next year, California and Florida. It's an experience I never dreamed I'd have, living in a small town like Ramona."

Oct. 16-23

Lots of cars have been cruising through Ramona to view the Scarecrows on Parade. Last Wednesday there was a line of cars that came over the railroad tracks. It was such a startling sight that for a moment I panicked, wondering if there was something I was supposed to have planned for, but forgot.

When the cars approached me I recognized Dee and Tom Duggan in the lead car (who have great scarecrows in their yard in Tampa), who were taking a group on a tour of the five towns participating in Scarecrows on Parade. As I watched them go down the street, then attempt to turn around, I chuckled because it indeed created a first-class traffic jam on Main Street — a rare sight in tiny, quiet Ramona.

The Economic Development Council came to Ramona, too, on Oct. 18. My sister and I were hosting the group at the Ramona Senior Center, where we prepared a luncheon for the group's monthly meeting. Pat and I are members of this Council and each month a different town hosts the meeting. It's a great way to get acquainted with the towns in the area.

We purposely requested to host the October meeting because there'd be something fun to see. Our mom, Martha, even baked a fresh batch of wheat bread for the Council luncheon and she came and played hostess while Pat and I dashed to get the meal on the table.

While many yards in town feature a scarecrow or two, Collin Bailey's house has a new sign in the front yard. It reads: "The old Ramona grumps, spit, whittle, chew, cuss, rod and gun club lodge."

The week before I'd seen unusual things happening at Collin's, like a roll of carpet on the sidewalk, a recliner sitting precariously on the porch, and lots of trucks in front of the house. The trucks weren't an unusual occurrence, because that happens quite often since Collin and friends are train enthusiasts and they're usually involved in some expansion or remodeling project on Collin's train displays.

But the carpet made me curious, then the sign went up. So, I had to ask Collin what the heck was goin' on. "Oh, we've created a kinda of hunting lodge in my house," explained Collin.

"Are there regular members?" I asked. "Oh, there's me and Paul — you know we're like the two old hecklers on the Muppet Show — we sit on the front porch and critique what's going on in town. And then there's Caleb and Clinton, Angel Harold's sons, Alan Bentz, Ben Thompson." He pauses to contemplate.

"Oh, and my dad (Nate Bailey), he's the most obvious member," says Collin with chagrin at mentioning him last, then he adds in his typical humor, "Oh well, there goes my Christmas!"

Collin took me down to his house and gave me a tour of the "club room." "This is where everybody congregates when it's too cold to be on the front porch," says Collin pointing to the living room. The walls had recently been painted bright leaf green and the woodwork was camouflaged. At seeing the woodwork, I just burst out laughing because it was given the new look by using camouflage duct tape.

"Have you ever seen the Red Green Show on PBS television," I asked Collin, "Because they use duct tape for everything, and they call it the secret handyman's weapon."

I asked Collin about the sign's reference to whittling. "You just have to have a scrap of wood and a knife. Whittling is something to do with a pocketknife — it doesn't have to be anything. It's just something to do while you talk, spit and chew on the political activities of the day," said Collin.

And the quote that Collin painted in small letters at the bottom of the sign — "If you are not a fisherman, do not dishonor a fish by catching it." — is from the movie, "A River Runs Through It." If you're an avid fisherman, I didn't need to tell you that.

I asked Collin if there was a secret sign or handshake to gain entrance into the club. "We don't have scheduled meetings," said Collin. "And there's no secret handshake. Just a knock on the door and somebody asking, 'Do you wan'na go fishin'?"

And that's the news from Ramona where there's a "character" on every block, and a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road.

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