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From: Sea Island Times, October 2010
Interview with Tim, Burkeville's Own "Haunted House Guy"
On a crisp October afternoon, standing in front of one of his many great creations, I had the opportunity to speak with long time Burkeville resident Tim Jordan about his "Haunted House", now in it's 29th year. this is a Burkeville Fall favourite and I was curious about a few things, and I'm sure many other residents are too!
Burkeville Times: How did you get started?
Tim: It actually started when I was a kid, and I used to do it in my Dad's garage. My parents took me to Disneyland when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I came home and started making Haunted Houses! Then when I got my own place, it was just ideal, because I had my own garage. The first year, we weren't in the garage, we just had the original character, Witchy. She would sit in the garden under the bedroom window, and I would talk to the kids from the window. The next year, I said to my wife, "There's big doors on the garage, I'm going to open those up and that will be Witchy's living room." It wasn't until the third year that I started having people come inside. In the fourth year, I used to do all the Catering for the Gateway Theatre, so I had them build a false front for the garage. Then I got to the point where I wanted to go three dimensional, so I added the windows so I could put things in the windows.
Burkeville Times: So I guess you could say Disneyland was your inspiration?
Tim: It was and it still is. You'll notice a lot of the things I do in there are Disney-ish,: like Pirates of the Caribbean. I took out my old Pirates of the Caribbean album cover and I copied it as best I could.
Burkeville Times: Have you always loved Halloween this much? This takes some dedication!
Tim: My fascination with displays started when I was a kid, before I ever went to Disneyland, and this is how I got the idea for Witchy. I was trick or treating and I went up to someone's house, and they had a mannequin sitting out front - close to their steps. It was a split level, two-storey house and the guy had some string out the window tied to the mannequin to make it's arms and legs move. That was one of the best Halloweens I ever had!
Burkeville Times: Is this a family affair, or are you on your own with all this?
Tim: No, it's my thing, it's always been my thing, it's my hobby and I do 99.9% of the work. Closer to Halloween they give me a hand when they can. I have made some friends and now there are a couple of guys that come out to help me. I'm the type of guy where I have to be the Supervisor, so if you want to be supervised and do what I want, OK!
Burkeville Times: Any additions for this year, what can we look forward to?
Tim: We're standing in front of it right now: "Monster Hall". I'm trying to make it like a theme park. I always have projects on the go. Last year I discovered Craigslist! I get things from everywhere; Value Village, the drug store, garage sales. Things will "mysteriously" arrive on my doorstep!
The Haunted House is open 6 - 9 pm every night
October 23 to 31st. Happy Haunting! | 
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