It’s That Time of Year for Some Fun and Fear

In just 10 days, zombies will be coming and going. Along with ghosts, witches and skeletons. And there will be the little batmen, ballerinas and princesses--for whom Halloween is a night to float in a bubble of magic, rather than a shroud of terror.

And we adults will do our part: fill the bowls with treats; take fresh, clean costumes out of bags, or muddy and mutilate some thrift store reject. We’ll splatter ersatz blood on Dracula and artfully balance the tiara on Cinderella.

And, of course, we’ll see to it that pumpkins--plump and goofy gourds by day--are transformed into harrowing and luminous night creatures that exist to prolong the fantasy all the way round the cul-de-sac and back.

The children will appreciate our efforts, and so will local pumpkin growers, who have even more riding on this night than Ichabod Crane. After all, few people actually want a pumpkin on Nov. 1st.

Writer Leo Smith talked to pumpkin producers, and to growers of Christmas trees and poinsettias, for this week’s cover story on specialty, holiday-oriented crops. Unlike growers of staple crops, such as lettuce, lemons or tomatoes, who truck their products to market, local specialty farmers are often barkers as well as growers. They must be equally adept at planting and sales, at marketing and fertilizing.

“We’re selling the experience,” said Pat Hartmann, who with her husband Larry, owns Hartmann’s Tree Farm in Ojai. “We have a 100-year-old farmhouse, an Amish sled, a country store. You can have a fun day with the family.”

Actually, there’s plenty of family fun to be had all around Ventura County this week, and Life contributors have written about what’s on tap on the following pages.

Of the terrifying sort is Haunted Center II in Thousand Oaks, which Jane Hulse writes about in her For the Kids column. It is the macabre creation of The Young Artists Ensemble, a children’s theatrical group. Older children are invited to the Arts Council Center, which is being transformed into a chamber of horrors, where skits will entertain as well as terrify them.

MEA CULPA DEPT: Our apologies to photographer Jerry Mennenga, who shot the giant coffee cup for last week’s cover photo illustration. His name was inadvertently omitted from the list of photo credits.

While we are on the subject of coffee, we got a lot of calls about our cover story. Some callers were appreciative of our list of coffeehouses, while others wanted to make sure we were aware of some of the other establishments in the county. Thanks for the input; we like hearing from you.