They’re creepy and they’re kooky – the Fischer family
For Scott and Celeste Fischer of Uniontown, Halloween is an adventure. Sure, they will have bowls of candy and decorated jack-o-lanterns at their Elizabeth Street home, but they are not content to stop there. The Fischers, including their daughters Maria, 11, and Teresa, 6, and Celeste’s mother, Cindy Izzo, make sure that visitors to their home get the full Halloween experience.
Every Halloween night, their front yard is transformed into a horror fan’s dream come true, with elaborate recreations that would make ghosts, ghouls and zombies feel at home.
“We have had scenes of a dinosaur graveyard with bones displayed,’ said Celeste Fischer. “We have had haunted creatures pop out of garbage cans to scare kids getting candy. We have had skeleton brides and grooms in crypts with people coming out to scare everyone. We have had different elaborate monsters.’
This year, the Fischers will use a “Mad Scientist’ theme with a laboratory that would have made Dr. Frankenstein proud.
“We will also have the graveyard on the side,’ said Celeste Fischer. “The creatures made by the scientist need to sleep somewhere.’
All of these designs are the work of Scott’s brother, Steve, a Pittsburgh resident who makes annual treks to Uniontown to drop off his latest Halloween fare.
“Everyone asks, ‘Where did you get that?” said Maria, a sixth-grade student at Ben Franklin School who is planning to be an Egyptian this year. “My uncle’s so cool.’
Maria noted her sister, Teresa, who is in first grade and will dress as a genie, tells her friends, “My uncle builds the best monsters.’
The Fischer brothers – whom Celeste Fischer jokingly referred to as the Brothers Grimm – grew up in Pittsburgh in a family of three boys and two girls who enjoyed things that go bump in the night.
During a recent trip to Uniontown, Steve Fischer said, “We always used to watch Chilly Billy and go to the Jaycees’ haunted houses.’
Steve Fischer started building his own creations when he was in his 20s.
“It started out simple,” he said. The grass was torn up and I was replanting and since it was open, I carved a hand out of plywood and made a skull out of plaster and tombstones out of Styrofoam. I had a guy ripped in half like he was cut by a lawn mower. It just grew from there.’
Steve Fischer’s creations are passed around the family year after year. They first go to the home of his sister Karen and her husband, Tom Kennedy, where trick or treat is celebrated at night in their Crafton neighborhood. Then they go back to Steve Fischer’s house in Sheridan where there’s afternoon trick-or-treating. The next year, they make the trek to Uniontown.
“Normally, I’ll start working in September. I’m constantly looking at the Internet all year long. I have certain sites that are my favorites on the Internet and I’ll click on them to see what’s new. I subscribe to magazines like Haunt World and Haunted Attractions and watch DVDs,’ said Steve Fischer, who is a regular customer of Bucky’s Bone Yard, where plastic bones are purchased by the pound.
Celebrating Halloween helps the adults remember their childhood.
“It’s always been fun since we were little. Halloween was just the greatest. In the old days, the entire neighborhood was lit up with pumpkins,’ said Steve Fischer, who laments his neighborhood’s switch to daytime trick-or-treating.
Scott and Celeste Fischer began displaying Steve Fischer’s creations when they moved to Uniontown seven years ago. In this neighborhood, trick-or-treating still is celebrated on Halloween night.
“This is our seventh year. We started off small and moved up,’ said Scott Fischer, reeling off a list of their past displays.
Even though the festivities last one night, the memory of the Fischers’ Halloween carries throughout the year.
“When I’m cutting grass, little kids will walk by with their parents and say, ‘That’s the scary house,” said Scott Fischer with a smile.
That doesn’t bother the Fischers.
“It’s fun just to have everyone want to see what we’re doing every year,’ said Scott Fischer. “I know people who walk by just to see it – even drive by.’
But both Scott and Celeste Fischer give credit to their neighbors for inspiration. It’s a place where most people participate in trick or treat.
“I love the fact that Halloween in our neighborhood is still like when I was little,’ said Celeste Fischer, a native of Dunbar. “We get to do it at dark and not in the middle of the afternoon. Another thing that makes it so neat is that we have a lot of people in our neighborhood who make it nice for the kids. A lot of them give out treats and participate.’
She continued, “I think Halloween allows you to pretend or play dress up as an adult. You can be anything you want. You get to express yourself. It is imagination and creativity that come through in your costume – something pretty, patriotic or even scary. I have been everything from a princess to the pope! Scott and Steve have made a lot of their own costumes in the past. My favorites have been Steve’s Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz and Scott’s lobster costume. They were very detailed and required a lot of work. They won costume awards for these in Pittsburgh.’
And Halloween is more a season than one night of fun for the Fischers.
“We enjoy Halloween so much that our family and friends gather at our house on the weekends throughout October to enjoy each other and visit haunted attractions as a group,’ said Celeste Fischer. “It is a tradition that has been going on for over 10 years. We serve scary Halloween treats at the gatherings.’
This Halloween night, the Fischers will be ready and are expecting a crowd to come see their display.
Scott Fischer said, “It’s the one time of year you can scare people and not get in trouble for it.
But Celeste Fischer notes that children shouldn’t be afraid of their home.
“We just like to celebrate the holiday,’ said Celeste Fischer. “Halloween is what you make it. It is only evil and bad if you make it out to be that way. It is fun and creative and, best of all, it allows for family and friends to be together.’