I sent the image on your right (via) to my sister as soon as I saw it. It made her laugh as much as it did me. Of course, if you haven't figured it out by now, Uncle P has a rather macabre sense of humor, one of the many things I have in common with my baby sister.
Many years ago, when Uncle P was a High School Junior, the keepers of a local historic mansion were looking for ways to raise funds for restoration, and since the place had a reputation for being haunted, they decided one October to have a "Haunted House" tour. They recruited local H.S. Drama Club members to take part in designing, executing and staffing the event.
Of course, you know I had to not only participate, but head my school's efforts (I was already directing at age 16). One of two rooms my school did was a "Nursery," complete with a spike-canopied crib, baby doll-limbed mobile and assorted evil toys. At the time, one of the "hot" toys was a doll called "Baby Alive." My sister had one. It ate, drank, peed and pooped. Our version was called "Baby A-Dead,"* and if I remember correctly, it drank blood from a bottle. And if I also remember correctly (maybe Sis can corroborate), the Nursery was voted "Most Disturbing Room" that first year. She of course, was one of the "babies" in the nursery, though she was probably 11 or 12 at the time. I went on to participate in the mansion's follow-up Christmas House (playing Joseph, of all things) as well as its second (and sadly, last) Haunted House.
They still hold fundraisers there, though much of the mansion has been restored. There's still an annual spring Faire and a Christmas event. I think they must be working on the third or fourth floor, by now. It's been many, many years since I have visited. Still, were they ever to do a Haunted House event again, I imagine the image above would certainly be fodder for a kitchen design by Yours Truly. And my sister would probably be happy to make evil-looking cakes as part of it. She already has told me she laughed aloud when I sent her the above image in an email, though she admitted she was glad she had gone in to work early enough that no one was around to hear her do so.
Local readers and Facebook friends know exactly what mansion I have been referring to, but I will leave it up to the rest of you to figure it out on your own (and clues can be found throughout my past posts, if you care to find them). Needless to say, I have moved on from my early directing and fund-raising efforts to those issues more immediately important me to me and the folks I care about. But I still live very nearby that mansion, and I just might have to stop by one day and see what progress has been made over 30 years or so.
More, anon,
Prospero
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