By james art LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – “Trick or treat” will be a familiar line on Halloween night, and kids in Southwest Lubbock are in for a good dose of both.
For more than a decade, the homeowner there has gone all out when it comes to “spooking” his home.
Stephen Cockhill’s home near 85th Street and Xenia Avenue is covered in towering skeletons in the front yard, tombstones in the side yard and even clowns smiling from the roof.
Cockhill, who turns his backyard into an eerie graveyard filled with creepy characters, grew up in Chicago.
“I’ve never had a Halloween like this because we used to jump around when I was a kid. So when we came out here, I wanted to start doing something with my daughter to make memories for us,” he said.
That tradition has remained as his family has transformed their home for Halloween for the past 12 years.
“We got to the point where we had close to 100 headstones in a small yard. We started taking over our neighbor’s yard and everyone loved it and it just grew,” Cockhill said.
His daughter, Addison, says they try to add something to the haunted house every year.
“He actually started listening to me for ideas and whatnot, and eventually I started taking over, helping my mom decorate, and cooking is always fun,” she said. “It’s just grown from a smaller thing to this huge thing where I can brag a little bit to my friends.”
Cockhill is a retired Marine Corps Staff Sergeant. His wife also served in the Air Force. He was stationed in Lubbock in 2005 for several years and then when he retired he returned to the Hub City. He says that while he was growing up in the Northeast, there were always Halloween parties, but when he moved here, it wasn’t the same.
“I think it’s important to be with your neighbors and get to know them,” he said. “So we started getting them to come. We do some chili and we do octopus hotdogs for the kids and just a bunch of different crazy things.
If homeowners want to see decorations and fun events like this in their neighborhood, Cockhill says it’s up to them to create them.
“It’s a way for people to come together and we don’t see a lot of that anymore and I kind of miss it,” he said. “Everybody knew everybody. Everyone looked out for each other, everyone helped guard their homes when they were out of town. That’s why I’m trying to do it.”
This year, he created the eerie scene after two knee replacements, and he says the prices for the decorations are getting scarier every year. But he says those fears won’t stop him from making the holidays memorable.
“Think this is bad, Christmas gets worse,” he said.
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