A month-long labor of Halloween love
October 30, 2020 | By Luke Zarzecki | Community News Service 
While most of the Halloween activity in Waterbury is usually downtown in the village, there’s one quiet, spooky corner of Waterbury Center that’s a hidden treat for those brave enough to ignore the tricks their imaginations and the darkness might play to keep them from investigating.
For the past 17 years, only the bravest Halloween visitors to the Harvey Farm and neighbors and friends of those on West Harvey Farm Road have likely stopped to check out the eerie display of ghouls and lights lovingly assembled in all their Halloween glory at the end of a tree-lined driveway.
The meticulously curated and created spectacle is the brainchild of Jeff Cavender who started assembling an annual ghostly, gory display when his two daughters were young.
Every year, Cavender starts work on the decorations on Oct. 1 and keeps at it until afternoon light begins to fade around 4 p.m. on Halloween, a timeline he and his wife, Karen, follow closely.
The lawn mower and garden tools share space in the shed alongside the driveway that holds probably 25-30 totes of decorations, about 60 strings of lights, and fog machines, of course. Cavender assembles things carefully putting all of the electric decorations on timers. He says he has blown breakers at least half a dozen times.
“It’s too much,” he admitted. “My wife is very tolerant. The Green Mountain Power graph goes up throughout October and it’s sky-high on October 31st.”
The display is pretty similar each year, drawing on iconic grisly Halloween themes guaranteed to tingle spines once darkness and ominous lighting are factored into the mix. This time around he has a mummy theme at the entrance to his home, an abundance of spider webs, skeletons climbing atop the house, a graveyard, a zombie pit, heads on crates and skulls in trees, tombstones, a jack-o-lantern scarecrow, and other creepy decorations.
Cavender said each year he adds a new prop, lights, or he switches up the layout of the scene. When asked to quantify his collection of decorations Cavender jokingly says “too much.”
What started the tradition was the reaction his young daughters had to Halloween celebrations, and the holiday in general. He started by decorating on the inside of his house in the early years but eventually transitioned the set-up outside. His daughters are now 22 and 24, living in Chicago and Indianapolis. They still ask for pictures each year, he said.
While many are adjusting their Halloween celebrations due to COVID-19, Cavender said his main change will be having a tray set up with full-sized candy to reward those brave goblins who dare come down his driveway. Trick-or-treaters are welcome to pick their choice and take in the display.
“What I’m pleased about is the fact that the weather’s supposed to be good for Halloween,” he said. “The last three or four years there’s been rain and wind. Last year was horrible [the wind] blew stuff out of the trees.”
The forecast for Saturday is cold and clear with little chance of soggy treats for those brave enough to venture past Cavender’s spooky tricks.
Community News Service is a collaboration with the University of Vermont’s Reporting and Documentary Storytelling program.