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On the upcoming page are photos from 1999, when I worked at Great American Insurance Company. It is from a fun Halloween Haunted Paddlewheeler Boat we all put together for a Halloween Haunted House competition, that the whole office building participated in. Each different office had different themes, and we decided to really go out on a limb and be really different with our 'theme.' We had meetings to see what ideas we could come up with, and soon decided to make part of our section of the building into an old fashioned paddlewheeler boat. We dedided to name it, "The Crypt Cruiser." LOL We then decided to get some Star Trek involved, and I gave the idea of having the Enterprise shuttle becoming caught up in a time warp, and being thrown back to 1800's Earth. The shuttle's systems begin to shut down and it ends up crashing into this old abandoned paddlewheeler boat. The crew aboard would soon find out the paddlewheeler boat was haunted, when they began to investigate it. They also find that communication with the Enterprise are down, and they may be stuck here in the 1800's, and trapped by the ghosts on this old paddlewheeler boat. I also decided to use my handheld recorder and made a Lt. Commander's Voice Log of what had happened. This was to be played whenever people would come in to tour the 'Haunted Paddlewheeler Boat'. Then that way they'd know what this was all about, without much explanation, and it added more fun and imagination to the whole thing. We all got to work on it, and it took about a week to put it all together. All of us brought odds and ends from home, wood, and cardboard, and sheets, and bought artificial web to put all around. We cut, and sewed, pasted, constructed, and just plain worked our butts off at our lunch breaks and even after work or before work started, just to get this together. We had a gambling room, visitor's quarters, a dining area, entertainment room, and even a 'head' for the boat (now THAT was fun to put together. LOL) In the back we had a couple getting married, but they were nothing but life size skeletens, dressed in a gown and the guy dressed in a tux, with her walking down the isle. In the rear of the paddlewheeler, we designed a paddlewheel, out of just cardboard and wood. I worked on that mostly, with a couple people helping me out on it. It didn't turn out like we wanted it to, but it looked ok. We decided to have the paddlewheel wrecked up a bit, since we wanted it to look like it had accidentally hit into some huge rocks, sinking a bit, and that is what ended up killing the passengers and crew. Leaving it haunted with their ghosts. I decided to do most of the design on the inside of the 'Enterprise Shuttle,' and that took a large cubicle area at the side of the office. I brought in black cardboard, and black sheets, and covered the desk areas, so it would look more like a shuttle, then at home I took poster cardboard and designed the computer terminals, and punched holes in some, inserting mini-lights into the holes, letting those flash and blink, making things look all the more authentic. Some were red lights, some white. I created the front part of the shuttle with the 'window' and the white mini-lights for stars. I put the keyboards side by side on the desk, and two chairs facing that way. I brought my posters in from home of the crew, and put those at different areas of the 'shuttle' and that looked cute. Well, then I had to kind of tear things up a tad, making it look like we just crashed. Tipping a couple chairs on their sides, and throwing some shredded paper on the floor. We all went through our lines and how we'd act, when it came time to show it all off, and have people walk through and view it all. We used cardboard black paper to create the smokestacks for the paddlewheeler, then someone brought dry ice in to make it look like they were steaming smoke. We had someone else bring in strobe lights to give things that eerie look. We even had a haunted tape playing, with water splashing sounds, and sounds of screams at times. When the day had come, we all came in in our costumes, and it was just a total blast. The 'judges' of the competition came through and we all did our best to impress, all of us acting out our parts. The judges loved the shuttle and the way it was put together to look so authentic, and us all having the uniforms on too and especially our acting abilities. LOL We had our faces painted a bit to look like we had been in a crash, with blood running down in areas, and bruises too, and our hair a mess. We were given an award for being THE most creative and imaginative out of all the others in the competition. They couldn't get over how unique this idea was. We didn't get first prize, but oh well, it was just pure fun, and we all got to work together and become closer friends during it all, so that is all that matters. It really helped me express my creativeness and ability to come up with unique and fun ideas. I hope you enjoy these photos. They are of the various areas of the "Haunter Paddlewheeler." This was in October of 1999. One of my better years, and one I will never forget. Wish I could go back to that year sometimes. These pics don't do the "Haunted Paddlewheeler" justice though, since you'd have had to have been there to have really gotten the full effect of it, and enjoyed it. But these pics give you an idea of how it looked anyway.
