MRIs, other discarded stuff fair game for Wheaton teen's haunted house
It's his farewell performance, so Wes Davison is pulling out the stops.
For the past four years, the 18-year-old College of DuPage student has been staging elaborate Halloween spectacles at his parents' home at 1981 Brentwood Lane East in Wheaton.
Wes relies in part on his 13-year-old brother Doug's laissez-faire attitude toward stark reminders of a serious illness. Doug suffers from spina bifada, but cheerfully has donated an old body casts to double as a sheet-covered cadaver. He also contributed MRI scans of his skull to be used as part of the "demented doctor" display.
"Doug said he thinks his eyeballs look really weird in those (MRI scans)," Wes said. "He likes it."
The discarded medical stuff fits in well with the rest of the decorations Wes has built. Most of the items are made of recycled materials.
"People spend a lot of money on Halloween decorations, and I've found I can make a lot of what is for sale for a lot less," Wes said. "The thing about Halloween decorations is that they have to look rustic to look scary, and stuff people throw away is easy to make that look."
Someone's junked turtle-shaped sandbox is the brothers' silver-coated alien creature dangling from a tree. Wes has even made a Michael Jackson decoration this year to pay homage to the legacy of the late entertainer's iconic "Thriller" video. It was made from someone else's garbage.
A skeleton riding an old bike that was rescued from a trash bin alerts visitors to think "green on Halloween." It's all part of an elaborate hodgepodge of eerie accoutrements. Daring trick-or-treaters have to navigate a maze of scary displays to make it to the door for their candy, but not before one more surprise the brothers have cooked up.
"We take it easy when it's still light outside for the littler ones," Wes said. "But as it gets darker and the older kids start to come around, it gets scarier."
The boys' mother Dawn Davison enjoys watching the reactions of the children as they make their way up the drive.
"Some of the older kids know what's coming because they've been here before," she said. "But there are some kids who stop in their tracks when they hear the scary music."
Wes said his family has always decorated the house for most holidays, but Halloween has always been his forte.
"I remember watching my mom carve pumpkins when I was little and telling her to make 'angry eyes,'" he said.
His mother realized long ago the decoration process provided her eldest with a level of relaxation. She marvels at his ability to create something of what everyone else sees as nothing.
"I can see how much pleasure he derives out of it," she said.
And she admits she gets a little pleasure out of it too watching her sons work together and supporting each other. And she also admits it's a little bittersweet seeing what could be the last Halloween show for the Davisons' front lawn.
She punctuates that sentiment with a little graveyard humor.
"I may just put up a tombstone out in the lawn next year that says, 'Wesley has gone off to college.'"