This yard display at 1517 59th St. S. has a headstone waiting to be personalized with each visitor’s name. In the background, above the garage door, a red neon sign says, “1313 Blood Bath.”Just where are the best Halloween displays in Gulfport this year?
In a subjective crowd-sourcing effort published on several Gulfport-related Facebook pages, over a dozen local residences were offered up as candidates for a Gabber photo spread.
“I grew up in the country and they’d have to put us in the car and take us to into town” to see decorations and go trick or treating, said Mary Roberts, 1305 58th St. S. She and her husband Jim have lived in their home for four years and they add to the decorations each season.
Their front yard includes a large animated ghost, audible moans, projected ghouls and a gargoyle near the front door that was breathing smoke on Halloween for trick-or-treat visitors.
At the home of Tom and Melanie Roberts, 4806 Coronado Way S., their decorations include “bone soup” in a skeleton’s black cooking cauldron and a collection of ghosts hovering in a tree.
“I wanted cute little ghosts,” said Melanie. “Clear plastic Christmas balls and an old sheet I had in the garage were perfect. We made up the ghosts then drew faces on them.”
Another display at 3131 56th St. S. that was finished by Sunday, October 28, is entitled, “Dead and Breakfast.”
At 2020 58th St. S., a yard full of grisly scenes waited for visitors including a “Trick or Treat” display of two dog skeletons watching over the remains of a human.
Halloween may be over, but some of the decorations may still be seen lingering around town. Here are additional treats from social media suggestions.
“Pete the Pirate just happened to jump on,” said Laurissa Bartle, 2408 58th St. S. Her boyfriend, Richard Morehead, built the mailbox bike display. In the basket is Randy Rat, she said. “People stop in the middle of the street or pull off the road to take a picture,” she said. “On October 31st, they go away and we have something new coming in for November. Then, someone else for December. And, there might be an Easter traveler too.”
At the corner of Gray Street and 13th Avenue South is a frightful display that includes a trio of glowing pumpkins, flying ghosts, projected ghouls and a collection of road signs that can point you in the direction of places like “Witch Haven” and “Transylvania.”
Not all decorations are, well, grounded. Flying in the limbs of an oak tree at 1213 59th St. S., is a ghoul patrolling headstones in a graveyard, ready to catch intruders with its long arms and fingers.
At 1207 59th St. S., the skeleton crew is in action rescuing one of its own that has been pinned on the ground under a boulder.
The “Walling Haunted Manor” has a lot of “dead things” going on in the yard and up in the trees at 2645 48th St. S. but nothing beats a live impromptu visitor walking through the display. Can you find the two glowing eyes?
