The cheating ex-wife, the vandal, and the last cat to ever poop on the lawn are laid to rest on a quiet residential Rossford street.
There too, rest Marty Kralik’s once-sweet daughters, the woeful Cleveland Indians, and Gloria, the faithful, loving dog who died in 2006.
The front view of Mr. Kralik’s home on Hannum Avenue looks like the spooky equivalent of the Griswold family’s Christmas decor, with dozens of homemade tombstones, zombies, skeletons, witches, severed limbs, and coffins.
Every year since 1997, the 48-year-old Rossford man has filled nearly ever available spot in his front yard — and he’s slowly taking over a neighbor's yard — with Halloween decorations.
“It’s progressively gotten worse. Or better. Depending how you look at it,” said Mr. Kralik, an Oregon police dispatcher and Rossford firefighter.
He started decorating for Halloween when he still lived with his mother decades ago, and started to pick up the pace when he bought his current home 18 years ago. He now uses two weeks of vacation time to make sure every decoration is just right.
“It’s a stress reliever from my two stressful jobs I’ve got,” he said.
Early in October, Mr. Kralik begins decorating, starting small by adding little things to his front porch. Once he starts clearing decorations out of storage — from his garage attic, home attic, and an off-site storage unit — things start to get serious. It takes several trips to retrieve everything from storage; this year, he said, three trips with a trailer were needed to move everything to the house.
“Christmas was getting so commercialized when I started decorating,” he said. “Now I think Halloween is more commercialized.”
Much of what’s set up at Mr. Kralik’s home he has made in his garage. Other pieces, like old mannequins, he bought cheap: $3 apiece when the Steve and Barry’s store in Northwood was closing. The skeleton bride’s dress was picked up in an eBay auction, clothes on other busts were bought at Goodwill. He said he draws inspiration from online forums and social media.
The decorations out front, including a custom “Haunt on Hannum” sign, draw a large crowd. Last year, Mr. Kralik said he had about 600 trick-or-treaters. He kept track by passing out a single Dum Dum lollipop to each child — there are 500 in a large bag. At some point through the night, he sent someone to a nearby store to pick up more candy.
The house is so popular that it has its own Facebook page, Haunt on Hannum.
Contact Taylor Dungjen at tdungjen@theblade.com, or 419-724-6054, or on Twitter @taylordungjen.
First Published October 31, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
