The Lubbock Haunted House That Scared Me Before I Ever Owned One

Before I owned a haunted house, I had only been to one haunted house.

I've now owned haunted houses for 20 years, which means I've also been building and designing them for 21 years. The funny thing is, I didn't have much of a reference guide when I started.

The whole idea came from people calling the radio station every October asking, "Where are the haunted houses at?"

The Lubbock Jaycees Had The Original Haunted House

Lubbock has had a number of haunted houses throughout its history, but the only one that seemed to stick around for any real length of time was the Lubbock Jaycees Haunted House at the South Plains Fairgrounds.

The Jaycees Haunted House was about as basic and old-school as they come. To the best of my recollection, it wasn't much more than black walls, white sheets, and blacklight UV paint. At the time, you couldn't even get a plastic skeleton at the store.

A 1984 story from the University Daily in the Southwest Collection lists admission at $3 per person, $10 for five people, with $1 off if you brought a can of food. That year, proceeds benefited a food kitchen at the South Plains AIDS Resource Center and Big Brothers and Sisters of Lubbock.

So what was scary about it?

You really didn't know what to expect.

The Jaycees were little gremlins who seemed to take a perverse pride in giving big guys like me the heebie-jeebies. There wasn't a fortune worth of special effects. There weren't giant animatronics or elaborate computer-controlled scares. They just knew when to jump out, when to disappear, and how to make you nervous.

Read More: Win Your Way In To Nightmare On 19th Street

This past year, I purchased an animatronic spider that would seriously cover several house payments for most people.

But magic is magic.

Sometimes it takes a giant spider to scare people.

And sometimes all it takes is black walls, spray paint, and somebody waiting in exactly the right place.