Ghouls still on the prowl

Homes with ghoulish decorations for Halloween may not have the benefit of exposure on Burbank's public television station this year, but that hasn't stopped the would-be witches of the Halloween holiday from going crazy with seasonal décor.

A cross-section of the city's families are still going all-out in their efforts to frighten children and pass out goodies.

The path leading to the front door of Francis Hobaugh's house, for instance, is lined with pitchforks and her doorway crawls with giant spiders.

Every year, Hobaugh decorates the outside of her Bel Aire Drive home for Halloween, and each time she picks a theme.

"This year is creepy ghouls," Hobaugh said.

The ghoulish figures hang on the trees in her front yard, as do the eyeballs that light up at night.

There are even skeletal hands sticking out from the grass.

"At 8 p.m., I turn on the creepy things," Hobaugh said.

"We put a fog machine out and music."

Although Hobaugh takes the time to decorate her house, her husband and children help out as well.

But she admits that her children, ages 16 and 18 respectively, have outgrown the fun of decorating for Halloween.

"Now they are bigger, they help pass the candies out," she said.

"The kids do like it, even though they don't say much."

She spends nearly $100 on candy to give to neighborhood children when they come to trick-or-treat, she said.

Hobaugh plans on continuing her decorating tradition, even though her children don't take as much interest.

For the McCarthy family, decorating for Halloween is a tradition.

The front lawn of the home with the white picket fence holds an inflatable ghost riding on a motorcycle.

On the other side of the lawn sits an inflatable hotrod carrying Frankenstein's monster and his friends — a witch and a ghost.

"Every year, we do something like this," said Lauren McCarthy, 8.

"My brothers end up having fights with the spiders."

Lauren added that she helps decorate the pumpkins that sit on the porch while her brother, Dennis, 6, arranges bales of hay for the pumpkins.

He also puts together a cemetery.

"We usually have tombstones," Dennis said.

The McCarthys also have a Halloween village inside their home.

Miniature houses, lampposts and figures comprise the village that lights up at night.

"I try to decorate for every season," said Amanda McCarthy, Dennis and Lauren's mother.

The Orange Grove Avenue home of Casey Allread, 14, and his mother Laurie, is a work in progress.

Casey and his mother are still not done with decorating their house.

The cob-webbed archway on their front lawn leads to a graveyard with tombstones.

"I'm going to lie behind a tombstone and scare someone," Casey said.

But the Allreads plan on making additions to their graveyard.

They have yet to bring in a coffin and a skeleton in order to put on the finishing touches for their creation.