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Show arts and people behind the scenes The Wednesday October 21, 1987 t i Loft frights r f i f i RUTH MALAN When you can scare adults its really fun, said Mrs. Sessions. The countywide project will be put together with the help of the six high school drama and art departments. The large main room of the building will be divided into six rooms, each one done by a different school. The schools will be competing for a $200 cash prize. Lakeside Review correspondent FRUIT HEIGHTS If enough peo- ple are willing to pay to be scared this Halloween, Kaysville area senior citizens will get a meeting place a little sooner. The $3 per person admission to one of Davis Countys scariest spook alleys will help fund the construction of a Senior Citizens Center in Kaysville. The Rock Loft Horror Castle will be open to the public Oct. 23 through 31 excluding Sunday. It is open from 7 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 7 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. The Rock Loft is located at 200 South on 1600 East, also known as Mountain Road. Neal Sessions of Centerville, employed by Davis County Aging Services, is in charge of the spook alley production. He and his wife Alice had their first date on Halloween and have been involved with scaring people ever since that first costume party together. Inside and out, demons are everywhere at Rock Loft. .4.' Judges and those participating in the ghostly experience will have the opportunity to help choose the winner. The Rock Loft, actually a fruit processing plant, has features which lend themselves to spook alley production. A fruit cooler, which runs the length of the rear of the building, is an asset to the spook alley. A boiling vat, a crypt done by syndicated cartoonist Val Bag-lewind and leaves will all set the stage for an eerie experience. An open casket decked with a funeral arrangement on the front porch, spider webs collected around the eves, a partially buried body in the flower garden, d strange figures in the yard and a unand suspecting vampire greet suspecting visitors at the Sessions home. The couple delight in thrilling and scaring trick or treaters each Halloween. This year their talents will also be displayed at the Rock Loft Horror Castle. The amount of scares and thrills will be geared to the group and their ages as they go through the castle making if safe and fun for all ages. y, t mtj. black-robe- is to help provide the The senior citizen population of the county with a new center, which will be built on the City Hall block in Kaysville. Ground will be broken for the facility in April, said Helen Hough, of the council on Aging. fund-rais- er The number of people over age 60 will double in just a few years, said Sessions. Refreshments will be sold at the spook alley. There will be a spotlight to help thrillseekers locate the Rock Loft. Skeleton floats in vat behind Rock Loft spook alley. Dracula and his buddy are ready to frighten visitors to the Rock Loft in Fruit Heights this Hallowee. Fruit packing plant scene of Halloween thrills said Dale Jost, owner of the rock building. There was a need of a packing plant designed just for processing sweet cherries, thus it was built with long drains RUTH MALAN Lakeside Review correspondent Nestled against FRUIT HEIGHTS the mountains east of the Great Salt Lake, the Rock Loft has been the scene of more than one spook alley and many dances and parties. Though it was not built for that purpose the huge rock structure has witnessed family parties, banquets, dances and all types of social activities since its construction in the 1940s. The purpose of the building is for the packing and processing of sweet cherries. When it was built the Jost family had the largest cherry orchard in Utah, and loading docks for receiving and shipping. Josts father, who retired in 1950, began developing the plant during World War II. No conventional building materials were available at that time. The family couldnt buy cinder block or cement without a priority number, said Jost. When Jost came home from the service he gave up his commission to help his father build the processing plant. Since no block was available, they used the flood rock from nearby Baer Canyon. Cement was shipped in from the Midwest and the packaging and processing and growplant was built. Three ers from throughout northern Utah ship cherries to the Fruit Heights plant. The plant has two primary functions. There are huge tanks to make marachino stock for fruit cocktail Libby, shipped to S & W, Hunts and Del Monte. They also sort, clean, size and pack cherries for grocery stores back east. co-o- Lily-McNe- il, This was the 40th year for packing and processing cherries. The facility has been used for other businesses such as a distribution center for insulation, eggs and aircraft parts. The huge Rock Loft sign on top of the structure was the largest neon sign in the state when it was installed, said Jost. It was given its name for the banquet center on the second floor of the building. During the late 1940s dining and Friday and Saturday night dancing to live orchestra were enjoyed by the community. It has housed many social activities, said Jost. Churches, college groups and otheys have enjoyed the hospitality of the Rock Loft owners. The walls, the long refrigeration tunnel for cooling fruit, the vats for boiling water, and the orchard heaters all add life and dimension to a 16-in- spook alley. Jost said the Rock Loft cherry proplant is known more in of Utah than it is here. The Rock Loft is located on what used to be the main highway, at 200 South Mountain Road, just two blocks above Highway 89. cessing states-outsid- Clinton Castle scares visitors for ' JEAN '! ! f ''T'r1 'T'TiSi MATTHEWS Lakeside Review correspondent ' , t i 1-- tCUA a . t $ AL 4 $ It ! A, The Wilson CLINTON home, 933 W. 2300 N., Clinton, has been a buzz of activity the past few weeks. According to June Wilson, acting president of Golden Spike Country Music, her family members and their families and willing neighbors are combining their efforts in the construction of the Clinton Castle which we hope will spook everybody real good. The Clinton Castle will feature a spooky walk that winds through the garage, onto the patio, around the play yard where a moat will be filled with water, out to the pasture which is being turned into a forest by hauling in trees, through the barn lot and ending in the barn. The list of those who will participate in the spook job, beginning Oct. 21 and continuing through Halloween night, includes 5 to 20 youngsters in the 42 participants so far. They are looking forward to a lot of fun, but the real payoff is what the funds collected from ticket sales will be used for. This year the music group plans to use the funds from the castle to purchase a video cassette retelevicorder for the sion at the Veterans Hospital along with homemade goodies and fruit they have always given. They also plan to perform their Christmas show at the hospital in Roy this year. Forgetting about their musical careers for a few weeks, however, members are focusing their attention to the spooky castle they arc creating in Clinton. The castle 1 big-scre- Staff photos by Bruce Bennett Tyson Dozens of neighbors, including inquisitive Wallace, help June Wilson create Clinton Haunted Castle. t Nicole Songer is among volunteers taking a stab at scaring visitors to Haunted Castle. will be open from 7 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until p.m. on Friday and Saturdays. On Halloween night they plan to keep the castle open until the 1 1 last person goes through. The cost is $1 for youngsters and older. and $2 for This fascinating story has its beginning 37 years ago when Junes mother, Hazel Park, organized the Open Door Foundation and rest started visiting shut-inhomes and hospitals. Jensen Floral donated flowers that were given to patients and s, the elderly along with the musical program Hazel put together. The foundation functioned until when Mrs Park organized the Golden Spike Country. Music group that has performed 17 years ago See CASTLE, page 2D t. . AJ'M A ... Pumpkin insides slime off the fingers of Nathan Smith, 11, ; of Clinton, a pumpkin carver for the Castle." |