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Fresno man provides biggest 'boo!' on the block
Published online on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009
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When Jeffrey Gonzalez says "I'm a nut" -- he's probably telling the truth.
Why else would a man turn his backyard into a huge haunted house each year and invite anyone who wants to come?
How else would you explain him taking a week off work each October to prepare all the thrills and terrors?
What else would possess him to spend 60 hours building an attraction that's going to be used only one night and is free to the public?
"People think I'm crazy," says Gonzalez, 42.
IF YOU GO
Jeffrey Gonzalez's haunted house is at 5757 E. Erin Ave., off California Avenue, between Clovis and Fowler avenues.
Or, he just really loves Halloween.
Think of the guy in your neighborhood who really likes to decorate his house for Christmas. Gonzalez is him, times one thousand.
With the help of his wife, Cheryl, and about 20 volunteers, his maze of a haunted house has been going for five years now. Last year, Gonzalez's haunted house -- in a five-house cul-de-sac in southeast Fresno -- drew 700 people from around the city.
Kids were lined up before the sun even went down. The line stretched to the middle of the cul-de-sac, where he had set up an old beat-up ambulance with its lights flashing.
For Gonzalez, who grew up in Sanger, is into all things creepy. He started the Sanger Paranormal Society. He has a room in his house devoted to aliens. Come Halloween, he likes to turn things around and do the scaring.
"I just like to scare the crap out of people," he says, noting his haunted house is not young-kid friendly.
The whole thing started in his garage with just a couple of haunted rooms.
Soon, he was expanding to his backyard. Then, his next-door neighbor offered to help. For the past couple years, the last leg of the haunt is his neighbor's backyard.
Earlier this week, Gonzalez was busy putting together spooky scenes that include a skeleton wedding and an alien giving birth to a baby.
In front of his house -- which is already set up with a casket and a skeleton hanging from a lamp post -- he's setting up a huge TV, so people in line can watch the reactions of others making their way through his maze of mayhem.
"I have a reputation now," he says. "If I stop, people are going to get mad."
The columnist can be reached at mosegueda @fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6479. Read his blog at fresnobeehive.com.
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