Socko Returns From The Grave After Three-Year Absence

By Tanjua Damon

He’s back and it has everything to do with crazy movies and gory, gross special effects found in horror films. Socko’s Haunted Yard is back this year after being mysteriously missing from the Newtown Halloween festivities.

But the ghosts and goblins are ready to scare the dickens out of people who come to experience the Haunted Yard located behind Botsford Fire Company this year. The Yard will be open starting October 19, 20, 21, and will be open October 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31 for those who dare to take the walk around the Haunted Yard from 6:30 to 10:30 pm each night. The cost is $5 for children 12 and under and $8 for anyone over the age of 13.

This year the Yard is being co-sponsored by the Botsford Fire Company and Newtown Youth Services, according to Rick Mariani, who is better known as “Socko.” The proceeds from the event will benefit the two co-sponsors. It will probably take about a half-hour to travel around the spooky yard, experiencing the unexpected.

 Socko would not give too much away about what will be experienced through the Haunted Yard. He did say, however, that some of the old favorites like Cave Dweller will be back.

“I just like to do things for the kids,” he said. “This is a thing to get the whole community together.”

People who enter the Yard will hold onto a rope with knots to keep everyone together and so there are not any wanderers in the yard, Socko said. Scaring people is part of the game, so beware!

“Expect the unexpected,” he said.

Socko began his Haunted Yard in 1986 at his own house on Buttonball Drive. It grew from something simple into something extraordinary.

“It started off small with me in a coffin giving out candy from my house,” Socko said. “It got so big. I was approached by the Family Life Center and NYS to generate money for them.”

He admits it takes a lot of time and people to pull the Haunted Yard off, but he enjoys the challenge.

“It’s a labor of love,” he said. “I’m getting a lot of people who are interested in this type of thing and who were into it when they were kids.”

Mr Mariani thanks everyone who has helped put the Haunted Yard together, especially Billy Robertson of Robertson Painting, Glen Dean, Pizza Villa, My Place, and Carminucci’s, Youth Advisory Board members, and Ken Mariani.

If you are looking for creatures lurking in the night, the Haunted Yard could be your first place to search. For more information on the Haunted Yard, contact Rick Mariani at 270-1397.

For all you people out there who said they would help get the Haunted Yard ready, he is still looking for your help. So stop by the Botsford Fire Company Monday, Wednesday, Friday, at 6:30 pm, and this weekend, the last weekend, at 1 pm, or just call 270-1397.