It was a warm afternoon the day I came to the first night of the Empty Grave. The date was August 16th. Yep. You heard right: August 16th. For a Halloween maze, that's early...really early. Well, this is the story: Earlier this year, the Anaheim Gardenwalk where the haunt is located at was acquired by new owners who set out to improve the ever struggling outdoor mall. Aware of the Empty Grave and its success since moving to the mall, they approached Mike Talarico, the owner of the maze about possibly moving into a new location within the mall. This new location is actually right across from where we once were. The location was a former Hollister location with its own set of restrooms and an area that we can use for an actual backstage area. The only rub was that we would be willing to open mid August in an effort to get some crowds from the Disneyland Resort across the street. Sure enough, Mike agreed and got the notice that we would be indeed opening August 16th. As it wasn't officially the Halloween Season, our hours Fri-Sat was from 6:30-10pm and Sundays it was 6:30-9:30pm. As I have school and no driver license, I was only able to do Fri and Saturdays this season. I do admit, it did feel weird to be back scaring people in the middle of summer. Plus my scaring ability was a bit rusty. But the first night went without a hitch. A decent amount of people came and the first weekend was a huge success for Mike and us.
Would I be willing to come back next season? Thats a yes. But I'll have to learn how to drive as my parents wouldn't be willing to keep this up. But I do enjoy scaring people even if its just a volunteering thing and I'm not getting paid.
