ISYV Magazine: Mr. Mosebar Goes to Washington

2006 Autumn Home Page
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By Connie Cody

Chances are there's not a kid in Solvang who hasn't been to Roberta and Kevin Skidmore's home at 1647 Oak Street on Halloween. Not only does the younger set know this prime trick-or-treating destination, their parents and grandparents come along and talk about the days when they came there themselves, years ago.

For the past 27 years, every Halloween night the front yard of the Skidmores' historic Solvang cottage becomes a light-hearted homage to Halloween.

Out comes the fog machine, headstones with epitaphs taken from fairy tales, spider webs, crosses. Stuffed soft "monsters" laze in lounge chairs, crows on their shoulders. A scary 12-foot- high wizard in black looms over the "graveyard," red eyes glowing. Skeletons in gaudy clothes or pirate garb sit in chairs or perch on the roof. Giant spiders, strobe lights, black lights, colored lights-all a part of the setting. And every year it's different.

"Some years we add something, some years we take away. It's all just theatrics," explains Kevin, a Solvang letter carrier.

Impressive as the setting is, it is the display of pumpkins that really catches your eye. Bright orange jack o' lanterns of all sizes are everywhere. Their carved-out faces reflect yellow candle light into the night. Twenty, thirty, forty-every year the number of jack o' lanterns increases; last year, with the help of friends and family, they carved nearly 80 pumpkins.

"It just started to grow and grow," Kevin laughs, but Roberta says it really all started when she was in junior high school.

"My father owned Ritter Dairy, out on Santa Rosa Road. It was fun to carve several pumpkins and put them around our front yard." Her dad brought in bales of hay to use as pedestals for the pumpkins Roberta carved. The few visitors they had to their rural farm enjoyed the artistic pumpkin display. With her sister's encouragement, Roberta carved her display of pumpkins every year and it became a family tradition.

Young children in costume often come trick-or-treating before dark. Below, Roberta does all her pumpkin carving freehand. Bottom, Kevin and Roberta last year at Nojoqui Falls after heavy rainstorm.

"Halloween is a great time of year to celebrate," she says. "There's not the stress of Christmas. It's so much fun for the kids. This is a true fantasy time."

"I added it up once and was shocked at how much these Halloweens cost," Kevin laughs. "But I decided as long as it made Roberta happy, it was OK." It helped when local growers started giving the couple free pumpkins a few years ago.

Anyone who's ever carved a pumpkin wonders immediately how on earth they do it all.

"The carving is done the day and night before Halloween. In past years we finished pumpkin carving in a few hours; last year it took 12 hours with six people working."

Carving, which everyone does freehand, has always been Roberta's job though she's never turned down the help of friends and family.

It's Kevin's job to cut the pumpkin tops and clean out the innards. "I use a Sawz-all," he says. "The pumpkins are tough, especially the largest pumpkins. I fill two or three 33-gallon trash cans with innards. When it's all over with we haul all the pumpkins out to a farmer's field for his cows. Cows love to eat pumpkins," he says.

The event has become an much anticipated Solvang tradition over the years. Twice Roberta was sick at Halloween and they considered skipping the celebration; both times friends pitched in and pulled it off.

The Skidmores have two grown children, their son Jakob, who now lives in the Valley, and their daughter Katie who lives in Santa Rosa, California.

"They always helped growing up and still do from time to time. Katie tries to make it down from Santa Rosa, and now that Jakob is living in the Valley again, he helps more often," Roberta says.

Roberta, who makes the Danish Days' maid costume each year and also works at Valley Hardware, says she gets bummed that people don't understand Halloween and what a great time it is to celebrate with artistry and family."

Kevin & Mrs. Halloween