This article was published by the Lockeford Clements News on Wednesday, November 15, 2000.

Crowds brave the elements for haunted house
at Locke Road Winery

By Hannah Schardt

Even chilly weather and intermittent rain couldn't keep the crowds away from the Olde Lockeford Winery's Haunted House on Halloween and the weekend before.

The winery, with its echoing corridors and cavernous holding tanks, proved an irresistibly ideal setting for Karyn and Don Litchfield, the new owners. After weeks of planning, decorating, and recruiting friends to staff the event, the couple opened the winery's doors on Friday night, Oct. 27, to find a line of people that, at its peak, reached all the way around the scale house office, a distance of several hundred feet.

"It went extremely well," said Karyn Litchfield. "It by far exceeded any of our expectations."

Visitors From Far Away

On Friday night, at least 800 people waited for up to two hours to tour the winery. Litchfield, who acted in the skits and led people through, said visitors came from as far away as Riverbank, Sacramento, and Modesto.

"We hardly heard any complaints. The wait was long, but almost everybody stayed," she said.

To keep the waiting crowd happy, hotdogs and tri-tip sandwiches were offered by Lockeford's Greyan's Grillicious Roundup. Stockton's KWIN radio station broadcasted from the winery on Friday, to the delight of the hundreds of cold customers.

"KWIN was a blast," said Litchfield. "They played lots of really good music - not a lot of rap."

Once visitors made it to the front of the line, they were transported by the "Morbid Ghoul Bus" - a spookily decorated former school bus - to the beginning of the tour.

From there they walked through the dark passages of the 65-year-old winery, confronted at every turn by uniquely winery-appropriate ghouls. In the courtyard, where an Italian-style deli will eventually be open to the public, the "Mad Deli Man" grossed out visitors as he sliced "human arms." Nearby, continuing in the same vein, was "The Mad Winemaker."

Dinosaur Collection

Not quite so thematic were an enormous spider web and a display of the Litchfields' impressive collection of dinosaur bones and fossils. For once aiming more to scare than to educate, the couple gave the dinosaur skeletons decidedly unscientific red glowing eyes.

Next on the winery's busy social calendar is the Chamber of Commerce's annual Christmas Mixer, Dec.6. The Litchfields will host a dual ribbon cutting ceremony--for themselves and for the CasCande Pitto Winery--at the mixer.

"I just packed up my Halloween stuff and now I have to pull out the Christmas stuff," said Litchfield.

The Olde Lockeford Winery, which is set to open to the public for tasting within the coming year, will eventually house the wine-making and selling operations of up to eight winemakers.

This article was re-printed with the permission of the Lockeford Clements News.

Check them out at www.lcnews.iscool.net .

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