Prepare for a scare at Palma Sola haunted house

It happens every year around this time at 1703 Palma Sola Blvd.

Motorists pull up, gaze at the premises adorned in ghosts, ghouls and goblins, then eventually drive off.

“We go,‘Is it somebody we know? Or are they just checking out our haunted garden?’ ” joked Cheryl Hanbury, already knowing the answer.

Bet they’ll be back Saturday.

The haunted garden fronts an old barn the family turned into a rollicking haunted house and packs a lifelong devotion to a spooky good time shared on Halloween.

If you enjoy gargoyles, swamp creatures, witches, vampires and zombies with chamber music and smoke machines, then be there between 7 and 10 p.m.

Any donations will benefit the Gulf Shore Animal League.

“It started years ago when we were kids and we loved it,” said Hanbury, a Warren, Mich., native. “Dad loved Halloween. We built dummies, small haunted houses and had parties.

“Then when we moved here, we kind of got crazy and did it up for the community and kids. It’s gotten bigger and bigger.”

After years of holding the event in their home, they bought the neighboring property, enabling them to upgrade the family Halloween tradition.

“We always liked the mystery of it, and half the fun was seeing the kids enjoy themselves,” said Alicea Kaye, Hanbury’s mom. “It wasn’t bloody, gory, disgusting. It was imaginative.”

Her late husband, Norbert, wouldn’t want it any other way.

Most of the props are handmade and cleverly accessorized from years of post-Halloween sales, hanging or hovering where you least expect them.

“Watch your head and look both ways,” cautioned Kathy Kelton, Hanbury’s sister.

Some props are mechanized, like the disfigured creature rising from a toxic waste barrel.

Or the ghost woman swaying above the stairs.

Other props, manned by volunteers, will come to life noisily.

“We even had scream practice to see who can scream loudest. Or oddest,” Kelton said.

The family will be in costume participating, too, but their objective is to see the public has a frighteningly good time.

“People always ask, ‘Is someone going to grab me? Or push me?’ There’s no touching,” Hanbury said. “We may jump out and startle you. Some things are live. Some are not. You just have to find out.”

Vin Mannix, local columnist, can be reached at 745-7055, or write him at Bradenton Herald, P.O. Box 921, Bradenton FL 34206 or e-mail him at vmannix@bradenton.com. Please include a phone number for verification.