A blast from last Halloween in Middle Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Every year it's so much fun to meet the people who go the extra mile to make Halloween great.

So, I thought, why not go through the NewsChannel 5 archives and pick up some stories about the kings and queens of Halloween from Nashville's past?

It starts in 1993. For more than 30 years, the costume and makeup shop Performance Studios was the name of Halloween for Nashville. A 1993 piece appeared four years after its introduction. They were on Church Street. They can get you anything from one-of-a-kind items to the big costume of the year.

“Aladdin costumes, I have a sneaking suspicion that the Beverly Hillbillies will be popular,” a Performance Studios employee told NewsChannel 5 in 1993. “The Flintstones will be popular. The Munsters. The Addams Family.”

Let's go back again. It's hard to explain, but an 80s Halloween is particularly great.

The legend of the Bell Witch attracted visitors to the cave in Adams.

“I heard a table rattle,” one child said in an interview with NewsChannel 5. “Someone kicked it!”

“WHO?” the reporter is heard asking.

“The Bell Witch!”

It is this era, specifically 1987, when John Porter Gunter visited. I like this story.

“Get some colors and everything, mix them together and figure out what you want to draw,” Gunter said in the story, painting a pumpkin.

Gunter was the product manager of a grocery store in Rutherford County for more than twenty years. He suffered a stroke in 1985 and painted pumpkins in front of the store as therapy.

“I had to learn to speak again,” he said. “Hard to do, but I did it.”

“It calms me down,” he continued as he painted the pumpkins.

He could paint anything. His pumpkins had ghost hunters and cartoon characters painted on them. His most popular? The California Raisins. I mean, it was 1987 after all.

People loved what Gunter could give them.

“I just think it’s so clever, don’t you think?” One customer smiled.

That's exactly it. We have a long history here of people who just know how to make Halloween great.

Do you have any positive, good news? You can email me at [email protected].

Road trip to see some of our neighbors' best Halloween decorations

We are just a few days away from Halloween. This year, Americans are expected to spend around $12 billion on candy, costumes and decorations. In recent years it seems like more and more people are decorating their homes. Forrest Sanders had the opportunity to visit several communities in the midstate to view some of these Halloween decorations.

-Lelan Statom