‘BONE’ APPETIT

When the Trick or Treaters ring the doorbell at the Ivanhoe home of John and Penny Bowyer to retrieve their treat on Halloween night, it might be a bone-chilling experience.
The Bowyers have seven life-sized skeletons, or adorning their front yard in various poses. Some are posed as if they are climbing up on the roof of the Bowyer’s home, clinging to the rain gutters, or even riding a bicycle. There is also a skeleton spider on the back basket of the bicycle.
Passers-by often slow down or stop to look at their collection of posed six-foot skeletons each year.
“Decorating outside has been something John and I have done for Halloween and Christmas,” said Penny Bowyer.
Besides decorating for holidays, the Bowyers are also a golfing family. John and Penny’s daughter, Lauren, finished eighth in the Class A state tournament for Minneota this past spring and is now playing golf for the University of Minnesota-Crookston.
So, the Bowyers started the skeleton tradition in 2018 with four of the bony figures at a Trunk or Treat event in Ivanhoe. They set up a mock golf course utilizing the four skeletons; one working behind the bar at at “Skully’s Clubhouse and Spirits”, and the other three posed as golfers with one putting, one pushing a golf cart that looked like a coffin, and another driving a golf cart. There was even a skeleton dog posed with one leg up against flower pot.
“It was a good time, of course,” Penny said. “So, I repurposed those ‘friends’ year after year, trying to pose them different each year.”
The Bowyers purchased the first four skeletons from Menards, and have added to the collection each year. They now have seven in the scene this year.
“We use zip ties to pose them,” said Penny, when asked how they keep them from being knocked down by the high winds this area has had the past week. “We call them our friends that come to visit us each October. We love to have them crawling all over.”
The scene is illuminated by flood lights, making the night scene even more realistic.
“I think people love to drive by at bight when we have the lights on,” said Penny. “A lot of times we will see kids driving by to check out our friends, or parents bringing kids around on their golf carts to check ‘em out. Before we put the skeletons out, people will ask us when we are going to put them up, and sometime in October our ‘friends’ always come back to visit.”
But the skeletons aren’t the only thing that seem to entice Trick-or-Treaters to the Bowyer home each Halloween. The treats the Bowyers give out are also desirable to the little costumed kids.
“In past years, we have given out cans of pop, full-size candy bars, tubs of cotton candy, cups, and note pads and pencils,” Penny noted. “This year will be something new again, so kids will have to come for the new treat this year.”
The Bowyers average around 90 Trick-or-Treaters each Halloween.
“Every year we always have one of the skeletons over the door so they look at the kids from above,” Penny said.