By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
The extensive Halloween decorations on and around Paul Capozzi’s North Second Street home made it a magnet for Olean trick-or-treaters Saturday night.
The decorations — all kinds of skeletons, ghosts, spiders and pumpkins — came from budget retail stores and garage sales, Capozzi, 83, commented between trick-or-treaters and their parents.
There were small skulls and eyeballs mounted on the fence at the sidewalk.
Two of the favorite decorations were skeletons racing bikes across the first floor roofline. One of the skeletons had crashed and dangled from the roof along with the bike.
In the yard, a couple of skeletons are seated on a bench. A photograph shows what they looked like when they were alive, Capozzi said. On the other side of the house, a couple with a dog (also a skeleton) sit at a table.
Skeletons are climbing the white wooden columns on either side of the front steps.
The trick-or-treaters walked wide-eyed up the sidewalk to the porch when Capozzi’s son John, dressed like a harlequin, handed out candy.
Capozzi left Olean 60 years ago to join the U.S. Navy. “It took me 60 years to get back. I lived in California. I just moved back last year.”
He lost his partner of 45 years and didn’t want to live in the California house anymore. “I started out here and I’ll end up here,” he commented to the Olean Star.
He had such a good time decorating the house for Halloween last year that decided to do it again this year. He had help from his son.
The favorite of passersby seems to be the skeleton on a bike falling off the roof, Capozzi said. The skeletons and other decorations came largely from garage sales this summer, he smiled. “There’s even one on rollerskates.
Capozzi’s Halloween display gets plenty of attention from people visiting the Olean Public Library, which is across North Second Street from his home.
“We decorate at Christmas too,” he said.
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