By Emily Williams
The spirits have arrive
d early at the Mountain Brook home of Roye and Phyllis Tinsley as the couple prepares for their annual Halloween party and scavenger hunt, a party they say has become a tradition.
About 40 years ago, the Tinsleys attended a party in a small town house in North Carolina where the hosts created a scavenger hunt for their guests. According to Phyllis, the two never forgot how much fun they had and felt it natural to incorporate the hunt into their own Halloween festivities.
While Phyllis prepares the house, Roye is in charge of creating the clues for the scavenger hunt – usually sending participants to local Mountain Brook landmarks in Crestline and Mountain Brook Village to collect clues. The clues lead to a golf ball painted to look like a jack-o’-lantern. Once they have the golf ball in hand, the teams race back to the house to claim their prize, a case of beer.
“This year we are doing something a little bit different,” Roye said. “I’ve made two different hunts, so if somebody decides to follow another group, it may take them in the wrong direction.”
According to the Tinsley’s, the local police are aware that the Tinsley Party will be out in full force on Halloween. One of the first years of the party, Roye said, police officers almost arrested a couple during the scavenger hunt, thinking that they were up to no good.
As October begins, Roye starts creating clues while Phyllis fires up her stove.
“Every year I serve my homemade vegetable soup and chili,” Phyllis said. She added that the feast requires more than five crock pots, effectively filling her entire kitchen with sustenance for the crowd. She said it’s a lot of work, but she wouldn’t change it for the world.
“I want to make it personal,” Phyllis said. “I don’t want everything to be catered. I feel like I’ve got to have my hand in it.”
Growing up in Durham, North Carolina, Phyllis said, her mother was more business-minded but their neighbor was an excellent cook, so much so that she became Phyllis’ idol. She would go to her neighbor’s house and help make German chocolate cakes.
“That’s where I picked up the decorating from,” she said. “I still haven’t mastered some of the baking, but I’ve got her pound cake down.”
Though she can’t cook three months in advance, Phyllis said she begins purchasing bowls, spoons, plates and napkins during the summer to save money where she can. As for decorations, her collection needs no major additions.
The dining room is complete with a life-sized skeleton bride and groom seated at either end of a table. On the table, a large skeleton emerges from a cauldron with a top hat and a forceful scream to greet guests. Every inch of the house is filled with a little something spooky.
“We’ll be bringing in ghost lights that will be projected on some of these walls,” Phyllis said as she described the outdoor party space.
She said the crowd each year takes over the entire house, gathering in smaller groups on the back patio, throughout the living room and at little bistro tables on the front porch.
“You’ve got so many conversation areas. The older guests will come and have soup and then they’ll go home. You may have somebody my daughter’s age who wants to play and party and they go on the scavenger hunt, so not everyone is there at one time.”
Phyllis estimates that as many as 130 guests filter in and out of her home on Halloween night. She said she never gets a really good count because she’s busy in the kitchen.
“I’ve got to make sure that the food is hot,” she said. “I’m not in the catering business, so you’ve got to keep your mind sharp. I can’t be having any champagne.”
She doesn’t don a costume either, just a simple pair of owl glasses and a festive apron. She leaves the costuming to her guests.
“Some of them really get detailed on designing their own costumes,” she said. “I’ve never known one to rent. Some of them are very theatrical.”
Every year, she said, she finds little gifts during the post-party clean up with notes attached to them.
Because it is a Halloween party, Phyllis said she always has something for the local trick-or-treaters. Instead of regular candies, Phyllis takes it upon herself to lend her personal touch to the treats she hands out. For neighborhood children who know her family, she offers up homemade candy apples. For parents who are weary of unwrapped candies, Phyllis has found a fun alternative to sweets in the form of Halloween rings.
“You can buy them at wholesale outlets and kids love them,” she said. “They are little spider rings and they have different colored stones all over them. They go wild for the candy apples.”
Though the party normally continues well into the evening, Phyllis said the crowd is always fun and never rowdy.
“I have never had anything broken at any of my parties,” she said. “I’ve had one thing broken in my life and it was at a Christmas tea.” Instead of missing items, Phyllis said she normally finds new items that guests have left around the house to add to the decorations.
“It just goes to show that there is still such a thing as good, clean fun,” Phyllis said.
