The 'Spirit' of Halloween

SPIRIT LAKE — When the breeze blows, tread lightly outside the home of Mike and Debbie Bendig.

They have strange friends — some that used to be dead.

“They all come alive when the wind starts in,” Debbie said.

And when they’re alive, they can be frightening.

They are ghosts and ghouls and goblins. They are snarling black cats and howling wolves. They are red-eyed skeletons and a moldy mummy. They are screeching witches and slithering snakes. And yes, when the wind blows, they come to life, as if inviting passersby in for a closer look.

Which is exactly what the Bendigs want.

This year, they arranged nearly 100 displays, almost all inflatables, on their property at 32225 N. Kelso Drive.

“We just love Halloween,” says Debbie, the ringleader of this tribute to all things that go bump in the night.

The Bendigs, originally from Brooklyn, have called Spirit Lake home for 25 years.

They love it here.

“People that are born out in Idaho can be nicer people,” Debbie said.

Just like the Bendigs, who invite guests to visit their monsters of mayhem from noon to 6 p.m. Visitors can either stay in their vehicles and drive through or park along the road and walk the 400-foot circular driveway from the front gate to their home.

Watch out for the skeletons and dragons near the main gate.

And don’t leave the driveway — for your own safety.

“We don’t want anybody to get hurt,” Debbie said.

She’s referring more to the electrical cords that snake along the ground, providing the power to keep the creatures inflated, alive and well, and the stakes that hold them in place — though they might come in handy if a vampire swoops in.

Because here, around Halloween, the dead come to life. The Grim Reaper is near, as is the Headless Horseman.

And they are watching you.

“They all kind of rise up and when the wind is going, you plug them in, smack them around a few times and they all go back where they belong,” Debbie said.

While the characters are creepy — if you listen you’ll hear laughter and voices that seem to come from the shifting shadows — this spooky scene actually leaves you smiling.

Admire the graveyard gargoyles. The casket-carrying skeletons. The tombstone where “Pearl E Gates” rests in peace. The sinister spider. The rabid rat. The crazy crown that stands 12 feet tall. Watch out for the vulture eating a pile of bones, as the wind might blow him your way.

It's all in good fun.

Each year, the Bendigs add to their collection. Debbie loves creating just the right mood.

“Every year is different. I try to put them in different spots,” she said.

Debbie Bendig is the queen of clearance. A discount diva. Last year, after Halloween, she bought four witches at Home Depot.

But she regrets it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t take all six, but I thought I should leave two for somebody else,” she said.

What she also loves about inflatables is they’re easy to store. She meticulously deflates them and returns them to their boxes in early November, where they sit in storage waiting to be released the next year.

“That big snake comes in a box this big,” she said, holding her hands a few feet apart.


The Bendigs will soon celebrate their 50th anniversary. Mike is retired from the New York Telephone Company,

When they set out to find a new home, Montana was the destination.

“But there was nothing there,” Debbie said. “So we just kept on going on I-90 and I saw Kmart and I said, ‘Stop the car, Mike. Stop the car.’”

They ended up buying about 10 acres just outside the main hub of Spirit Lake off Highway 54.

“Here we are,” Debbie said.

Mike said he’s not as filled with the spirit of Halloween as his wife. But when it comes to creating spine-tingling scenes, he’s mastered unwrapping electrical cords, pounding stakes in place, carrying the dead to new resting places.

For his wife, of course.

“I love her,” he said.

Debbie loved Halloween growing up. She and friends went trick or treating and each had two costumes so they could return for seconds to the homes that gave out the biggest and best candy bars.

Today, she still loves sharing her hair-raising hobby.

“I kind of am obsessed,” she said.