CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — When it comes to Halloween, people in Clarksville have traditions. There's the Fright on Franklin trick-or-treating event; Rocky Horror at the Roxy Regional Theatre; Sarah Garcia's neighborhood.
Wait. Why is Sarah Garcia's neighborhood a tradition?
"We have almost 50 skeletons," Garcia smiled, standing in a yard of elaborate skeleton designs. "My neighbors said, 'you can't stop. You have to keep doing this. It's hilarious!'"
Every October, 2679 Elkmont Drive in Clarksville sees the return of the Bones Family.
"We have Mr. Bones," Garcia said, gesturing to one skeleton. "He is married to Mrs. Bones. Tiny is our dinosaur. We have Junior who is riding Tiny."
"We have great, great, great, great, great grandpa Ug," she smiled, pointing to a caveman skeleton.
Garcia turned to a little scene of skeletons carrying props.
"The Boneses are in the middle of planning their family reunion. It is the 29,000th family reunion for the Boneses."
Sarah sees to it this scene is changed every single day.
"We're very careful to never repeat a scene that we've done in the past 10 years," she said.
Garcia said on Halloween night alone, they see more than 1,000 kids.
For about 10 years, this was a project between Sarah's family and her dad, Glen Gustafson. Gustafson was a Vietnam veteran and a man of the theater.
"I know he was in a production of 'Oklahoma,'" Garcia smiled.
Gustafson took that love of the theatrical, and even more key, his building skills as an engineer and contractor, and brought it all to the Bones Family. Gustafson died last year, and Garcia thought about ending the Bones family tradition. Then she realized, people love the Bones Family too much for them to stay buried.
"We've had people plan vacations around this!" she said.
It continues with something special just for Garcia's dad.
"He would tell me, 'when I die, just put me in the graveyard with the Boneses!" she laughed. "So we did!"
A prop gravestone tribute to Gustafson now stands in the middle of the cemetery display in front of the house. Garcia said it's something her dad would love.
"He'd definitely be proud of it," she said. "There are moments things just come together perfectly, and I know it's my dad just smiling down on me."
