Good News: Amarillo resident brings a needed uplift with Halloween decorations

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - In southwest Amarillo, there is a yard absolutely packed full of Halloween decorations.

The festive creation results from an endeavor brought by some new neighbors in Amarillo.

“It’s been a labor of love for many years and we just want to share it with the city of Amarillo. We’re new here,” Louanne Gordon, a new Amarillo resident who is sharing Halloween decorations.

Amazingly, each piece is drawn out by hand, cut out, and hand painted by Gordon. The collection steadily grows every year.

And the work she puts into it is a process.

“I draw it on the plywood and I cut it out with a jigsaw and I hand paint them. Some of them are characters that people will recognize,” Gordon said. “I just keep adding to it, that’s part of the problem with this. It gets bigger and bigger and I have to find some place to store it.”

Gordon and her family want to offer some good old fashioned fun to their new community this Halloween by offering an extravagant – yet, safe and non-scary display for people to come and enjoy, both day and night.

“It’s safe, it’s not scary and so all the little ones have something to do. They especially love the cut outs where they can choose what they want to be. They can Spider-Man or Superman or they can be the princesses,” Gordon said.

Gordon’s daughter, Lisa Summers, said this is a family, friendly activity for the spooky holiday.

“This is family oriented. This is something you can do with the kids, something you can be involved in and take family pictures, you can come be part of it, it’s supposed to be fun, something you can do on Halloween that doesn’t include scary, especially with little ones,” Summers said.

Watching people come and enjoy the decorations is also providing a source of joy for the family as they deal with some difficult issues after a trying and complicated move from California.

“We lived in this house with two camping chairs and one ice chest for almost three weeks because the movers were trying to get our things here,” Gordon said.

They have also been under a recent cloud of health concerns in the family.

“Because we were foster parents for 30 years, I have one daughter and her sister, and she just faced brain surgery and that was this week. She’s recovering and we are saying prayers for her,” Gordon said.

She would love nothing more than to see smiles on faces of people dropping by.

“You know we just want folks to come out and enjoy themselves and bring their kids and of course we have candy,” Gordon said. “I already got to give out candy this morning. It’s 9911 Addelyn and it’s in Hillside Terrace, right off of Soncy. We are so thrilled that anyone can come and enjoy it because it’s no fun if nobody comes and sees it.”

You can enjoy some safe, non-scary fun, and you can bring some joy to the creators.

Now, that’s some good news.

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