I have read through The Very Long Story many times, and each time I do, more and more stories about my life come to mind. However, I really don't want to keep going back and inserting them into Part I, Part II, etc, since I have now published these online and would hate for anyone to have to start over reading them from the beginning. So, Part IV will be comprised of just stories, some a little longer than others, disconnected, and in no particular order.

Schools: I started out going to Kindergarten at Washington Elementary School in Monticello, IL, but switched to Roach ES when we moved to Decatur. I went there all the way through 5th grade. For 6th grade, I went to a private school, Decatur Christian Schools at Grace Baptist Church. What really sucked was that I had been looking forward to 6th grade for, well, 6 years. Sixth-graders "ruled the school"! Except at Grace, the grades were mixed together, and I was in a room with 6th, 7th, and 8th-graders. Back at the bottom. Oh well, there's always 8th grade... Except private school proved to be too expensive for us, so I started 7th grade at Roosevelt MS (still in Decatur), then finished that year at Nimitz MS in Odessa, Texas. I also started my 8th-grade year there, but then we moved back to Illinois, to a farm just outside Deland (pronounced DEE-land), and I finished 8th grade at Deland-Weldon ES (between the tiny towns of Deland and, well, you figure it out). Wow. Four schools in 3 years. Finally, I regained some stability when we moved back to Decatur and I went to Stephen Decatur HS for 2 whole years! Then we moved to Vegas and I finished high school at Rancho. Eight schools in all, and that's not counting all of the Navy schools I went to in Great Lakes, Mare Island, San Diego, and all over Hawaii. Good thing I liked to travel...

Bo: When I was born, my Mom had wanted to name me Bo. Bo Bradley. Bo Bradley Wheat, to be precise. However, Grandma told her that she "couldn't name that boy Bo" and had to "give him a proper name". So, Mom named me Scott Thomas. Scott was her little brother's middle name and Tom was her big brother's first name. But, from the day I was born, she and everyone else called me Bo. That was ok when I was little, but as I got older, the teasing got to be a bit much. When we moved to Texas near the end of my 7th grade year, I was still going by Bo, but for the last time. When I returned to Nimitz MS my 8th grade year, I went as Scott. Funny, a lot of people came up to me and asked me if I had a brother named Bo that went there last year. I told them Yes.

Boby Disney: My real father (my bio-pa as I refer to him) left before I was born. So for a while it was just Mom and me. And her best friend Jan and her 2 kids. The details are a little sketchy, but I remember living in Montana for a short while (yes, I actually remember being there, even though I was only a year or 2 old at the time), and I hear that we even gave New Jersey a try. At some point, we ended up back with Grandma and Grandpa in a huge 2-story house on Lincoln Ave. Mom and I had a room in the basement that had a wide cement ledge around 2 walls and an old metal oscillating fan. Grandma and Grandpa had a bedroom on the first floor (with separate beds). I don't remember where Bill's room was. Bill was (is) my uncle (Mom's little brother) and is just 2 years older than I. Since Mom and I ended up living there for the next couple of years, Bill and I were raised together like brothers. And, since Grandma and Grandpa's last name was Disney, I became known as Bo Disney, or, as Grandpa called me, Boby (with a long "o") Disney.

Tourette's: Ok, this one is going to be hard. But, it has been a major part of my life, so I guess I should add it. I have Tourette's Syndrom. I've had it since I was probably 8 or 9. Of course, back then, it wasn't called Tourette's. It wasn't until recent years that somebody finally gave this curse a name. Back then, it wasn't called anything. IT wasn't called anything, but YOU sure were, if you had IT. With me, it started manifesting itself in the form of mouth stretches. I didn't do it all the time, but when I did, every 30 seconds or so, I would stretch my mouth wide open, like I was yawning, but wider. That lasted a year or so. Next came the head shaking. That started out simple enough. I would tilt my head back and turn it side to side, like I was trying to feel my hair brush against the back of my neck. Except I had short hair. Later, it just became quick shakes, right-left-right-left, like I was answering "no" to an unasked question. That carried me through about 5th grade. Finally came the noises. These started out as short hums, like "Hmmmmmm", only short and abrupt ("Hm"). You know how you "say" no without opening your mouth? That 2-syllable grunting sound. Try it. No, louder, like you're in a noisy room. Now just do the first syllable. Now, do that every 10 seconds, all day long, and add some head-shaking, just for good measure. Welcome to Tourette's. Believe it or not, that was tollerable compared to what came next. It started out as a sort of breathy "fff" sound. Then I started adding a new breathy "hhhck" after it: "fff hhhck". That evolved into "f'ck", and I believe you can guess where that went from there. Thank God this last manifestation took place during the summer. If it had been during school, I would have been expelled. Still, it was bad enough. I forget which summer it was (probably between 6th and 7th grade), but we were living with Grandma and Grandpa again, on Main Street. There were times Grandma would turn and just stare at me, not saying a word. I know it hurt her terribly, hearing that word coming out of my mouth, but I couldn't control it. Then, one day, Grandpa said something that literally changed my life forever. He said "Why don't you try doing something you can hide, like shaking your hand", and he demonstrated by dropping his hand down beside his chair and shaking it. Why not. This affliction had been controlling me for most of my life. Why not try to controll it for a change. I never thought of doing something on purpose, before. So, I tried it. And it worked. I started by doing as he suggested. Shaking my hand. Of course, soon it became a forceful shake, like I was trying to get mud off my fingers. But eventually, I was able to tame it. That's the word I use even today. Tame. I know now that you can never get rid of Tourette's Syndrom, but you can tame it. Today, I still have it, and it still manifests itself, especially when I am nervous or upset. But I have learned to tame it to the point of simply THINKING it. I'm back to my monosyllable grunt again, but I THINK it now instead of making an actual sound, so nobody knows I'm doing it. Of course, if mind-reading ever becomes common-place, I'm in trouble!

Halloween: Ok, you knew this was coming. Anybody who knows me knows that a huge story has been noticibly missing so far... The Big "H"... Our claim to fame... Halloween! Halloween has always been big in the midwest, and since I spent a great deal of my childhood in the midwest, Halloween became a big part of my life. For me, Halloween was a chance to be anonymous, even for only a few hours out of the year. It was a change for me to hide behind a mask and be equal to everyone else, or perhaps even better. And the fact that Halloween came in the fall only added to its worth. You see, I had terrible allergies as a kid. You know, hayfever. Pretty much anything outside during the spring or summer made me sneeze. Did I say sneeze? No, more like explode. The moment I stepped outdoors, I started sneezing uncontrolably, my nose started running uncontrolably, my eyes itched and puffed up... And being indoors didn't always give me relief either, expecially if there was a cat (or worse, a rabbit) in the house. Now, imagine me starting school like that each year, sneezing and dripping. Now add in the Tourettes. Get the idea. I'm not exagerating when I say it was Hell on Earth. So anyway, Halloween marked the end of fall, when the turning of everything green into brown ended yet another allergy season, and when I could put on a mask and become just another kid, no longer different, no longer me. It was Heaven on Earth. And, no place on Earth is more beautiful in October than Illinois! The colors! The smells! The cool breezes! No more humidity! No more mosquittoes! Is it any wonder Halloween has always been my favorite holiday?

Halloween Costumes: My earliest Halloween memory was when I was 6 and I had a typical store-bought costume. It came in a flat cardboard box with a Cellophane window in the front so you could see the mask. I wish I could tell you what the costume was, but, well, I can't. Probably some animal. What I do remember is that I tried on the plastic mask a couple days before Halloween and the edges around the eyes were uncomfortable. So, I dug out my Mom's scissors and did a little modifying... Trim a little, try it on, trim a little more, try it on. Finally, it no longer hurt to wear. Of course, by then I had trimmed away so much that it was practically unrecognizable as to what it was supposed to be! Mom was a little unhappy with it, but she kept that to herself and I wore it anyway. I wore store-bought costumes for the next few years (UN-modified), but when I was about 9, Mom and Grandma made us (Bill, my brother Michael, and me) our costumes. We were Snap, Crackle, and Pop (the three elves from the Kellogg's Rice Krispies' cereal box). After that, home made was the way to go. That following year, I was a hobo (and carried a sack on a stick) and Bill was a girl (and wore a long dress). And every year after that, I had a different, home made costume. Until 1980. That year, I took a bunch of fabric, tore it into 4" wide strips, and wrapped myself up over white pants and a long-sleeved shirt. That was my first Mummy costume. It lasted about an hour. Afterwards, I threw it away. The next year, I bought some more fabric and did it again, using 2-faced carpet tape to help keep it in place. It lasted all night, except around my shoulders. Again, when it was over, I threw it away. In 1982, I had just graduated from boot camp and had only been in my barracks for a few days, so I didn't do much for Halloween except walk over to the enlisted club and listen to some music. But in 1983, I took my Mummy costume to the next level. Pre-fab! I bought all new fabric (Baby Muslin Flannel this time), and to solve the shoulder-separation issues, I sewed some pieces of it directly to my old long-sleeved white shirt (around the neck, shoulders, and upper-arms). I also sewed the first few layers to my white pants. Now, all I had to wrap was head, torso, arms, and legs. It took half the time and stayed together all night. The following year, I made pre-sewn pieces for my head, hands, and feet. The head-piece had a straw-hole so I could now drink something while in costume. A major improvement which also brought to light something else I needed to add... The year after that, I started over with all new fabric, but added a hidden pocket for my ID & money. I also added a fly (to solve the issue created by adding a straw-hole). Now, up to this time, it had required me to have a "wrapper" - someone else to wrap me up each year. But with all of the pre-fab pieces, I could now wrap myself. Of course, that didn't matter, since 2 years later, I retired "The Mummy". When I first wrapped myself up in 1980, I was 6'2" and weighed 160 pounds. I was built like a mummy. However, by 1986, I had put on a few pounds (about 50, to be honest). The end came when the wife of one of my shipmates refered to me as "The Mummy With A Tummy". After that, it was back to a different costume each year, none of which were ever a mummy.

Halloween Parties: Three years after Kathy and I got married, we threw our first Halloween party. The year was 1997 and we were still at our old house, which had a covered carport with access to the kitchen through a sliding glass door. We bought some black fabric at the Dollar fabric Store and stapled it around the carport to create a sort of tent to block some of the wind and add a little atmosphere. The party took place in the kitchen and out on the carport. I believe we had about 13 guests that year, including the 5 of us. Modest beginnings... The next year, we were in our new house. I don't remember if we even had a party that year. But we did have one in 1999, and that was our last one. After that, we didn't have Halloween parties... we had Annual RiceBaum Halloween Galas. Sure, our first Gala was quite tame compared to later years. Not only were the walls and ceilings NOT covered, but we even left the curtains up! We didn't have themes back then, and our invitation was a basic (boring) What/Where/When. Our costumes that year were green and orange togas and we probably had about 30 people show up, which we thought was great. Little did we know... Then, in 2001, he hit our stride. We still didn't have a theme yet, but that's the year we started covering the walls and ceiling. It looked AWESOME! We had the dirt cemetery (in the pit) filled with tombstones and lined with torches. Our costumes that year were Lord and Lady Bydingue (pronounced "Biting You" - our best costumes ever, in my opinion). And our invitation wasn't just a What/Where/When like before. It was a long poem (written by me that time). I think we had between 40 and 50 guests that year. Yeah, 2001 was a real milestone year. In 2002, Kathy worked up a back-story based on the Bydingues and we turned that into our first theme. Our Gala that year was the Bydingue Funeral. Our invitation was a 4-page newspaper with a cover story explaining how the Bydingues were found dead... again. That was the year we had between 50 and 60 people show up, a number we maintained for the next 3 years. Alas, that was also the year of the Fargonauts (the costumes of which we do not speak). In 2003, we were looking for the missing Bydingue heir (Walldo) and were dressed as pirates. In 2004, we were in Illinois 2 weeks before the party, so we ended up renting (gasp!) costumes that year. We were the Bride & Groom at the Bydingue's wedding. That year, the newspaper invitation grew to 6-pages. And in 2005, Kathy was the super hero "Party Girl" and I was the villian "The Intoxicator". Our house was transformed into Club Aftermath (complete with a disco ball and "chalk" outlines on the floor) and our invitation was a poem (written by Kathy). 2006 was our next milestone year. That year, we added a facade out front and brought back the haunted house in the garage. We also hired a physic who gave mini-readings to paying guests. Our theme was Traditional Halloween, and we were Frankenstein's Monster and his Bride (Kathy's favorite costume). 2007: Pirate theme, Sea Captain and Mermaid, the same psychic, and 149 people (our record). That's also the year we went to The Amazing Jonathan's private halloween Party on Halloween night. In 2008, our theme was Classic Hollywood Horror Movies, so we revisited our Monster & Bride costumes. We had the psychic one last time. We also rented out our house Halloween night for a real wedding. And, finally, in 2009, our theme was Old West and Kathy & I were Vulture Handlers from the Vulture Gulch Bird Preserve.

Haunted Houses and Facades: Some of the best haunted houses in the country are in the midwest (Ohio, Illinois, etc). Growing up in Decatur, I looked forward each year to the annual Decatur Jaycee's Haunted House. It was always in an abandoned building or an empty warehouse - wherever they could find room that year. And, oh yes, they were scary! But not just scary. They were GOOD. They were full of psychological build-ups and scares, disturbing skits, rooms you did NOT want to go into... And it isn't that I was younger then therefore they SEEMED scarier. Kathy and I were back there in 2004, for my cousin Ginger's wedding, and we hit a few haunts. They were a little tamer than when I was a kid, but they were still scarier than anything I'd been through in the last 20 years. Now, before I got married, my brother Michael and I had often talked about running our own Professional Haunted House (Pro-Haunt). We came up with all kinds of ideas and even drew up some plans, but of course never did anything about it (except PCA, which I'll talk about later). So after I got married and started throwing Halloween parties, it was just a natural progression to want to add a haunted house. Our first one was in 1999. It consisted of a single room (one quarter of the garage) with 3 "stations" - a hanged man, an electric chair, and a head on a table. You walked in the garage, around, and back out. It took MAYBE 10 seconds to experience, but the trick-or-treaters (ToTs) loved it. So, the next year, we did another one, but this one took up the entire garage and had 6 rooms! We scrounged all of the free building materials we could find and recruited some of the boys' friends to act in it. And when the ToTs exited, they did so running and screaming! The following year, we concentarted more on decorating inside and didn't do a haunted house. We did one the next year, but that was it, until 2006. By 2006, we had become experts at decorating the inside of the house, and could do it in about one weekend, so we decided to do something with the front of the house... and another haunt. And, we would not only have the haunt open Halloween night (for the ToTs), it would also be how guests entered the party the Saturday before! So we built our first facade. It was 40' wide, 14' tall, and hid almost the entire front of the house. It had gray cardboard "shingles", shuttered windows, a grand entrance door, and a giant skull perched on top of a peak. The facade's door was actually the entrance to the haunted house in the garage. Except that year, you went in, but you didn't come back out! At least not there. You went through the facade door, through a 6-room haunt, through the laundry room, and into the actual house. On the night of the party, that's where it ended, but on Halloween night, it continued through the living room, through the dining room, and out the front door, where kathy waited with a cauldron of candy. It was a huge hit! We've done a facade and haunt each year since then. In 2007, we built a scale-model pirate ship, 40' long, 22' tall, with canons, masts, sails, a "skeleton" crew, etc. The entrance to the haunted house was through a gaping hole in the side of the ship. In '08, we made a castle, but it turned out rather lame. So, to redeem ourselves, in 2009, we built Vulture Gulch - an old-west ghost town consisting of 4 buildings, each with a different finish, and a full-length covered boardwalk. The buildings were the Sheriff's Office and Jail (with the "utility" door leading to the front porch), the General Store, the Saloon (with the bat-wing door entrance to the haunt), and the Undertaker's Office. Vulture Gulch was by far the best facade we have built. The 2010 facade and haunted house are still in the planning stages, but will be very different from anything we have done so far.

PCA: While I was in the Navy and stationed in California, I would drive to Vegas about once every month or so. One weekend, Dad and Michael took me out to an old Pet Cemetery. They gave me some BS line on the way out there about how "it moves" and "is never in the same place". Whatever. It really was cool, though. It was pretty big - probably 60' by 300' - and had been there for close to 50 years. Most of the oldest headstone markers were faded and unreadable, but the ones you could read were dated from the 50's. The whole thing was laid out in sections divided by dirt roads. Nearer the highway, the sections were more regularly shaped, but became less so the farther back you went. Needless to say, Michael and I were smitten, and it wasn't long before we started making plans to bring people out there... to scare the $#!* out of them! The first thing we did was map the place. Then, we named each of the dirt roads in and around it. To make it easier for us to get around on dark nights, we smoothed out and marked a path around the entire perimeter. Finally, we came up with different scenarios. We even gave the whole project a name: Pet Cemetery Adventures, or PCA. Now, some of our scenarios required a little "disturbing" of the grounds. So, to make up for that, we appointed ourselves official groundskeepers, and when we weren't terrifying friends and co-workers, we were picking up trash, fixing fences, etc. But back to the fun stuff. The way the whole thing worked was, Michael and I would go out there while it was still light out and get things ready, then one of us would leave to bring our victim(s) back (to show them how cool it was... and to drink) while the other one(s) stayed behind. The ones who stayed behind and later did the scaring we called Goons. The ones who went and brought the victims back we called Guides. And the victims, we called Guests. At first it was just Michael and me running things, but later we added additional people (usually one of our recent Guests). One of our favorite scenarios was Uncle Mort. It went like this. The Guide brought the Guest back and parked in the older section, on Shovel Handle Lane. They then went back and forth, looking at the graves, and working their way towards the rear, away from the highway. An occasional random twig snapping out in the darkness beyond the edge of the cemetery helped build tension. Then the guide says "What's that!" and shines his flashlight at a bush inside a large fenced-in grave where 2 shiny red eyes stare back. The eyes prove to be well-polished Christmas ornaments, but by this time, everyone is quite jumpy. Then they see the open grave. It is over 6' long and 2' wide, and partially filled in. There are 2 shovels, one lying next to the grave and the other stuck in a small pile of dirt next to it. There is a still-smoking cigarette on the ground, and a bottle of water, tipped over and still spilling. A look into the grave reveals a pair of men's shoes still visible. It usually takes about 1 second for the guests to realize what they have all wandered into, and then they are all running back to the car... which is now locked! And it is while they are all frantically trying to remember who has the keys, that a pair of headlights come on, just 20 feet away, pointing straight at them! Yeah, we were bad. Some of the Poloroids we took showed some VERY terrorized faces. We pulled Uncle Mort 4 or 5 times. We had a bunch of other scenarios, but never got around to doing them. I still have them, all written down, as well as the map. Maybe some day, PCA will return.

Scott T Rice