
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 27, 1993                   TAG: 9310270223
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COLONIAL HEIGHTS                                LENGTH: Medium

`I HATE YOU, YOU HATE ME'; BARNEY FINALLY HANGS IN TREE

A Halloween attraction in which a stuffed Barney the dinosaur was hanged angered the mother of two young children.

"I turned their heads and covered their ears, but my kids started crying. Their idol is Barney," Natalie Simonson said. "My son wanted to know if Barney would be on TV the next day because he'd seen him hanging."

"They hung him from a rope," said 6-year-old Brianna Simonson. "It was so sad."

Brianna; her brother, Brandon, 3; and their mother went Saturday night to the Colonial Heights Jaycees Haunted Forest. "We went out for fun, but it's certainly not fun for my children to see something they hold so high in regard to be strung up by a noose," Simonson said.

After a complaint from Simonson, the Jaycees removed the executed dinosaur.

Simonson also objected to the song the "executioner" sang while hanging Barney. The song - "I hate you, you hate me. Let's get together and hang Barney" - parodies the theme song of the popular PBS television show.

Todd Resnick, president of the Colonial Heights Jaycees, acknowledged that Barney was hanged by the singing executioner but said Simonson's complaint was the only one he's received since the attraction opened Friday. More than 1,600 people had been through it, he said.

Resnick said volunteers warned parents of small children about Barney's fate and asked them to avoid that part of the walk if they thought it would bother them.

Simonson said she received no warning other than a sign at the entrance that says the attraction "may not be suitable for Barney lovers." She said she called Resnick to complain. "I told him, `You wouldn't hang up Big Bird or Mickey Mouse.' "

While some small children might have been frightened by the displays, Resnick said the Haunted Forest wasn't designed to terrify youngsters.

"For the most part, it can't be but so scary," he said. "For some of the high school kids it's not scary enough, but we want to keep it so the little kids will like it.

"The last thing we wanted to do was to upset or offend anyone," Resnick said in explaining the Jaycees' decision to remove the dead dinosaur.

by CNB