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Journal Extra Click here to watch video of Helga the witch as she talks about her favorite holiday, Halloween.

Dressed like a ghost, Seth Waitt sprinted away screaming when "Helga" appeared in the front yard Friday.

But Seth, 4, of Salina, was expressing joy, not fear.

"That's not really a witch," he proclaimed. "That's Grandma, Gerttie's sister."

With a homemade broom of painted twigs, the witch let out a shrill and hollered for her pet named Boo.

"I'll get you, each and every one of you," Helga said. "We like to cast spells and boil little kids."

Seth's cousin, Caden Waitt, 3, of Salina, was frightened at first, before realizing the woman behind the thick green and black makeup was Grandma, Janice Zrubek, 53. Boo, the lovable monster who darted from behind a tree, is Grandpa, David Zrubek, 49, also of Salina.

Helga visits every Halloween, when the Salina grandma turns into "probably the best witch you're gonna see."

The transformation gobbles up a chunk of one day. Makeup alone takes two hours, then it's time for the costume and getting into character.

"She's nothing like me," Zrubek said. "It's an obsession. I start planning for it in August."

The grandmother of seven has been playing the role of Helga for 30 years, the past 14 years at her home at 403 Venus. Her yard is decorated with blowup versions of a haunted cemetery, ghosts bolting from a jack-o'-lantern, a skeleton driving a ghoulish horse-drawn buggy, Frankenstein, an animated skeleton coming out of a wooden box and an animated cat on the porch roof.

Visitors who trick or treat are given candy, popcorn and "Witch's Brew" (orange drink). Zrubek's budget this year was $81, and she always runs out of goodies.

The added attraction is a woman who knows how to play a key character of a holiday she's enjoyed since childhood.

"My dad didn't allow us to trick or treat," Zrubek said.

She's since made up for those lost years of stalking neighborhoods collecting candy.

Zrubek tried to time the birth of her second son to occur on Halloween.

"I determined he would be a Halloween baby," Zrubek said. Despite the planning, son Kris Waitt was born two weeks early in 1982.

"I was devastated," Zrubek said.

Knowing of Zrubek's wishes, nurses at Hadley Hospital in Hays brought Kris to his mother, after a cesarean section, dressed in Halloween colors.

She played the Wicked Witch of the West character for the Kansas Wesleyan University haunted house in 2002 and 2003. When an America's Got Talent television crew visited Salina in the late 1990s, Zrubek was filmed playing Helga in Central Mall.

She said her chilling cackle is a dead ringer for the character made famous in the 1939 classic "Wizard of Oz" movie.

"I do the voice to a tee," Zrubek said.

Helga visits the Zrubek home to see her sister, "Gerttie," played by an animated 5-foot-tall mechanical witch Zrubek purchased from Lowe's.

The Zrubek house is a popular spot for kids making the rounds in the neighborhood just west of the McDonald's restaurant in south Salina. Helga will work her magic on about 150 kids each Halloween. She will begin handing out treats at 5:30 p.m.

"She'll be looking for 'little pretties' right away," Zrubek said. "I've scared the holy heck out of some of them."

n Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by e-mail at tunruh@salina.com.

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