On a sunny day in July, while other Bay Area kids were playing at camps or water parks, 8-year-old Charlotte O’Neill was leaning back in a reclining chair in a small, carpeted San Jose office room.

A hayrack ride takes guests into the woods, where skeletons and ghouls and screams await in a place with souls of people ... groups require up to an hour. If you’re skittish about being scared ...