This is your Halloween post… 🙂 Sorrynotsorry-couldn’t resist.
Moving on–
Tell us about Halloween. Your Halloween.
Meaning, did you participate when growing up (if you have grown up, that is…)?
What was your favorite costume that you wore? Elvis? Casper, the Friendly Ghost?
And do you still celebrate Halloween?
Hmm… “Celebrate” seems like an odd word to use with “Halloween”, doesn’t it? Perhaps we should say “Observe” instead.
And how about saying, “Happy Halloween” to folks? Isn’t that kind of an oxymoron? Who can be happy when surrounded by ghouls, goblins, and ghosts?
Or am I making something out of nothing? (I’m kinda famous for that in my little circle…)
TKZers–please tell us your Halloweeny stories!
“Back in the day, when I was just a wee owlet…”
My favorite costume of all time was when I went as Batman. I was five or six, and it was the coolest thing ever to young me. All the candy was just a bonus.
I still do celebrate Halloween, and my wife and I will be at a Halloween party tomorrow night thrown by a dear friend of mine, who is also a horror author and editor of a horror magazine, and who absolutely loves All Hallows Eve.
Happy Halloween, Deb!
Hi Dale!
The Batman craze made their way into our home when I was young, too. My two brothers dressed up…one year it was my older bro, then my younger bro the next year got the home-made costume as a hand-me-down. My Mom could make any costume you could think up.
Me? Just give me a sheet and a big candy bucket and I was good. 🙂
Have a good weekend, and have fun at your party!
The costume I recall best was a Samurai outfit I made for our youngest. The armor (dō + kusazuri) was Chock-Full-o-Nuts cans, cut open and sprayed with gold paint. Leather thongs through added grommets held the dō and kusazuri together. The helmet (kabuto) was a Tonka helmet with an added brim made of cardboard, again painted gold. The greaves (suneate) were gold Pringles cans slit up the back and fastened to the legs. Atop the helmet was an insignia from Star Wars tie fighter pilot uniforms. A drug store plastic Samurai sword completed the costume. It was a big hit at the party he attended.
Good morning, J…
That sounds like a great costume and lots of work. I remember a kiddo Halloween party at my church once, when one of the chaperoning adults came dressed as Goliath. It was perfect, because said adult was about 6’6″, and was in law enforcement. He carried it off very well, right down to his spear. About 12′ long.
Have a great day!
I was usually a cowboy or a pirate. When I got too old and tall to trick or treat, I came up with a clever ruse. I cut eye holes in a sheet to be a ghost. When I got to the door, I’d get on my knees and knock and hold out my bag. Got a good haul but also sore knees. That was my last outing.
Good story, Jim! (Did you carry a cap gun when you were a cowboy?)
I remember my parents saying that if the trick-or-treater was taller than Dad, they should be booted off the street. I think it happened a couple of times, too.
Have a great Friday.
In 1981 Halloween was a Saturday night. I was working at the Varsity Theater, the home of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in St. Louis. Every show had been a sell out or close to it for ten years. Did I mention Halloween at the RHPS? It was a little wild. Much of the crowd was in costume. In those days, if you dressed at a RHPS character, you got in free. Janet Wiess sings “Creature of the Night” in her bra and slip. A great number of women came to the box office window in bra and panties to save $5. I was working the box office. One guy came to the door dressed as Indiana Jones. He had a pistol in his belt. The manager’s friend was helping at the door. I looked over to see the friend suggest Indy go out to his car and think about his costume. I still don’t know if Indy realized how close to dead he was. The manager’s friend was on off duty police officer. He already had his hand on his .357.
Somehow the manager decided the staff could dress up. I was the wolfman. I had more hair then. I also had a long beard. I dyed my beard to match my mask. It was very effective. At the end of the night I took the mask off leaving me with a brown ‘fu manchu’ and black hair. That’s why the mask movements were so lifelike.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1626755302517&set=a.1626749302367
Love the look, Alan!
🙂
For 35 years I delivered pizza on Halloween. At one store 5 of the record days were all 10/31. It is a lot of pizza. Combine 150-200% busier than normal, children in the streets, drunk dads with their children and the risks of being robbed by someone in a mask, and you are halfway to Halloween in pizzaland. Tips are usually very good. Many people give you candy and money. The children are very careful. Their drunk dads, not so much.
I drove with my Halloween soundtrack at ground shaking volume. I want you to know I am coming. I want you out of the middle of the street and on the sidewalk. If Tubular Bells helps, so much the better.
In 2023 someone tried to rob me on Halloween. I had about 6 pizzas in an apartment building. A teenager dressed as a ninja with a staff said, “What happens if I grab those pizzas?”
“You win a free trip to jail.”
He tried. I may have skipped the defend myself part of the formula. I grabbed him by his neck and slammed him into a wall. Then another wall. Then a staircase. Then another wall. Then told him to stay down. Then I called the police. Maybe giving up 100+ pounds in a strong arm robbery was not his best choice. The police arrived. The parents who filmed the whole thing “lost their phones” and the ability to speak English when the police showed up.
A few days later I spoke with the detective. I hit him with one of my favorite lines. “I learned to deliver pizza in Ferguson. I don’t play.” It has been a decade. Where I used to drive a pizza every night is still an area some officers won’t go without back up. I did want to make sure the kid fully understood robbery isn’t a joke. And, how lucky he was. Most of my pizza brothers and sisters carry. He could have been a puddle instead of a punk.
He was found guilty of assault. Yep. Guilty in a fight that left him black and blue and dad out about $1,000 in legal fees.
Wow, Alan. I didn’t ever know Halloween was such a dangerous night!
I guess that comes of being reared in small town PNW.
We lived out in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors so no Halloween. The home place is no longer in the middle of nowhere, but I’ve had one trick or treater in fifty years. He was a friend of my kid brother, and his parents drove him in.
I had a chance for the costumes when I became an “adult” for a science fiction club at my alma mater so I’m not totally deprived. One had a button that said, “Halloween is for Amateurs.” Very true.
Ha ha, Marilyn!
I’ve always thought Halloween has been more fun since I “grew up”.
😂
Have a good one!
A friend made elaborate costumes for her kids, who were a little older than my younger ones. She was very generous about letting me borrow them. I don’t remember any of them, though.
In elementary school, the kids were in a gifted program that went all out on Halloween, but the costumes were supposed to be kid made. I recall scarecrows, mustard and ketchup dispensers. This was all pre-digital camera, so any pictures are in albums.
The only one I remember for me as a kid was a gypsy.
We’ve lived in the boonies for the last 15 years. Dirt roads, no lights, long steep driveways, so the neighborhood does a trunk or treat at the community center.
Hi Terry!
We live in the boonies, too, so no ghouls and goblins here. Our church does a trunk or treat that’s always well-attended by the “neighborhood”.
Funny thing–the local grade school down the road from us advertised on their reader board a “trunk or trick” event. Not sure if that was a typo what.
Have a good one!