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!
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.
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.
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
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.