Category Archives: Halloween

iPhoneography: Last of the Halloween photos

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With only a couple of days left until Halloween, let’s wrap up our first annual look at the stuff that caught my eye in Halloween stores (and in the aisles of department and dollars stores), shall we?

I saw a lot of creepy stuff this year. Some of it intentionally so.

I’m still not a fan of the extremely gory decor and props. And the Zombie Babies are just too much.

But there’s some whimsical stuff out there. Like this Michael Jackson costume.

And some that were whimsical and creepy, like the Charlie Sheen collection.

I think my favorite piece of decor was this floating ghost/skeleton. Check out these eyes. I would have nightmares if I walked into a dark room where this was hanging.

And you want to see something really scary? Look what season is lurking right behind the Halloween stuff:

Happy Halloween and happy holidays!

Trick-or-treating, Charlie Brown style

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“I got a rock.”

Charlie Brown’s lament — from the classic 1966 TV show “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” — has, for the past 40-some years, echoed in my head every Oct. 31.

Halloween is probably my favorite holiday, although it gets short shrift some years when such grown-up concerns as work prompts my family to push jack-o-lantern carving back to the night itself.

Then there was the year of my ill-advised suggestion that the family travel to a neighborhood on the other side of town to see what was reported to be an especially elaborate Halloween yard display. Of course, everyone else in town had that same idea and the resulting traffic jam on neighborhood streets meant that we almost — almost — didn’t get back to our own neighborhood in time for trick-or-treating.

But stressful Halloween memories are, thankfully, few for me.

I’ve enjoyed two great periods of Halloween in my life. In recent years, the chance to take my son trick-or-treating marks one of the highlights of the fall for me. Him too, I hope.

And of course, there’s the good old days. Halloween classic.

Growing up on a farm in a rural area, I never got to go trick-or-treating in my own neighborhood. Houses were few and far between and neighbors were so unaccustomed to having trick-or-treaters that you’d be better off expecting to find treats in our chicken coop.

But because my cousin Mary lived in the city, my family usually went to her house on Halloween and from there the kids went trick-or-treating.

Back then, in the 1960s, we went trick-or-treating for more than one night. Some people don’t believe me when I tell them this. Some people think we were deluding ourselves and were actually “shaking down” my cousin’s neighbors for candy several days in a row.

I’m sure that’s not true. Pretty sure.

Ahem.

Anyway. My cousin and I and several friends would set out at dark, costumes on and bags in hand, and it seemed like we ranged all over the south side of Muncie. I’ve previously noted in this blog the problems with wearing a mask over glasses. The glasses tended to fog up and reduce visibility. Being out at night, roaming over city blocks illuminated only by porch lights, made it even harder to see. My costume one particular year consisted of a painted-on beard, goofy hat and paint-spattered shirt. It was pretty low-rent but at least I could see.

As gratifying as the treats were, the tricks were just as good. One year, as our group approached a front porch, the resident of the house pulled a rope and caused a dummy to fall from a tree near us. As we shrieked and ran away from the house, other people, wearing masks and lying in wait, chased us.

We ran wildly into the street, narrowly avoiding getting hit by a passing car.

Good times.

Now when I go along as my son trick-or-treats, I get to enjoy the gruesome costumes on the older kids and the awfully cute ones on the little folks. I remind my son to say “trick or treat” and “thank you.” I carry a flashlight to help motorists see us.

It all seems pretty tame compared to my youth, when it seemed as if we roamed and pillaged across a wide swath of the city for the better part of the week.

But, you know, it’s still trick or treating and there’s not much better than that.

It’s Sammy Terry time

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Two weeks from tonight is Halloween. It’s a night for tricks and treats, as they said on the old “Peanuts” special, and it’s Sammy Terry’s night.

With just two weeks to go, I was afraid time would get away from me and I wouldn’t write about the Indianapolis TV horror movie host before it was too late. So here are my Sammy memories, a little early.

I’ve talked to Sammy in phone interviews a few times and met him once. It was the mid-1980s and I did a story about Sammy for the newspaper. I spoke with Bob Carter, Sammy’s mild-mannered, music-store-owning alter ego, over the phone in advance of an appearance at Muncie Mall and then met him when he was putting on his makeup at the mall before going on stage.

An earlier interview with Sammy remains one of my most nightmarish newspaper experiences. I wasn’t working full-time at the paper yet so I went to the office to make the long-distance call — remember those? — and took along a tape recorder and suction-cup-type recording device to attach to the phone.

I had used it before but this time something — the way I connected it to the phone, the florescent lights — fouled up the recording. I didn’t know until after I ended the conversation, of course, and was panicked when I couldn’t hear anything but a low hum on the tape when I tried to listen to it.

I wondered for a moment about calling Sammy back, but I decided not to. Instead, I sat down and furiously scribbled notes of everything I could remember from the interview. The resulting article was pretty lackluster and had virtually no quotes.

The later interview, before his Muncie appearance, went much more smoothly. Nothing notable, really, but Carter — who spoke in normal tones but whose voice was instantly recognizable as the TV ghoul who had presented classic monster movies and scared a couple of generations of  Central Indiana kids to death — was friendly and modest.

By the 1980s, Carter had a lot of great stories. He claimed to have invented the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan “finger lickin’ good” during a live commercial, and who’s to say he did not? He talked about how the company that donated the casket from which he rose at the start of each show IN NO WAY wanted to be identified or credited because of potential complaints from the families of customers.

Carter was a pro long before this point, having done the show on WTTV Channel 4 since the early 1960s. He was gracious to a young journalist who was also a fan.

When my friends Jim and Derek and I went to meet him at Muncie Mall, he let us come into a back room while he applied his makeup and even posed for a picture right before going on stage at center court, where he delighted a lot of parents and kids — and probably scared a few too.

These days, Carter’s son is appearing as Sammy Terry. The younger version was in Muncie back in September and is probably making a few bucks — and making a lot of people smile.

More power to him. And more power to the original.

Pleasant nightmares, Sammy.

My worst Halloween memory

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More than 40 years later, I remember the trauma if not the details: When we were elementary school kids at Cowan in the 1960s, we were allowed to wear our Halloween costume to school for that most wonderful of kid holidays.

Most of my memories of Halloween are happy ones: Trick-or-treating with my cousin Mary and friends in her neighborhood, showing off our costumes and collecting great treats.

One year  at Cowan, we got to put on a Halloween costume parade for the entire school.

What a treat … or so it seemed at first.

The teachers lined us all up, in our costumes, and led us through the school. Since all 12 grades were in two big buildings, we got to show off for everybody, even kids as old as high schoolers.

The damn, damn high schoolers.

I don’t remember what my costume was this particular year. But it was  a typical 1960s-era costume like those made by Ben Cooper or Collegeville: A hard plastic mask, secured to my head with an elastic band, and a cheap plastic tunic. If it was an Aquaman or Spock or any number of other similar costumes, the tunic, as you can see from the photos here, was anything but subtle. Instead of being an accurate recreation of the character’s costume from comic books or TV, it was emblazoned with the character’s name in big, dorky letters.

I loved it.

Well, the mask left something to be desired, but I ran into the same problems with every Halloween mask. I was a kid who had worn glasses since the middle of first grade, and masks didn’t work out very well. The masks got warm and my glasses fogged up and I tended to walk into things.

But that year, the parade was going pretty well. I could still see through my glasses as well as the narrow eye slits of whatever the heck costume I was wearing.

I could see well enough, in fact, to notice — too late to do anything about it — one of the high schoolers reach out and pull my mask off my face as I walked past his classroom desk.

He pulled the mask out far enough, of course, that the crappy elastic band broke and my mask came off.

I’m pretty sure I completed the rest of the Halloween parade with my now-useless mask in my hand. I say I’m pretty sure that was the case because I don’t really remember it. The final part of the parade was a blur of tears and frustration.

There’s no final twist, ala Rod Serling, to the story. It didn’t turn out that the offending high schooler was my big brother or anything. I never knew his name. I can still kind of see his laughing face as he pulled my mask off.

I wish I could say that when I became a teenager I found the now-grownup miscreant and soaped his windows. That didn’t happen, though.

If anybody reading this was a high-schooler at Cowan in the 1960s and remembers ripping the mask off a little dork with glasses, I have just just two things to say to you:

Do you remember what my costume was? Because I can’t for the life of me.

And what nursing home do you live in now? Because I just might come by and put a kink in your IV drip.

iPhoneography: Latest Halloween pics

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You know the drill by now. I check out Halloween stores for masks, costumes and spooky decorations. I take pictures with my iPhone. I post them here.

We’re still about three weeks out from Halloween, but I’ve explored most of the Halloween stores in these parts.

Anybody else remember those Don Post Studios ads in Famous Monsters and other old monster magazines? The masks were head and shoulders — no pun intended — above the beloved but cheesy Collegeville and Ben Cooper costumes most kids wore.

Here’s a Don Post vampire mask:

Each year some of the most popular masks are those depicting political figures. There are a couple of really good ones among these, but what’s the deal with Hilary Clinton near the upper right corner? Her face is so red it looks like she’s going to explode.

Personally, I think the Bill Clinton mask is great. And look at the nose on Nixon, down on the bottom row. Nice.

Costumes for kids are fascinating to me, although I think many of them are too gruesome and otherwise “edgy” for most kids. Not to mention for their parents.

Here’s one for the sports enthusiast: The zombie referee.

There are so many inappropriate costumes out there for young girls. This one isn’t scandalous but sends a strange, mixed message with its name alone.

‘Nuff said. That’s all ’til next time.

iPhoneography: More Halloween pics

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It’s that time again: Time to look at some interesting, odd and creepy Halloween costumes and items of decor.

Let’s get started!

We’re gonna start small this time and go big.

I don’t know about you, but I have sticky eyeballs when I wake up many mornings. But if I want a bag of 30 of them, I know where to go: Target.

There’s something about a bloody handprint that’s downright creepy. But bloody, kid-sized handprints on a window. Yeggh.

How about a costume that takes an ordinary item and makes it outsized? You can keep your banana costumes. For my money, you can’t top a costume that makes people want to throw sharp objects at you.

Everybody remembers that kid from school with a really big head. I think I know what happened to him. At any rate, I found his oversized skull.

How about a big spider? If you saw this ottoman-sized arachnid crawling across the floor toward you, you’d want a comically large-sized newspaper or magazine handy.

Last but not least, the ultimate Halloween version of a lawn inflatable. I don’t have any inflatables, but I love seeing them on lawns at Halloween and Christmas. I have a neighbor who even has a Thanksgiving inflatable.

This pirate ship, manned by skeletons, is the size of a mini-van.

That’s all for now. Next time, some cool and off-the-wall costumes for kids.

iPhoneography Part … uh … more Halloween photos

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It has been too long since the last installment of iPhone pictures of fun, cool and cheesy Halloween costumes, masks and decor available in your finer retail establishments. So long, in fact, that I’ve lost track of how many installments we’ve had.

So let’s get to it!

First, with apologies to IT guys and girls everywhere, there’s the computer nerd costume. The dorky glasses and pocket protector, sure, but the teeth? I’ve never seen an IT person with those teeth. I think they’re hillbilly costume teeth that got included in this package by accident.

Speaking of odd costume choices, what is it about this trench coat that makes it a “nightmare trench coat?” Beats me.

And who knew they had carvable artificial pumpkins? They’re kind of an interesting variation on the traditional pumpkin, without all the guts and seeds. But the one that I checked out was hard as a rock. I foresee even more pumpkin-carving-related trips to the emergency room with this baby. Funkins indeed.

I think these skeleton candleholders are actually pretty darn cool.

It’s hard to tell from this picture, but this is a freaky little doll, only four or five inches tall. You squeeze its lower midsection and it shrieks and its eyes light up. I’m tellin’ ya, it’s freaky.

Of course, my eyes light up if you squeeze my lower midsection. I might even shriek.

The last two photos for this time around are of those wall decorations that look like a three-dimensional face (and hand, in this case) pushing out of the wall. Kinda cool, huh?

But … the manufacturer ruins everything by hiring a bad actor for the packaging. Look at this guy. Do you believe he’s frightened by that face pushing out of the wall behind him? Or does that expression say something else, like “Wow, I shouldn’t have had that burrito.”

More next time!

iPhoneography: Halloween at the dollar store

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It’s a very special installment of iPhone photos of Halloween stuff. This time: Halloween stuff at the dollar store!

Dollar stores are an increasingly successful part of the country’s retail industry. Customers have even forsaken discount stores like Walmart to patronize dollar stores.

Of course, dollar stores have their limitations, especially when it comes to Halloween merchandise. You won’t find a large selection of masks and costumes there. You will find some basic masks, a good variety of creepy decor and bags of sugary treats.

Here’s a quick look at the best of the dollar store’s eerie merchandise.

These skeletons wearing shrouds are actually pretty cool. They’re small, of course, but detailed and effective.

And here’s the Carrot Top version:

Dollar stores might not have elaborate costumes, but they’ve got a heck of a variety of cloth to compliment a costume.

There’s creepy cloth:

Not sure exactly what makes it creepy.

And bloody cloth, which is self-explanatory and just as creepy. Maybe creepier.

My favorite part of this is imagining the offshore factory where this is made. “Yeah, Marge, they switched me from the creepy cloth to the bloody cloth production line today.”

Here’s the 787th invention that I wish I had come up with. I hope the person who invented the squashed witch is getting some royalties.

And thank goodness for warnings:

“Oh my gosh, I was about to give this blow-up plastic ghost to Timmy to use in the pool as a floatation device. Good thing I saw this warning.”

And, last but not least, the ever-popular graveyard rat.

Now with extra red eyes!

More to come.

iPhoneography: Halloween stuff part three

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I’ve neglected the posting of iPhone photos of masks, decor and the proverbial etcetera about my favorite holiday for too long. Time to remedy that oversight.

The National Retail Federation, that pro-shopping, pro-spending outfit that forecasts consumer trends, hasn’t yet predicted how much we’ll spend on Halloween this year. Last year, the NRF forecast Americans would spend $6 billion on Halloween costumes, candy and decorations. I’m not sure that projection worked out, considering the state of the economy. We’ll see what they say when they come up with this year’s number.

As Halloween has morphed from a holiday for kids that adults tolerated a generation ago to a full-blown excuse to party and begin eating snack-size Snickers in September, canny retailers have found bigger, better and bloodier Halloween goodies to sell us.

“Bigger” especially applies to the trend we’ve seen in the past few years of life-size ghouls and ghosts for Halloween decor.

While I’m not a huge fan of the “Scream” movie franchise — I thought the first film was pretty good though — I have to say I’d be impressed if somebody put this life-size Ghostface figure on their porch.

 

Much more timeless is a good old human skull replica. Here’s a shelf full at Target.

I thought this mini skeleton at Target was pretty cool. It’s appropriately spooky and atmospheric.

To round out this edition, how about this: A bag of mice. Who doesn’t need a bag of mice? Although if we brought these into the house, my cat would go nuts.

More next time!

iPhoneography: Halloween stuff part two

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As promised (warned?) another installment of my visual tour of Halloween stores.

In each of these entries, I’ll touch on some of the most eye-catching masks and decor.

And a belated warning: Some of this stuff is gory. The bloody body parts and the like aren’t my favorite type of Halloween decorations — my tastes lean toward cardboard pumpkin window cut-outs and tissue-paper ghosts — but I’ll include some of the more unusual examples of the yucky stuff.

To start things off on a ghoulish note, here’s an example of the gory stuff. Spirit Halloween stores offer Zombie Babies. They’ve got a million different kinds, all of them slightly queasy-making. This one is apparently called “Giggles.”

 

Here are some cool gargoyles from Target. I think these would look good on a bookcase year round, don’t you?

Of course, the sexy Halloween costumes for women are the big deal these days. This one is kind of odd, though. I definitely don’t remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looking like this.

Here’s a suit that any of us with a big, cluttered closet could put together free of charge: The leisure suit.

Now is the portion of the blog in which we present the mask that’s most likely to give us nightmares. Can you imagine waking up and seeing this at the foot of your bed?

That’s it for now. As the old “Tonight Show” bumpers used to say, “More to come.”