Spirit Halloween

Look what's coming to town! Not sure if this is any different than the usual 'Halloween Store' that we've always had here in the past - but I'm definitely looking forward to browsing through the aisles!

Got Brains?

A fun little pic I dug up from the crypt - this is me on Halloween night two years ago...

Garage Sale

Every year our community has a Garage Sale weekend around the middle of May. This is a perfect excuse to drive around town and stock up on ultra cheap Halloween costumes, props, masks, and accessories - and this year was no exception! While I didn't bring in as big of a haul as years past, I did score a couple of great costumes for two bucks. Brand new and still in the package (they look like they have never been worn), I found a scarecrow Ghost Face costume and a Headless Horseman costume that will definitely come in handy come October! My daughter even got into the spirit of things and spent some of her own money to buy dad some Halloween goodies. She picked up one of those motion sensor candy bowls with the electronic 'grabber' hand inside of it for fifty cents - so I'm thinking I might hack that apart and use the hand elsewhere in my haunt - maybe in the graveyard or stick it in the mouth of a jack-o-lantern. It's never too early to start thinking about Halloween!

That's Life

This image is courtesy of a feature LIFE magazine ran in which they confessed that not all of their front covers were iconic. This one, clearly, they got wrong. With the tagline: "The stuff bad dreams are made of," I thought this one was terrific (and almost exactly what my son wore for Halloween this year!) Not sure why they picked this one as a 'worst cover,' but personally I love it!

See the rest of them here:
http://www.life.com/gallery/66721/image/ugc1273001/lifes-20-worst-covers#index/0

Want Some Candy?

My costume on Halloween night...

Best Costume

My wife and I took the kids to the annual Fall Fun Night at our local elementary school. After we had our pizza and pop we stood in line to play some Halloween themed games. As I'm standing there feeling underwhelmed by the sea of store-bought costumes (to be fair, my son has a hand-painted skeleton mask this year and my daughter put together her vampire costume all by herself - even if the dress was from a garage sale) I suddenly noticed that a boy in front of me clearly has a hand-made costume. So now I'm grinning ear-to-ear and my wife says: "What's so funny?" I point at the kid's costume and say: "Homemade." To which my wife replies:

"What's he supposed to be?"

I'll be honest with you - I'm not sure WHAT the kid was supposed to be - but he had my vote for best costume. A weird conglomeration of cardboard, Gorilla Tape, black long underwear, black football pants (with pads), black landscaping plastic, and various elements that might have been cannibalized from some other Halloween costume that probably no longer fit, including a hand-crafted skeleton type mask that looked right out of the movie Flash Gordon, all of it highlighted with strategic bits of silver duct-tape, this kid had the most unique costume in the entire gymnasium - and it was obviously crafted with a lot of love, ambition, and attention to detail - and obviously without mom and dad's help.

Impressed with the boy's ingenuity and true sense of Halloween spirit, I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him: "Did you make your costume yourself?" He nodded his head in the affirmative, so after telling him I loved the costume and appreciated his effort at making it himself - a Halloween tradition that has long since faded away since commercialism took over the holiday - I asked him: "What are you supposed to be?" He shrugged his shoulders and grinned.

"I'm not sure!"

The perfect answer.

Sweeping Up

Had a great time at the party - everything went well and a fun time was had by all. Yesterday I took down most of the inside decorations (just left enough in the entry way for trick-or-treaters to see on Halloween night). It's always kind of sad to tear it all down, but I cheered myself up by watching one of my all-time seasonal favorites: HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH - a guilty pleasure, what can I say... and drinking left-over Sam Adams Oktoberfest while I worked.

After all the hard work of storing away countless Halloween decorations in their proper places was done (for the most part), I treated myself to one of the best episodes of AMC'S THE WALKING DEAD that I've ever seen. A great way to end a fabulous weekend. Pictures to come at www.hallowzing.com.