# Halloween Memories



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Was hearing an old Midnight Syndicate song and it immediately brought me back to one of my happy Halloween memories. Got me to thinking... wouldn't it be cool to have a thread talking about some of our happy Halloween memories. It doesn't have to be favorite - just a cool memory you have of something you experienced during the Halloween Season


----------



## Tannasgach (Nov 1, 2009)

When my daughter was little we always had family friendly Halloween parties with lots of activities for both kids and adults. After we moved to a new area, when she was 10, basically all we did was neighborhood trick or treating. When she turned 13 she told me, "Mom, I miss our parties, I want to have a Halloween party for my birthday", which is in October. Together we shopped for, planned, and worked on projects for her vision of a Gothic Manor party. Not only was it a great bonding experience, it was heart warming to see her so passionate about Halloween.

When she turned 16, she told me instead of a Sweet Sixteen party she wanted me to take her and a few friends to _Halloween Horror Nights _(Momma was so proud), Since then, she co-hosts our Halloween parties with me, doesn't do any of the work mind you, but she enjoys the planning and shopping for our current theme. She's now 19 and for my birthday last December, she gave me the animated Medusa head and for Christmas she got me the Deady Teddy from Spirit, (he looked so cute with his Santa hat on) both of which she purchased last October. 


So my favorite Halloween memory is the October my daughter "got it" and began sharing my love of Halloween.


----------



## IowaGuy (Jul 30, 2012)

The fondest memory I can remember is when I lived back in Kansas and was maybe a tween, so 15(?) Years ago. My mom was a teacher at Baldwin Junior High, Baldwin is around 15 miles south of where we lived. She has Always been active in all out-of-school activities but were school programs...shes so kool! Anyways, i got the liberty of being their "Haunted Train Ride" test dummy for maybe 2 years. If I lived in Kansas I'd go back in a second!


----------



## doto (Nov 20, 2009)

I am sure everyone has numerous memories, the one that comes to mind is the year my son was two. We were taking our family to get the Sars vaccine. The estimated wait was an hour so we told our children they could wear their costumes and bring their favorite stuffed animal to cuddle with after the needle. My son who was 2 at the time didn't want to take his "boodoggy" he instead chose to take his Spirit Rat. Since our two children were the only children in costume we got lots of compliments and everyone wanted to acknowledge them. Then they saw the rat. Laughter and the occasional look of disgust crossed many people faces. No-one expected a 2 year old child in costume to be carrying a fat oversized latex rat. We had alot of good laughs that night and every year since my son gets a new rat for Halloween. 

Here's a photo of Reichen that Hallowen in his costume and his rat is just behind him a little to the side.


----------



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Oh, Terra, I was thinking of starting a thread like this! I have a couple I'd like to share, but It's gonna have to wait till tomorrow maybe. I have such happy Halloween memories that just bring "that feeling" back.


----------



## pumpkinking30 (Aug 27, 2012)

When I was little, my Aunt Rachel loved to do Halloween at her house. This was a big old farmhouse on a hill with a spooky old, vine covered, tree in the yard, so the location was perfect. My family greeted all the guests in the living room and handed out candy there since my Aunt wasn't able to get around enough to go outside for very long. On this particular Halloween, a little girl came to the house. She came in the living room, and looked at my Mom and Dad in their monster masks, and my Grandmother in her costume, and wasn't phased at all. Then she looked over at my Aunt Rachel, who wasn't wearing a costume, and screamed and jumped away. We all thought it was hilarious, even my Aunt Rachel, who was an incredibly good sport. 
I came from a long line of Halloween lovers, and can't wait to someday pass those memories and traditions on to the next generation.


----------



## bethene (Feb 12, 2007)

oh, Terra, what a perfectly wonderful thread, I am going to love reading every ones memories. I have so many of my own.. when my age, you accumulate quite a few!!!! 
I will start with a early one., I remember going to Montgomery Wards. and getting a Cinderella costume, back in the day they were so cheap and odd., but I thought it was the prettiest thing ever, I had a blue half mask, yellow dress with silver glitter on it. On Halloween night we went TOTiing in the rain,it was pouring . I was only about 6, which makes my little brother 3.. We had big heavy paper bags, Halloween ones similar to shopping bags, almost home we looked down and realized that John, my brother had dragged his bag in water and lost almost all his candy. it was so sad.. but when we got home, I split my candy with him, I don't remember what he was wearing, but do remember the candy. it was about 8 houses from home when we noticed,, poor little guy, wonder if he remembers.......


----------



## 22606 (Aug 11, 2008)

pumpkinking30 said:


> On this particular Halloween, a little girl came to the house. She came in the living room, and looked at my Mom and Dad in their monster masks, and my Grandmother in her costume, and wasn't phased at all. Then she looked over at my Aunt Rachel, who wasn't wearing a costume, and screamed and jumped away.


_Twilight Zone_ meets _The Munsters_?

Very entertaining tales, everyone. 

A few years ago, a little girl rushed past the house, hesitant to approach. She went a couple of doors down and began backtracking, attempting to summon her courage, though she again changed her mind. She would start back again, then reverse direction once more, doing so probably four times before _finally_ making it to the yard, and watching her actions was pretty hilarious. I swear, you could see the wheels turning, plotting how to get the candy safely...


----------



## Kelloween (Jun 8, 2012)

ahhh..I have many great memories of Halloween..but the one that stands out was when I was around 10..we lived on a Military base and all the kids would go in groups and TOT. Well about 3 weeks before Halloween, I had broke my leg..It was back in the days of the old plaster they used for cast and I had just traded in the first cast for a walking cast. I was all ready to go trick or treating early that day and it started to pour down rain. My parents told me the ground was to wet and I would have to stay home or it would ruin the cast. I was SO upset. So about 2 hours before time to go..I went and ran water in the tub , stuck the cast under it and took a stanley knife and cut it off!! I told my mom it got wet and fell off..lol..not only did I get in huge trouble for that, the plaster plugged the bath drain up! Needless to say..I didnt get to TOT that year!


----------



## Ragged Grin (Nov 5, 2012)

My killer LOTR ringwraith costume based on the cartoon, the first year my Dad dressed as a scarecrow; I was probably 8 or 9, my first halloween sleepover at home with somewhere between 15 or 20 classmates, took a fieldtrip to grandma's house....she had a ridiculous basement we made into a haunted walkthrough and the toughest, meanest kid in class peed himself, awesome. My brother, 7 years older than I, and his friends worked the haunt, there was a haunted ballroom, a dungeon, a torture chamber...it was a great, great house. The basement haunts I set up at my church as a teen to raise money for March of Dimes, good times. 

My favorite recent memory, the first haunt at my parent's house a few years back, my Mom wasn't quite sure what to expect, we set up a graveyard with a fence, some bought stones, fog and the "Martin Ave Mauler", a 7 ft tall serial killer barbed wired to a pole on top of a wardrobe box. He squirted blood on command and turned his head side to side. 45 minutes in we had to get more candy. Mom is 81 now, still very active and healthy and we've promised to take this year's haunt to her house a couple hours away for next year and hopefully make some new wonderful memories.


----------



## ter_ran (Jan 14, 2006)

*Well one of my most memorable Halloween memories has to go way back to when I was a young TOT...

Just today I was thinking back as I packed up my Halloween goodies due to relocation/moving. There was an old glow in the dark cardboard skeleton on the side of my bookshelf, dusty folded up and hidden from direct eyesight. It brought on a flashback of many nice memories during my past Halloween's long forgotten...

My mom passed this skeleton down to me long ago when I left the nest, but it sparked familiar visions of the late 70's, early 80's when it once graced our front exterior door. I remember it well during the setting up the candy dish for Dad to pass out. Also while bouncing around the front door eagerly waiting for my mom ready for our Trick or Treating adventure to come! The aroma of pumpkin inners burnt via candlelight on the front porch are still remembered as if it were yesterday. It was a true flashback! A fond memory indeed of the young inocence we as kids had with no worries in the world! 

If just for a few seconds, to relive those specific times and have those past thoughts prove reality once again... These are but a few moemories I hold dear and shall never forget! Ahhh... A true haunter's life for me! *


----------



## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

I had one friend back in middle school whose costumes every year for my kiddy halloween parties were , lets say, "abstract" costumes. My mom would take us to pizzeria for dinner, we come back to the house for some games then on to trick or treating. Well this one year my friend Anne decided to come as a life size mailbox and back then my parents had a tiny toyota (they were all small back then!) and we couldnt fit her in the car. Needless to say, we had to de-construct her and put her back together after the pizza. A kind of humpty dumpty story of sorts.


----------



## vwgirl (Jul 16, 2012)

My favorite memory happened just 2 yrs ago. It all started from an accident that happened at my Halloween party, lets just say to much to drink and 4 inch heels = broken ankle. Me and my hubby always walk with our kids on TOT, but this year I had to sit it out. We always TOT at my grandparents house due to our neighborhood is not the best for TOT, to many streets with out sidewalks and a 2yr old gets kinda scary. This year I would have to sit it out, my grandmother (who at the age of 80 and gets around better then I do at 30) decided to go with my hubby while I stayed and passed out candy with my G-pa. I wasnt the most thrilled, my Gpa was always an intemadating man, 6ft tall, he was a local president of a bank so he was always Mr Business and serious. 
As the night began I sat out side with him thinking "Oh god, what is there even to talk about". As some of the kids began to aproach I saw his eyes light up, he was never a kid kinda guy, so this shocked me. He would toy and joke with all the TOTers. In the middle of a slow period he began to tell me about when he was a kid and trick or treated, all kinds of crazy stories. This threw me off, MR perfect, did everything by the book was a snot nosed bad kid.
He told me stories of flaming dog doo and TPing houses as a kid, and then the big story. My Gpa stole a car one Halloween night, because he was cold didnt want to walk home. I was floored, It gave a whole new light to this man, I had not feared but did not dare mess with. LOL
The whole time he was telling the stories he had this grin on his face, almost evil like, he was proud of all the gags and bad things he had did as kid, and deep down inside I was proud to, my G-pa the neighborhood terror child of his time. 
On the way home that night, I told my hubby all the things my Gpa did, it floored him just as much.
Sadly this was the last Halloween I had with my Gpa he passed away last August on his B-day, this year I stayed home and sat in his big comfy outdoor chair and passed out candy, thinking of all the wild stories he had sharred.
I guess wild drunkin partys and broken ankles all happen for a reason. Just when you think the night is ruined it turns out to be the best night.


----------



## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Great story, vwgirl!

I'll always remember when I was very young seeing a lady dressed as a witch at a Halloween party. My Dad worked for Florida Power the whole time I was growing up in Florida, and the company had a club for the employees and their spouses. They would occasionally have dinners or parties, or a Luau or go to a dinner playhouse together. Parents only, no kids at these particular functions.
Apparently, the club threw a Halloween dinner/party where all of the kids were invited also. All I remember about it was after dinner there was a witch right in the middle of the room enticing all of the children to come to her and reach inside a paper bag she was holding. Now, this wasn't someone dressed as a witch----this was a REAL witch! (At least, that's what my mind told me.)
I was too scared to even leave my chair, much less walk up to her. I guess my Mom must have pulled me by the hand up to her and the witch was telling me to reach inside her bag. I think I just stood there with my mouth open, stricken with fear. The witch finally reached in the bag and pulled out what looked like a lump of white plaster. She rubbed it and as it fell apart there was a penny inside of it. So that's the prize all the kids were getting from her bag.
I was happy to get my shiny penny!

(NOTE: When I was a kid in the 60's, a penny was a lot of money. All the gumball machines in the Winn-Dixie store took pennies! LOL)


----------



## mamadada (Aug 18, 2008)

Bethene,

I know i had the same costume as well. i wore it for a number of years. Every year it went back into the box with the cellophane front. Hilarious that i remember that. even as a kid i loved Halloween so much and tried a haunt on our patio by myself ... so sad really now that i think about it. i know that im making memories for my son and all of his classmates. it is realy a blast to plan for every year.


----------



## OctoberDream (Aug 7, 2011)

As a kid my father made my siblings and me costumes (Many found memories). He was a very creative person. I always loved that about him. When he died in 1982, Halloween just was not as fun as it used to be. It wasn’t until my daughter was born that I decided to follow in my father’s footsteps and make Halloween a very special time. At the time I thought I was doing it for my daughter. Since then my daughter’s excitement about Halloween is hit or miss. I found that I don’t do it to make it more enjoyable for her, but to remember my father. It brings him closer to me each year.


----------



## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

Aw man! I remember those costumes that came in a box with the cellophane front! My family never decorated more than a pumpkin or two and maybe a cardboard skeleton taped to the door. TOT was huge in the neighborhood I grew up in and very few kids were even escorted by adults. Kids packed the streets and all the houses had their porch lights on giving out candy. Older siblings watched out for younger ones and we would be out for hours before coming back with a pillowcase full of candy. When we got home everything got inspected by mom and dad and me and my brother would start trading candy, both of us trying to scam each other out of the best stuff. Nowadays TOT around here consists of a few kids under heavy escort and only every 3rd or 4th house giving out candy. A lot of kids get driven around to areas that do still get involved more in TOT, but it's not the same as it was 30 years ago. Guess that's why I started decorating for Halloween. Some of us have to keep the holiday alive and make sure the kids have something to remember!


----------



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Awww, these stories are so wonderful - I'm dying laughing and then getting choked up. What sweet, lovely memories you all are sharing


----------



## Paint It Black (Sep 15, 2011)

When my kids were only 6 and 3, we moved to a small condo. Nevertheless, they decided to make a "haunted house" that the neighbors could go through. They set everything up in our living room. The decorations were their "scary" happy meal toys. They had two cigar boxes that you had to feel what they had inside, which was spaghetti and grapes or something. They made tickets out of construction paper and gave them out to the neighbors and then collected them as they came through the haunted house. The funniest part was that you had to crawl through most of it because they put sheets between the furniture to make their little maze through the living room. I still have the cigar boxes with their little signs on top of them telling you to "Open lid and feel inside." So cute.


----------



## snigglez (Jun 4, 2009)

Mine was when I was a little kid, I am the youngest out of 4 and the only girl, so I grew up as a tomboy. Anyways my dad would every Halloween make a Haunted maze under our carport.... It was so cool all the kids from school would ask if we were having the haunted maze every year. What my big memory is that I was born around the corner from my house and brought into the house I live in now. So out of almost 47 years I have been here 44 years. I now own this house I grew up in. Every year I put a huge display on my yard, carport, and driveway and every year as I am doing this I think of helping my dad make his Halloween Maze when I was very little under the same carport that is still being used every Halloween. My memories with my dad and mom on Halloween is amazing, when they moved out and I started doing my own Halloween scene they would come over to help and hand out candy. I remember my dad telling me how much he loved that I "kept up his tradition" That made me feel amazing. My mom passed back in 2010 but I know every Halloween she is still with us as we set up and hand out candy to the ToT's.


----------



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

These are great. 

Here's one from my childhood. I guess you can call it more of a Fall/Halloween memory, but it is one that is very pivotal for me. I was about 7 or 8 years old. I remember it being a Saturday and I had gone to the grocery store with my Mom. She bought some new cardboard cut outs while we were there and also picked me up a pumpkin Pez I wanted. I remember being so excited to get home and tape up the new decorations. When we arrived back home my Dad yelled for me to hurry up and see what was on TV. It was The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with Jeff Goldblum, of course I didn't know who the actors were back then. lol I was always fascinated with the legend of the Headless Horseman so I immediately sat my rear on the couch and watched the show from start to finish, all the while snacking on my new Pez. When it was over I hung the new cut outs with my Mom and she started dinner. I grabbed my coat and headed outside to play while she was cooking. My Dad was already outside raking and burning leaves. I remember walking out the side door, a beautiful Fall day. Sun was out, a cool breeze, and I so remember the smell of the burning leaves and the smoke that was blowing around the yard. We had woods behind our house so there were alot of leaves. Lots of trails too. I spent the next hour or so just walking, taking in the smells, playing "headless horseman", kicking the leaves, and all the while holding that pumpkin Pez.


----------



## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

One thing I always looked forward to was the school pumpkin contest. 

By 3rd grade, I had resigned myself to the fact that my mom's repertoire of allowing us to choose being a clown, hobo, or cowboy was never going to win me that costume contest. But, the PUMPKIN carving contest. THAT was going to be mine!!!

This became a comedy of errors. Royally messed up the 3rd grade pumpkin. 

4th grade...I tripped and fell, smashing the pumpkin. It looked really interesting as we glued it back together with that oldschool gel blood, but wasn't going to win anything. 


5th Grade, I planned it early. Picked out my pumpkin with the design SPECIFICALLY in mind. I was making a pumpkin SPIDER. 

No, not carving a spider into the pumpkin, I was making it a spider. 

Being into bugs at the time, it was going to be realistic too. Crafted the legs of mache, shaped the pumpkin with a potato peeler, carved the eyes and various designs into it, made hair of peacock feathers (ample supply of wild peacocks behind my parent's house). We even tied an honest to goodness web out of twine and had this carved pumpkin HANGING from a web on a frame. 

Officially, I came in second. 

First place was a painted humpty dumpty pumpkin that was very obviously the work of the boy's mother (president of the PTA that was doing the judging as well)...unless he had a knack for sewing clothes...

There was an actual award assembly for this and the costume contest, they'd wheel up the costumes and pumpkins, had us standing up there, the principle came out hands the first place, then comes to me, turns around and announces into the mic "And who here thinks this pumpkin should have been the winner?" The student body roared in response.


----------



## creeperguardian (Aug 22, 2011)

My best halloween memorie is when i was young and trick or treating we would go out to another town that had the best houses with candy and plus there was a whole street with decorated house's so many creepy and scary ones but every year i would help my dad decorate the house with a small spider and this cool big full web and loved going to party city to get props like the green grim reaper that looked creepy yet cool tho i wish i still had him would do awsome as a 3d skeleton


----------



## 22606 (Aug 11, 2008)

creeperguardian said:


> ...loved going to party city to get props like the green grim reaper that looked creepy yet cool tho i wish i still had him would do awsome as a 3d skeleton


I also had that cheap piece of... After a couple of years, parts of mine splintered into so many pieces that it was impossible to do anything with it Along those lines, one of the neighbors' green Reaper is a lot shorter now than it was originally Did yours break, too?

This is an awesome thread


----------



## Guest (Apr 18, 2013)

Well, I have limited Trick or Treating memories. I think we went 3 times, 4 at the most, during my childhood.

My best memory is my grandmother's elderly, deaf neighbor lady scaring the life out of us one Halloween. She was a very nice lady, lived alone, couldn't hear at all.

On halloween night, my grandmother took us to her DARK home and made me and my sis walk thru her dark house into her dark kitchen. When we got into the dark kitchen, she boomed out "fee fi fo FUM" and scared us even more. She then flipped on the light and grinned at us and gave us our treat. It remains the scariest moment of my childhood.

I'll chime in my worst halloween memory. I am 15, and like I said, barely got to go TOTing. So my parents offered to take me and my 2 sisters to a populated town and TOT. Hell yeah, hell yeah, so exciting. Make a ghost costume out of old sheet, put thick white makeup on face, put thick black makeup around eyes, on lips, etc. Your typical homemade let's have fun costume.

So we TOT. Did good, had fun. On the way home, we have to stop at the one red light in my small town where everybody knows you/yourparents/your car. All of my friends and enemies were of course not TOTing, not dressed up, but milling about up to no good, soaping windows, attacking each other, vandalizing town, etc. And here I sit, the teenage ghost in a torn white sheet. I was so conflicted at that time. I loved dressing up, had fun TOTing, but felt like the biggest baby in the world because everyone else my age was out doing the too cool for halloween semi-criminal halloween.

(Not that there is anything horrible about teenagers being teenagers. I don't like vandals on halloween at all.)

Enjoy reading the memories everybody posts. Halloween is such a great holiday!


----------



## bethene (Feb 12, 2007)

oh, what wonderful memory stories! 
I am going to keep adding to the posts,, makes me feel great to bring up the memories,, so bear with me all! 

Actually, here are several. when I was able to go by my self TOTing, a group of us went out. on the street behind our there is a big old house. with a 6 foot wrought Iron fence, they had a double lot., every one always was a bit scared of the place, they had gate that closed over the drive way., so we made up all kinds of scary stories about it, one year the fence was open. and we dared each other to go to the door. after debating it for a while we all went. A oldish lady passed out candy with a persian cat by her side. of course she was perfectly pleasant but we had gotten our selves so spooked, that some sorta thought she was a witch with her cat!!!!! gheesh what ninnies we were! 
one thing I remember about being able to go on our own was when it was on a Friday and we could go longer.. I just remember the atmosphere. windy.. so spooky. we stayed late and not many others were around. creaking tree branches. the smell of burning leaves (which to this day brings Halloween to mind) just so scary for preteen girls out by ourselves late~ 

when I was in 8th grade a bunch of us got together and just walked the streets., too old for TOTing, one house had a HUGE JOL on the porch. one kid we were with said he was going to smash it, we argued with him, told him to leave it alone, well he wanted to be cool. and ran up to grab it, when some one on the roof of the porch poured a bucket of water on him,, too funny.. we all laughed and said. that'll teach ya!! it was cold out. and he was soaked! served him right though~!


----------



## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

This is a small town and I have spent most of my years here with family here too.
One October some neighborhood kids kept asking me:"What are you going to be this Halloween?" I told them:"I will be THE GUY that you will be running down the street to get away from"!
And I was!
I found some interesting sticks in the gutter infront of my house, drilled small holes in them, threaded wire hooking them together, spray painted it white, there was a huge boney skeletal hand and arms.!
I glued together a huge styrofoam block, carved it into a very large skull. All of this head sat upon padded shoulders , strapped to me, I made 12inch lifts, practiced walking in them, I was suddenly 12 inches taller!
The long, large boney white arms had 1/4 steel rods (painted black) attached to those wrists, my arms could move "By themselves!"
I have now walked 5 1/2 blocks, in the dark from my home to 1/2 a block from where the parade forms up and a guy a year older than I am walks passed me under a tree where it is very hard to see and calmly says:"Hi Jim." "???"
Under the street lights I could see where Parents who had toddlers were , so I remained at least 95 feet away from them. For days afterwards people would happen to see me around town and mildly cuss me out for "Terrorizing their little kid!" (And everyone of them were 95 feet away!)
"We had to leave before the costume contest because you scared my kid so bad!" (From 95 feet away!) "OOOPS!"
The next year a short, small woman my age rented that 7 ft, tall skeleton costume from me, how or if she could wear it at all, well, I would have liked to have seen her in it. I had warned her that my costumes were more like torture devices for the person wearing them than mere "costumes"!
Animosity grew here locally as I won so often. A school teacher here would always get second place. Nobody could tell which Monster was he or me? Yet I would win! (He didn't like that!)
A few years later as I had no time for costumes or actually normally doing anything Halloween, because I had opened The Ravens Grin Inn (Haunt) I was walking down the street after the parade, just a block from my house when a car pulled over and an attractive woman motioned frantically for me to get into her car? (I was single at this time) I got in, she proceeded to complain to me that even though she had worked So Hard and Long on her own costumes and her Daughter's costume over the years that she didn't think it right or fair that I Always WON!"
What was I supposed to say to that?
The prize was $3.00, it never changed.. $3.00 Wow!? So what? A couple of times the Judge was a person who I believe has never liked me at all!
And why was she complaining? I couldn't even do the whole costume/parade thing anymore! ???
Years after my big skeleton costume my Grandmother had been saving newspaper clippings about my Halloween doings. I was pleasantly surprised when she pointed to that old photo of the winners of the contest that year and she identified for me that almost all the winners were my close relatives!? Cousins, my Grandmother pointing out the people was also one! Amazing!
At the last minute she decided to dress up, she mixed flour with water, smeared this thick paste on her face, leaving some air holes and looked very strange, scary! GRANDMA!??


----------



## Kelloween (Jun 8, 2012)

Well I already told about my bad Halloween memory, so I'll tell my best one now...The year was 1970, I was 9 at the time..my dad was military, we were from Illinois but had lived in Louisiana for years. He had orders to Germany so we were going home to Illinois to visit because we wouldn't get to see grandparents for 3 or more years. We just happened to be there for the Halloween barn party for the club my grandmother was in. I remember all of us dressing up..I was a gypsy..plastic mask and all! There was a hayride, dance, bonfire, tables of candy apples and candy, the whole old fashioned shin dig! It was so much fun! Funny, that night brings so many memories...it was the first time I saw my parents dance and act young, I decided I liked a boy for the first time that night..and it was also the last memory I have when my entire family was living, it is one of my last times of innocence before I knew about death, divorces and all people could not be trusted..by the time we got back from overseas my grandfather was very ill and passed away and as I got older life's lessons began to unfold, but I always have that memorable Halloween night to remind me of the joy of being a child and I carry it with me as I get old! I think that night formed my love for Halloween


----------



## darknesshalloween (Aug 25, 2008)

Halloween memories... Well my obsession all started at a young age (which unfortunately thanks to my hospital visit at the age of 12 is very cloudy) from what I do remember I always got this magical feeling around October. I would at a young age watch horror movies and spend more time thinking about TOTing then was healthy. My dad always did this big elaborate set up and would scare the TOTers with my grandpa as they came up. It always felt good to have the best house in the neighborhood when it came to Halloween. I still remember like it was yesterday hearing the music blasting from the same ambient Halloween CD that I still love to this day and the dry ice fog technique that was used. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen at the time.

I remember all the good times I had setting up decorations with my family and how I would always push them to put them up as early as possible. Well at the age of 12 my parents got divorced and having the inner passion for Halloween that I once saw in my dad I knew it was up to me to setup the yard. From this point on a large portion of the birthday money I got in early October I would invest in Halloween props/decorations for the house. My first year (12 years old) after making what I felt were large improvements to the house and going in place of my dad in the scares department, I became hooked like a junkie. It felt good going to school and getting compliments from the kids on the bus. 

I continued my expansion and worked my way up from pop out scares to electric chainsaws. I would standing still in the fog next to the porch steps acting as though I were not real scarring the hell out of the TOTers. My final year doing scaring in the front was what I see at this time waaaay overboard. I became to have this blood lust to scare people and got such a rush out of it that it was all I could think about starting in September. Well this year I went big boy league and bought with my own money a real chainsaw just to scare people with. Well my "blood lust" came out and I was so "trigger happy" that I never even allowed the TOTers to make it to the top of the porch. I literally would chase people 4 houses down, while they screamed bloody murder. Lets just say later that night cops were involved and my neighbors began to think I was crazy. (Maybe is was caused too by my extremely bloody displays in the front....) 

Well let's just say the next year I moved up to the big leagues in the scare department... 

If y'all enjoyed this story I will go into my maze years.


----------



## Katster (Jan 27, 2013)

Thank you Terra it is a fantastic thread you weave. I really do not have a childhood memory that sticks out in a Halloween way but for some strange reason I would like to share a memory of when I was younger (I was 22 at the time). Not young as in child as i really have no memory of any Halloween in my youth. Now here is the strange part when I became an adult I worked part time as a bartender in a Brit Pub and I designed and dressed up all the staff for our party one Halloween and several years later I had become manager of that pub and had a birthday coming up, the staff held a surprise birthday party for me and the theme was Halloween! I had 2 young boys by then and made all their costumes but not once had I mentioned that I even enjoyed Halloween. But that party they held for me in June brought so many customers dressed up in all the costumes I had made over the previous years. For any reason I would make someone dress up, even to go to the hospital to visit a patron I would design some goofy outfit to bring cheer to the sick bed. Somehow somewhere I became an addict of dressing up and looking at Halloween as a way to vent my creativeness. Now I have taken to designing strange and weird things that I can only put out at Halloween Time! I will be 56 come June and I will always think of my "Halloween Birthday" when I was a younger gal. But if I knew then what everyone else seen in me I would be a famous stage production person in some famous movie ... but for now I am just happy to be able to show you guys my stuff !


----------



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Can anyone not read these stories and not brush the memories away like a thick fog? lol


Outside my previous memory, this is the other one that stick so prominantly in my mind. What makes it even more amazing is the fact that I was 4 YEARS OLD! I asked my Mom in the past about this memory and she was amazed that I could even remember it, and she verified every detail that I remember. 

It was 1977 and we lived in a trailer park at this time. From how my Mom backed up my story, the park had a center square where you could "picnic". Every holiday they had an event. For Halloween they had pumpkin vaving contests, which she said my Dad participated in with me. She said there were literally over a hundred jacks displayed. Also just about all the trailers decorated. Lights, blow molds, cut outs, etc. They had a couple fire pits in the square and it always smoked up the park. Everyone was out and it was a really community oriented event. She said that's the only thing she ever missed about living in a trailer park. lol I remember that night being so magical with all the festivities and atmosphere and it really gave me a wonderfull feeling that it actually happened. She also said that I always got excited at those early ages during Halloween time. 

Those early years really do help shape us.


----------



## NOWHINING (Jul 25, 2009)

these are really wonderful stories to tell. I too have my own memories share and I think I have too many to share. Halloween was and will alway be that speical time when Fall season comes around and the smell of leaves in the air, the air getting cooler and you need your hoodie. Scary movie nights and bonfire. Planning and plotting your whole month of October of what is going on and what should you do and evening planning what you shall wear. I am grateful to be able to celebrate my Halloween years because of my Mom and Dad. They each had their own thing when it came to Halloween. Mom would make costumes and crafts to decorate while Dad would be into scarying Spookyone and me and watching whatever TV shows Halloween Speical. Now that I have my son. He is slowly getting around to liking scary movies and enjoyed going to a real Haunted House with me. I love making Halloween Memories. I think they are the best times.


----------



## GrimGrinningGhost (Sep 2, 2009)

Well, my birthday is the 30th of October 1965, so needless to say my cake always had a Halloween theme. Usually, the 'Great Pumpkin' from Charlie Brown. I love that show that aired every year. I lived in a time that you could Trick or Treat for quite a long time and you could trust your neighbors.
I also loved monster movies and had built Aurora monster models on my shelves and monster posters on my walls. I sitll was petrified at night in bed, hiding under the covers when the house "settled" with the cold, with all the creaks and groans of wood rubbing on wood.

One year my aunt and grandmother helped perfect my Dracula costume by getting me a great "gentlemans suit" look with a hemmed cape, and a makeup job both the aunt and mom worked on.
I walked down the long staircase in my grandmothers Victorian semi-plantation house in Auborn WA in full Dracula regalia. Our cat was coming down the hallway and turned the corner to come up the stairs. I raised my arms up lifting my cape to full "bat" stance. The poor cat hunched down and just hissed at me for a minute or so before hightailing it back around the corner on wood flooring. 
Anywho,,,,,,,,,,,my fondest memories are from maybe the years 1970 thru 1975. After that it all is a bit fuzzy. Lots of urban legends of poisoning and razor blades.
I stayed home wathcing monster movies on the tv.


----------



## Kelloween (Jun 8, 2012)

GrimGrinningGhost said:


> Well, my birthday is the 30th of October 1965, .


you were born the day before..I was born the day after..


----------



## Trinity1 (Sep 5, 2009)

I love this thread and have enjoyed reading all of your stories! It absolutely puts me in such a good mood. 

I have so many fond Halloween memories but the one that sticks out most in mind is the Halloween that I was in the 6th grade. We always had a parade at school where we'd walk around the gym so that everyone could see our costumes. Then they'd vote for different catagories. It was so much fun and family members where invited to come and join so it was really a big event. That year I was really into vampires and decided that I wanted to be a bride of Dracula. I had gotten an old whte nightgown and long black wig. My Sister and my Mom were there...my sister had done my make up which was AMAZING! And of course I had the fangs. I was so proud as we walked around the gym that day. LOL! And then...............I WON for scariest costume!  Nothing could have made me happier!!! 

I can't remember if I actually won something or not....I just remember being so happy that I had set out to be as scary as I could be and suceeded!


----------



## GrimGrinningGhost (Sep 2, 2009)

I also remember when I lived in Alaska in 1970 (I was 5 years old), Trick 'r Treating in the snow. I went with my older brother. We went out in, what was for us, thigh deep snow in the dark. We went as fast as we could because the snow was melting from our exersion running so fast which caused our lower clothes and shoes to get wet. Well, this liquid just froze. I got home and my thighs were cherry red. I remember distinctly looking at my thighs that just burned. My mother panicked and put us in the bath with cold water for fear of frostbite. Well, we were fine. I must of thought it was just bath night. I don't remember any panicy thoughts.
Then my brother and I went through our loot while watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (which I still love deeply today) on the 10" wide TV we had.
I was Batman.
I have the photo my mother took of my brother and I after we bought our costumes. In the picture there is no snow on the ground yet if I remember correctly. 
I love that memory.

I will try to get the photo out of the boxes in my unfinished ManCave upstairs.


----------



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Loving this thread. I want to re-read it every time I'm in need of a Halloween mood inflater.

My memory is more recent because I didn't fall in love with the adult version of Halloween _(scary haunting)_ until recently. But first, please play this sound track in the background while you read the rest of the story:






It was hubby and I's 10th anniversary of meeting each other and we were buying our tickets to Universal Orlando and they asked us if we wanted to also go to Halloween Horror Nights. Up until that time _(I was 35)_ I had avoided haunted houses because I never understood why in the world people liked getting scared. But, figured I was old enough to see what the hubbub was about. I mean, it can't be _that _scary.

The time came for the show and we walked through two haunted houses and I was having the time of my life! Then we came upon a scare zone _(I didn't know what that was). _It was a scary walkway totally fog filled and you walked under another walkway _(so it was like a tunnel)_ and scare actors were lurking everywhere. It was so foggy you couldn't see past 3' and I was terrified and giggling like a 10 year old. This music was playing... At that moment I fell head over heels in love with Halloween. Every time I hear this track I remember every moment and every feeling.


----------



## stormygirl84 (Sep 4, 2009)

Oh, I have so many wonderful memories.

Whenever I'm feeling particularly nostalgic, I like to watch Garfield's Halloween Adventure. That's because it's one of my earliest Halloween memories. I must have been about three years old when it came out. I can remember sitting in our old living room (on that hideous brown shag carpet), quaking with fear over the ghost pirates. I think I actually screamed when they found Garfield and Odie.

I also remember that, while my mom wasn't crazy about decorating, she sure loved dressing me up in costumes. She'd start planning for weeks what she was going to dress me in. We recently found some pictures of me in costumes as a kid, I'll see if I can't scan some and post them. I remember being so proud that my mom _made_ all of my costumes - no store-bought stuff for me!

I also feel nostalgic when I see that Wal-Mart is starting to put out their Halloween displays. It's really the only time I go to Wally anymore. And they don't even put out the same amount (or quality) of stuff they used to, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying it. I just remember begging my dad to take my best friend and I to Wal-Mart as soon as the Halloween stuff was out (obviously before I could drive, so probably between the ages of eleven and fourteen-ish), and we'd buy tons of the make-up and face paints, take them back to my house, and hole up in the bathroom trying to brainstorm costume ideas. In fact, to this day she still teases me about my "radish monster," when I smeared almost a full tube of red cream make-up over my entire face (why, I can't recall), _and then couldn't wash it all off._ My face was stained slightly red for days. I had to tell people I had a sunburn!

Another favorite memory is from about ten or twelve years ago, I guess. My parents had gone out for the day, probably to have some alone time away from their surly teenage daughter, and I had the house to myself. It was a rainy day, probably at the end of August or beginning of September, so the house was darker than normal. I remember turning on one of my burned Halloween CDs at full blast and dancing around the house to "Thriller" and "Somebody's Watching Me" and "Ghostbusters." Then it got _really_ dark out and started thundering. I settled down at Mom's computer (because OF COURSE that's what you do during a thunderstorm!) and started searching for virtual haunted houses online. (Which are sadly lacking now. You can't find more than a handful of sites anymore.) So I spent the rest of the afternoon escaping from virtual monsters and ghosts.

I'm sure I have even more memories than this that are worth mentioning, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. Time for some coffee!


----------



## kprimm (Apr 3, 2009)

So many good ones for sure, but I will share one special one here. I was about Ten years old and my parents had bought a couple Gorilla masks (don't remember why) but me and my younger brother made our selves into Planet Of The Apes Warriors and my cousin was an Alien. We had a blast that year and got so many compliments and pictures taken of us with the costumes on. My dad took us all over the city and I had two pillow cases filled to the top with Halloween treasure. Just one of those magical memories from childhood.


----------



## mariposa0283 (Aug 15, 2012)

just being able to decorate my own house how i wanted to last year is good enough for me. then of course theres the kids, one little girl in particular went into sensory overload and just had to look at everything and make it go off so she could ooh and aah at it. it was so stinking cute.. and the first tot of the night was a baby, about a year old, give or take a couple months... dressed up as dorothy. she was SO CUTE! 

halloween memories from when i was a kid, carving pumpkins, trick or treating with my brothers and mostly my last trip out toting when i was 12 (was grounded for halloween when i was 13 and by the time i was 14 i was "too old for that nonsense"  ), going around with my best friend dressed up as a punk rocker in my denim skirt and jacket and a spikey black wig on. i loved that costume. too bad i lost my sense of creativity, i cant come up with a decent costume idea anymore if my life depended on it.


----------



## Atomic Mystery Monster (Jul 29, 2003)

I grew up in a rural area and only trick or treated in one neighborhood...but what a neighborhood it was! As it was out in the country, the neighborhood was spread out over a large distance, featuring many spots that were surrounded by dark woods and fields. As you can imagine, that made things extra creepy, as was the time a neighbor who had a great sound system played a spooky sound effects tape through it on Halloween. What we kids didn't realize was that she left her windows upon so the sound could travel outside, so we were terrified when we heard wolves howling when we walked by a large hill on the way to her house (especially since a coyote had been sighted around the neighborhood before).

For many years, one of my neighbors would set up one of those large, light-up pumpkins on a chair on his roof. He claimed that it was a magic pumpkin that a witch dropped off on his roof every Halloween. Every year, my fellow trick-or-treaters and I would try to get him to see it, but it always vanished from sight whenever he came outside. We always knew in the back of our minds that he was just using a light switch to turn it off, but it was still fun. I can still remember how disappointed everyone was on the Halloween when the pumpkin wasn't up (because he had gotten too old to get up on the roof anymore).

One top of that, there were two houses that ran elaborate home haunts (with some friends and I running one of our own during my final year there). Had I grown up anywhere else, I probably wouldn't be the Halloween nut I am today!


----------



## jdubbya (Oct 4, 2003)

So many, but a few I remember fondly were of being about 6-7 years old in the mid 60's and going to neighbor's homes with my brother and sister in our Ben Cooper or Collegeville costumes; the ones with the plastic masks with string holders. My dad would accompany us in those early years and we'd go for maybe a block or two. Most neighbors welcomed you into their houses and played the "I can't guess who this is" game, until you took your mask off and revealed your face. It was very common back then to get homemade treats like cookies, brownies, caramel apples, etc.. We'd go home and empty our store bought TOT bags and sort through the stuff we got, trading things with each other.

A few years later, I remember being allowed to go out unaccompanied. We'd get a group of our friends together and map out our route. In those days there were no TOT hours and you stayed out until the porch lights were off. It was not unusual to be out past 10 p.m. and come home with a pillow case full of treats, and many people were still handing out candy at those hours. So much fun!


----------



## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

Along the lines with JW- many people back then in my neighborhood would have walkthru's in their home for the TOT's. Or they would have props that would drop from a tree on sidewalk as you were walking past it. Sometimes the trees were large and hovered over the sidewalk, and the prop would clonk you right in the head sometimes. No lawsuits to worry about....we would just laugh it off.


----------



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

I'm bumping this thread up again. It's been eight days! LOL C'mon guys, look where we're at, Halloweenforum! I know there's some more memories out there.


----------



## Guest (Apr 30, 2013)

I was born in the 70s, and I remember that Halloween used to be a big celebration at school. It was Halloween, not a Fall, Autumn, or Harvest festival.

You could wear or bring costumes to school. The teacher carved a pumpkin. Your class ate toasted pumpkin seeds. The classroom was decorated with haunted Houses, witches, ghosts, scarecrows, etc. You read spooky stories, or listened to spooky records.

At night, schools Halloween carnivals, and entire families and communities attended and had fun.

I think it is a dadgum shame Halloween has been erased from the school celebrations.


----------



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

hollow said:


> I was born in the 70s, and I remember that Halloween used to be a big celebration at school. It was Halloween, not a Fall, Autumn, or Harvest festival.
> 
> You could wear or bring costumes to school. The teacher carved a pumpkin. Your class ate toasted pumpkin seeds. The classroom was decorated with haunted Houses, witches, ghosts, scarecrows, etc. You read spooky stories, or listened to spooky records.
> 
> ...



Hollow, I'm there with ya. I was born in '73 and I also have those memories. My Son still had Halloween parties in school up until the 3rd grade, that's when they stopped. My two girls attend a private school, and I was so happy that they still recognize and celebrate Halloween as well as all the other holidays. 

Last year was our first and they had a Halloween family night where you came in and carved pumpkins, they had refreshments, showed some kids Halloween cartoons, etc. It was a very nice time. Then on the 31st the school had their parade with all the kids in costumes immediately followed by their Halloween celebration with games and refreshments. All the while with Halloween music playing. It was a good time.


----------



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Doing another bump on this thread because I see another one has popped up.


----------



## mamadada (Aug 18, 2008)

Just curious ... Shadow bat... why did you stop throwing parties for your son in 3rd grade . We are going on no. 7 and they are in 5th grade this year attendance is still unbelievable. However last year there were more serious injuries and one smartalec kid said the party was lame even though everyone else seemed to be having a blast. Just wondering what would make u stop...???


----------



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Bumping this. Great thread, great stories.


----------



## pumpkinhead86 (Nov 29, 2013)

I have a lot of fond memories of Halloween! I won a costume contest when I was 11. My mom stopped letting me dress up in 7 th grade. I got in trouble at school and she grounded me, lol. And she said it was the last Halloween I could go out.

I just remember the feeling the night of, gah..I miss those days!


----------



## bethene (Feb 12, 2007)

I remember one year as you kid, my mom took my brother and I out TOTing, and it had rained hard earlier. Back then (early 60's) we had big paper type treat bags. My brother being a little guy, dragged his near the ground, it was a pretty big bag, and it got wet in a corner, and we didn't notice until most of his candy was lost. Like a good big sister, I shared mine with him.


----------



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Bumping this back up. This is the same story I shared earlier in the thread, but have updates. 












Allow me to share a story with you, rather, a memory. A very good memory that goes back to 1981. I was 8 years old. It was October, on a Saturday, and it was a typical wonderful Fall day. There was sun, but it was mild with a crisp breeze. My Dad was out raking the leaves and I was about to go to the store with Mom for whatever reason. I remember we ran to Value King, and while there picked up a few of those Halloween cut outs that everyone taped in their windows back then. At the check out I remember seeing a pumpkin Pez and so wanted it. Of course Mom bought it for me and we headed home. Dad was still outside doing the leaves and we went in so that Mom could start making something to eat. Steak-Umms. I remember that vividly. I remember turning on the TV and turning the knob, remember those?, trying to find something to watch. I remember finding a version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, that I now know starred Jeff Goldblum, and sat and watched it. Loved it. I sat there eating my Pez, watching Sleepy Hollow, all the while smelling those steak-umms being made. Mom eventually told me to go get my Dad and tell him the food was ready and headed out the back door. I remember that by this time he started burning the leaves and there was a smoke laying across the yard and the smell of the leaves was thick. After we ate Dad went back outside to continue and Mom and me hung the Halloween decorations we bought along with the others we had. When done I went outside and played Sleepy Hollow. LOL Clicking my Pez acting like the sound was that of the Horsemans horse. All these elements burned such a memory of both Fall and Halloween that I can remember it as if it was yesterday. I eventually bought that version of Sleepy Hollow and just today received that very same styled Pez that I had all those years ago. Remembering that day so vividly that I actually teared up sharing the story with LaKrista and the kids, and once again doing so as I sit here typing this out sharing it with you. Everyone that knows me knows my love for the Fall and Halloween season. This is just one reason as to why


----------



## WickedWino (Aug 19, 2012)

That is a wonderful memory, Shadowbat. Thank you for sharing! I grew up in Michigan, but have lived on the west coast for over 15 years now. I so miss having a real Fall and that smell of leaves. We got to go back to MI for a wedding last October and I made my husband stop at every cider mill we drove by. Cider just isn't the same out here.


----------



## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

I really enjoyed reading your story shadow. Its funny too how certain smells bring me back to halloween too.


----------



## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

Great story, well told. Thanks for sharing.


----------



## spookydave (May 14, 2014)

My very 1st Halloween memory , I was 3, I think(cuz my little brother wasn't there and we're 3 yrs apart),my mom and I walked over to the elementary school where they were having a Halloween festival,I remember I was wearing a woody woodpecker costume and the mask was sticking to my cheeks.They had apple bobbing, pumpkins everywhere, bed sheet ghosts hanging around , those cardboard pumpkins , skeletons and witches in the classroom windows.My mom talked me into doing the cake walk even though I was terrified of doing it alone,lol ,and I won! I just remember this huge pumpkin shaped cake with bright orange frosting, and big black eyes. I was king for a day!


----------



## wdragon209 (Sep 3, 2013)

I don't remember many Haloweens- except one. Well, it is more like a favorite costume of mine when I was little.

When we were wee little ones, my twin sister and I wanted to dress like Minnie Mouse. We had the cute red dress, shiny shoes, tails, and ears. Mom put glitter on our cheeks and above our eye to make us "shine," and to make us feel ever more pretty. I remember showing off my costume to my grandma, our neighbors, and my aunt. When we finished TOTing, and getting ready for bed, I didn't want to take it off. I wanted to continue feeling like Minnie Mouse until October was over. Mom did tell me it could become a "play" dress, and it did.

For some odd reason, I distinctly remember that Halloween- even though it was strictly about the costume.


----------



## spookydave (May 14, 2014)

It's kind of amazing what our brains hold on to... HEY has anyone seen my keys!!?!


----------



## thenightmarefamily (Nov 20, 2014)

Those are some great memories. Now here's a little something from The Nightmare Family vault.

We weren't always a huge home haunt bouncing in and out of the commercial spectrum....

Well through my childhood my dad was in and out of prison and was never able to spend Halloween or the holiday's with us until i was 9 and that's were my moment begins. He was released on Oct. 27th and had no idea i loved Halloween so much because he never spent one at home. He built a cemetery, a web hallway, and a cool automatic coffin, all while i was at school on 31st. When i got home i couldn't believe what my dad did for me. That afternoon we carved pumpkins before TOT and my dad stood up in front of me, my mom, and my sister and promised that he was done with the biker lifestyle and that he would never miss another Holiday with us again, and to this day 30 years later, he never has. That's was the best Halloween for me.


----------



## LadyMage (Aug 15, 2014)

Forum User said:


> I was born in the 70s, and I remember that Halloween used to be a big celebration at school. It was Halloween, not a Fall, Autumn, or Harvest festival.
> 
> You could wear or bring costumes to school. The teacher carved a pumpkin. Your class ate toasted pumpkin seeds. The classroom was decorated with haunted Houses, witches, ghosts, scarecrows, etc. You read spooky stories, or listened to spooky records.
> 
> ...


Not everywhere. My daughter's school still has halloween celebrations and allows costumes within certain guidelines.


----------



## LadyMage (Aug 15, 2014)

I don't have any stand out singular memories of halloween growing up, but just loved the feeling of it. My mother loved to sew, but working full time rarely had time or energy for it, so she sewed two things for us - our good dresses for dress up occasions, and our halloween costumes. We had the most awesome costumes growing up, way better than anything you could find in stores in the early/mid 80s, and even now for many of them. Late summer mom would take us shopping at the local fabric store, and we'd pick out a pattern that we liked, and then go through the store picking out the fabric we wanted, and the notions to go with it that the costume needed. Over the next two months on weekend days that were less busy, mom would sew for hours while we played, occasionally stopping one of us to try bits and bobs on. Had she not suffered a stroke 9 years ago, she'd be a pinterest grandma, but many crafts on there require two working hands. We moved around a lot growing up, some years living in townhouse complexes where we could hit lots and lots of houses in short order, some years living out so far in the boonies that we'd have to walk an hour to hit a score of houses, so we'd go to a friend's place in the city and trick or treat in their neighborhood. Being in Canada the weather was unpredictable, I remember one halloween so warm that my sister was panting in her funfur cat costume, and many that were so cold the layers we put under our costumes did nothing, and our hands were bright red and numb holding our treat bags. These were the days before kid safe carving kits, so Dad was the designated gourd gutter, with his smiling jack-o-lanterns with star trek insignia shaped eyes. 

Now that I am thinking about it, I do remember one halloween where my penchant for decorations paid off. It was when we were living in the boonies, off a highway in the middle of nowhere. My sister and I and some of the neighborhood kids were making a scarecrow, and the winds had been high, so we were having to get most of hte leaves for our scarecrow from a patch of brush one one corner of the property where we didn't normally play. Our cat had gone on a walk about and we'd not seen her in a couple of days, but that was not unusual for her to be gone a few days and then show back up again. While we were gathering stuff and yelling back and forth, I could swear I could hear something crying in the brush. The bigger kids made fun of me, but I was sure I could hear something. I mentioned it to my parents and I don't really think they made much of it at the time. Well, the winds were picking back up, and Dad didn't want our scarecrow to blow into the highway, so he went to take it down and he heard something too. He waded into brush so thick we couldn't see him, and came out with our grey and white cat. She was hurt, xrays later showed she'd broken a hip. Dad figured she'd gotten clipped by a car, and dragged herself into the brush to heal up. She heard us and started calling for help. If we'd not been making that scarecrow, I don't know if we'd have found her. 

Of course my more modern memories surround my oldest daughter's birth 2 weeks before halloween, and my halloween wedding.....


----------



## thenightmarefamily (Nov 20, 2014)

LadyMage said:


> Not everywhere. My daughter's school still has halloween celebrations and allows costumes within certain guidelines.


They haven't allowed that here in SoCal for about 15 or 25 years now. My oldest daughter who is 18 now has never been allowed to dress up in costumes at school. The office told me that the district doesn't allow costumes because it is offensive. Whatever?...


----------



## LadyMage (Aug 15, 2014)

Yeah my daughter's current school and her old one allow costumes with limitations - not gory or too scary - some of the JK kids aren't quite 4 yet, no weapons etc. It's hit and miss though. The principals dictate the holiday celebrations for each school, so some do Halloween, some do a more generic fall festival, some do Halloween as a black and orange spirit day in lieu of costumes. Very glad my daughter's is one of the former.


----------



## LadyMage (Aug 15, 2014)

The excuse I have always heard is equality - some families don't celebrate, and poor families can't afford 40 dollar costumes. The first I can't really refute, but the latter is BS IMO. I get being broke, we make under 40k a year ourselves most years, but costumes can be purchased second hand for dirt cheap and made for even less with some creativity


----------



## tomanderson (Dec 6, 2007)

LadyMage, that's a sweet story about the cat.


----------



## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

My now "Ex" made My Son a set of bunny ears /hat thing.(For Kindergarten) She later said it had "Blackmail" potential, someday because the white , fluffy stuff was actually several (New) Tampons she had ripped apart then glued to the rest of it.


----------



## Stochey (Sep 22, 2009)

thenightmarefamily said:


> Those are some great memories. Now here's a little something from The Nightmare Family vault.
> 
> We weren't always a huge home haunt bouncing in and out of the commercial spectrum....
> 
> Well through my childhood my dad was in and out of prison and was never able to spend Halloween or the holiday's with us until i was 9 and that's were my moment begins. He was released on Oct. 27th and had no idea i loved Halloween so much because he never spent one at home. He built a cemetery, a web hallway, and a cool automatic coffin, all while i was at school on 31st. When i got home i couldn't believe what my dad did for me. That afternoon we carved pumpkins before TOT and my dad stood up in front of me, my mom, and my sister and promised that he was done with the biker lifestyle and that he would never miss another Holiday with us again, and to this day 30 years later, he never has. That's was the best Halloween for me.



Aww! I love this one! 

Great memory! I'm so glad he stayed out of trouble!


----------



## halo666fear (Aug 18, 2008)

This is a great thread. One of my favorite memories was 2004, I have always went to pro haunts and get all geeked up starting in AAugust.Well some of my coworkers wanted to know what the big deal was, well needless to say i got them interested so that October we went to the Darkness and Creepy world in St. Louis and had an absolute blast. Every year since those kids have asked where we going this year old man ? Every year since we have traveled room western Kentucky to nearly all the major haunts. Been to Atlanta Cleveland. ,Memphis, Nashville ,north Carolina ,Virginia and more. Every year we go to a fantastic local haunt called Talon Falls. Well since then they have passed the love for the season on to friends and children. I look so forward to this every year and can't explain how happy it makes me.


----------



## Stochey (Sep 22, 2009)

I remember one time I was pretty young and my Mom was hanging up some Halloween decorations ... probably just taping a cutout pumpkin to the door or something. I was sitting on the floor coloring a picture of a two bats flying in the sky and I remember being proud that I was making the sky a combination of swirly blues, purples, blacks and grays instead of just black for night time. 

Then we went to the post office and my Aunt who was/is a home haunter had sent me a shoebox full of Halloween stuff! I remember it had a very small pumpkin in it and a hand drawn card and cassette tape with a bunch of spooky songs on it like Monster Mash, Love Potion No. 9 and Purple People Eater. It had more but I don't remember the rest. It was the coolest thing!

Its nice to remember my Mom like that too. We don't really speak much anymore due to her drugs/alcohol/living with someone who is a racist piece of trash that attempted to murder his ex-wife and all the stuff she put my Dad through. But its nice to know we had that time. She did some neat stuff around the holidays.


----------

