It’s hard to believe the earth has already circled the Great Pumpkin completely since Ray Brandes reviewed hip-and-spooky Halloween music and his sister Claudia recalled her 1984 Halloween party featuring some of our favorite boys and ghouls.
But indeed, Samhain is here again … and I realize that I experienced the holiday in three distinct modes:
- Childhood Halloween … When wrapped candy was cool but we had to throw away apples for fear of razor blades;
- Teenage Halloween … When we looked comparatively normal one day out of the year;
- Grown-up Halloween … Enjoying the excitement of my kids and the rest of the little monsters.
What are your favorite memories of each? And what’s cooking in your cauldron this All Hallows’ Eve?
Oh, and I think that was Glen Dietrich dressed as a National Enquirer.
I went to the Pannikin with Jennifer and Tammy,and Brymo made us Anarchy Eggs!Is that the same as the platter you are wearing,Matt?Wait,it was Anarchy Eggs,it could have been anything!
>>Is that the same as the platter you are wearing,Matt?
Two eggs chucked into a metal pitcher, steamed with the cappuccino spigot on the big espresso machine; with green onions, cheddar and ham; garnished with a slice of orange and a sprig of parsley.
I never, ever ate those steamed eggs — that whole crusty-nozzle thing didn’t do it for me — but it made a good costume!
I seem to recall we discussed those steamed eggs at length some time ago . . .I did really like them--they were quite unusual.
What about the Pink Panther Balls? Thoese were soooo much fun. Let’s have a CU ball next year guys!
>>I seem to recall we discussed those steamed eggs at length some time ago . . .I did really like them–they were quite unusual.
Ray: They certainly are a healthier way to prepare eg … Heeeeey! Are we starting yet another thread about FOOD?
So what was your best Halloween candy?
Oh, btw: For whom else does “Trick or treat for UNICEF” resonate?
Unicef: Absolutely. All early childhood trick or treat excursions were accompanied by the little orange box.
I was at the halloween party Tammy and Paul’s house where Matthew was wearing the eggs costume. I remember a guy there dressed as Gilligan… and this guy’s face looked just like Bob Denver for real. He told me dressed up that way every halloween. It was the best halloween costume I’ve ever seen.
Weren’t those Pannikin eggs called “steamers”…? I never tried the Pink Panther balls, but they make steamers sound relatively tasty.
>>Weren’t those Pannikin eggs called “steamers”…?
Matt: Yes, they were. Which renders the term “Cleveland Steamer” even more horrifying to me than it would be under normal circumstances.
Ewok humps Al Roker for Halloween:
Oh no!!! TYPO!! Oh wretched!! The previous post should have read:
“… the most fun Halloween of them all (and the one some fortunate SOULS get to enjoy their entire lives.”
How embarrassing.
Grown up WITH children surpasses anything…so far beyond personal joy. Seeing the face and amazement of children is so awesome.
Perhaps for some, this is true, but I think “Grown-Up-Without-Kids” deserves a category, or else some folks around here simply can’t play this game! Seeing the face and amazement of my child is certainly awesome, but I sure like the face and amazement when it’s MY face in San Francisco on Halloween! 🙂
>>”“Grown-Up-Without-Kids” deserves a category, or else some folks around here simply can’t play this game!”
Very true…didn’t mean to exclude anyone!!
We did wait too long to decorate this year … And the kids have left it to me to make up the lag … Sooooo, I’m feeling a little crabbier than usual — and thinking Stephanie’s no-kids H’ween sounds a little more relaxing than my current project-management gig! 🙂
I will say our house is always the grooviest/spookiest on our block … Major point of pride!
Yeah…I don’t envy your position Matt! Though your house sounds cool!
We usually just take our daughter out for Thai food, then mill around the Brown neighborhoods for trick or treat. No worry there about apples and razor blades!
No decorating…French ennui…no pride.
The guy across the street has transformed his house into a haunted mansion with a dry ice foggy cemetery in front. Goblins lurk in the trees, cobwebs on the windows. He pipes in music and rises up from a coffin dressed as dracula to hand out candy. Sometimes his friends do things like dress as witches and stir a potion in a cauldron. The neighborhood looks forward all year. It scares the bejeezus out of the littler kids. So, those of us in immediate proximity are expected to not to go too far beyond jack-o-lanterns and saying “boo.” I, of course, am very excited about going to the haunted house.
I burned the wiccans out of my hand setting up an eerie blue light in our life-size wooden coffin … So I am in an evil mood — fortunately, appropriate to the holiday! 🙂
One proof my kids are evil geniuses: The star attraction was concocted by my younger a couple years ago … A life-size little trick or treater, dressed like a princess and holding a plastic pumpkin, sprawled face-down on our front steps. It always slows the kids down!
Matt,I don’t think the Pink Panther Balls are meant for your mouth,but maybe you know something we don’t!
Trick or Treat!
Wish I had a giant ewok costume for tonight!
The NY Times says kids still trick or treat for UNICEF. I haven’t seen one of those orange boxes for 30 years.
Yeah, my daughter brought a very retro-themed orange Unicef box home from school on Friday.
I trick or treat in unitards. The town is considering legislation to stop me!
(Seriously, this was a cool idea. I didn’t like the parents I knew who made the kids collect for UNICEF instead of candy — great formula to make your children resent poor kids in other countries! — but it was a neat introduction to thinking globally/acting locally.)
I think you missed a stage of Halloween — adult, but not yet (if ever) raising children. I observed quite a lot of this stage each year working downtown in the Gaslamp.
And, of course, I also indulged in the same for many years prior to working nights.
>.I think you missed a stage of Halloween — adult, but not yet (if ever) raising children.
Kevin: Indeed, that was an oversight … Stephanie Fairbanks also pointed out that this is a major renewable resource for Halloween energy.
Here’s our fam this year. Izzy is Frankenstein’s monster…and I am Dr. Frankenstein of course…hence the jumper cables. My wife Robin is a gypsy, my little girl Ellie a “flower faerie” and then there’s the Marcel Duchamp award for my oldest daughter Aliana; the power strip. Yes she conceived, designed, and built it herself.
I am in awe of my kids.
We got lots of candy. My teeth hurt.
The Power Strip is awesome!! You’ve got to love kids!!
Matt’s memory of the home made haunted house reminds me of similar projects as a kid in Coronado. They had these things at school for fundraisers, but we always knew we could do them better ourselves at home, so we did.
We were catholic school kids, and I think the nuns were hesitant to get as ghoulish as we kids would have (and did) on our own.
So my family backyard became a graveyard, and I became an 8 year old zombie.
I remember rigging a rope to go under my ams and up my back, with a proper hangman’s noose (boy scout training was great for this kind of thing) and then being hoisted up under an orange tree.
Neighborhood kids were brought through and it was my job at the end of the whole thing to twist on the rope and freak ’em out at the last minute by raising my head and groaning.
I look back to this performance early in my youth whenever at a loss for what to do or say in a job interview or performance evaluation meeting.
I’m still a hit today!
Patrick Works
Undead and Loving It