It is a well-known fact that Halloween eve is a favorite family outing.
It’s time to put spooky, bubbling, oozing and adding mysterious tricks to your repertoire. We are never too old to love a good spine-tingling scare or be grossed out at what me might see. Children also love a sudden startling shock. Just make it fun as to not cause them childhood traumas requiring therapy later on in life.
That was then, this is now. For the past years I’ve ‘tricked’ Sheila into dealing with those ghosts and goblins by herself. She is more generous with goodies too. 75 to 100 kids come looking for treats. Last year there were less. T
his year she is well stocked.
As for myself, I am content to sit in a comfortable rocker and listen to the excitement and the Halloween lingo coming from the veranda. Occasionally there can be a rare moment when something unusual is going on and I’ll get up for a quick photo but that’s all.
I do remember going to neighbours for candies as a kid but one year I felt too grown up to wear a costume anymore. That’s when our little gang devised to play tricks of some consequence.
There was the year where we had planned for and gathered brush for the big night. After dark we piled it across Main Street near the bridge and set it on fire. We hid nearby observing a huge traffic jam of four or five cars develop. Some turned back but a couple of cars waited until the brush burnt itself out. It didn’t take very long. We were quite excited about it. Every year since, someone will bring the memory back to life again.
One particular night was the coolest. It was when we planted Cecil’s car on top of a flat-roofed shed behind the house where he lived. It wasn’t difficult. We had two ten in inch planks prepared ahead of time. We carefully pushed that Volkswagen onto the roof, removed the planks and hid them. He was furious when he found out that night. Interrogating everyone he could, he finally confronted us the next morning. We reached a compromise: we would help bring it down if he accepted that it was just playful fun.
Outside toilets were in vogue back then. Upsetting the unsecured ones was fair game – the neighbourhood should have anticipated it. One outhouse from a nearby village leaned against the side of its house and in total darkness. The owner had moved it to expose the two holes. Yes, someone did fall in. There was laughter for days about that unlucky guy.
Then in my thirties I got the urge to have fun at Halloween with the neighbourhood kids, the scarier the better. Black lights were essential to help make the house look more haunted. They made white items like socks and t-shirts glow in the dark.
I found that the most important material for creating a spooky scene is dry ice. It has a very short shelf life and it’s something to put in play just as the door opens. I had filled bowls and jars with warm water. Upon someone opening the door I dropped glow sticks followed by the dry ice into the warm water and got everything bubbling. The sounds, smells and smoke-filled room really created a terrific scene of horror.
Another year I greeted kids at the door with a bowl of water jelly mashed brains and eyeballs, crystal for brains and marbles for eyeballs. Placed in a covered bowl so they not seen, I asked each visitor to put their hand in the bowl. They squish around and make sounds as they feel the brains and eyeballs in their hands. Then they will ask, “What are they?” I give an explanation as eerie as possible. I liked to try out my concoctions on them to rate their heebie-jeebies factor.
If this year, I would have ghosts howling and spooky sounds emanating as a backdrop from another room when greeting the kids dressed mostly in Spiderman, Princess, and Batman costumes. My Mom died on an October 31st, so it has abated my enthusiasm since then.
However I still have time to get prepared for this year’s Halloween!
