How did Halloween become so important to you?

Bafa · Post by **Bafa** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:16 am

I kind of wish I had asked this before, but I know only you die hards are left, so just as well.

For me I can give credit to my wife. Each year she would have more and more Halloween decorations, until I finally asked what was up. It seemed she did more for Halloween than Christmas, which is where I make a big decorating deal. She said because she grew up 9in Puerto Rico in a very legalistic church where you were not allowed to celebrate it because it was considered evil. No every day make up, no girls wearing pants... you get the idea. So she said that she is making up for it. She decided that her children would be smothered in Halloween and the joy of it. It's a fun, silly holiday and nothing bad, it's just for kicks. So each year we add more and more and do more. So now I never complain about spending money on more decorations. The next year or two we hope to have a Halloween bash, but I am kind of nervous about it cause I haven't done or even been to a party in years... and years. lol

For me personally though I enjoy Halloween because of fond memories from my childhood. It was the day of the year that people handed you freely, from every house you went, the thing you coveted most - candy! It was a day that I got to dress however I wanted, be whatever I wanted and from behind my make-up I could let lose and not be as shy as I usually was. I got to show off how I was dressed to people I didn't know, and they were glad to see me, and they were no where even near my own neighborhood. We went every where filling large old school brown paper grocery bags with candy.

So what's your story? Why are you guys so big on Halloween?

JACKRYAN592 · Post by **JACKRYAN592** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:43 am

PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS YOURS, FOND CHILDHOOD MEMORIES, I ALWAYS FELT HALLOWEEN WAS SPECIAL. KINDA WEIRD HUH??

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:00 am

I think for me it was one special night when I was about 8. All the right things were on tv at the right time, the atmosphere of the evening was perfect (let's face it rain or warm weather ruin the day), and I carved my first pumpkin with my Dad. My Dad and I never did anything together when I was young and it meant so much to me.

And now it's a mix of happy memories and the search for that perfect Halloween again. Occasionally I find it, maybe one year in 5

tomanderson · Post by **tomanderson** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:48 am

It was that whole atmosphere of fantasy that seemed to exist in the air, in the evening itself...being allowed to go to school wearing some sort of bizarre costume (it still strikes me as weird!)...the idea that, when night came, you could make believe you were some character and take that whole act all over your neighborhood--and people would hand out candy like it was nothing (that'll sell any kid on Halloween). Heck, talk about a perfect holiday!

Pennywise11 · Post by **Pennywise11** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:14 am

HAlloween was special for me for as long as I can remember. Things I feel had a big impact on my bais is that my B'day is very close by and none of my friends had a party this time of year. I remember my mother decorating the house and again I had never been to a house that was acutally decorated for HAlloween in my life when I was younger. We would always have a costume party, bobbing for apples, pin the teeth on Draculas mouth etc... and it was such a crazy magical time of year in a occulty healthy way. My friends still talk of my B'day parties to this day whenever I bump into them and I suppose it was just that I was born into Halloween I guess

On another note, I remember pumpkin carving on my parents kitchen floor and the smell of the raw pumpkins to this day brings me back to my youth....

tomanderson · Post by **tomanderson** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:37 am

Oh, yeah! I always feel sorry for the poor pumpkins but they are given a special, revered position. I remember carving pumpkins a couple of times--I actually stopped doing it after the first few times because it was such a messy and disgusting thing to do! I couldn't believe it, with all that gooshy, slimy stuff that the seeds grow in! Now I just admire other people's pumpkins. But I remember that sweet crisp smell of a fresh pumpkin being carved. I roasted the seeds a few times, and that was neat too. A pumpkin has a million seeds in it!

Pennywise11 · Post by **Pennywise11** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:07 pm

Oh yeah I roast them every year! yum..

JACKRYAN592 · Post by **JACKRYAN592** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:36 pm

YEAH, I NEVER LIKED THAT SLIMY STUFF INSIDE THE PUMPKIN EITHER!! YOUR DESCRIPTION MADE ME LAUGH!!

MHooch · Post by **MHooch** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 12:08 am

I can remember as a very small child (like 4 or 5) being very afraid of costumes, masks, and such. I really didn't like it when people had their faces covered, even by beards or moustaches. We lived in the country, so we would go to town to my grandmother's house on Halloween, and I used to keep turning the porch light off so that the TOTers wouldn't ring the bell!

But as I got older, the kids in my grandma's neighborhood (I played there a lot, so knew a lot of the kids) introduced me to the "Trickier" side of TOT. (nothing bad, just TPing trees, ringing doorbells and running...

) And then there was the SPOOKY side, and that's when I really fell in love...when the kids double-dog-dared you to run up in the dark and touch the house of that STRANGE old woman who lived all alone...cutting across the backyards and alleys with the full moon shining and the leaves scuffing...staying in the shadows so that you wouldn't be seen, yet wondering exactly WHAT ELSE was there in the shadows with you...then running like hell towards home, where the porch light was on, and you were safe from the boogeyman. It was absolutely THRILLING!!!

And as I got even older, the thrill was to dress up, be someone else...look different, act differently...use your imagination, and let it run wild. Take on another persona, just for one night. You can BE anybody! The costumes, the makeup...I just love it. I get such a sense of accomplishment when a person I have known well for years doesn't recognize me in my makeup.

I have always been a sucker for magic...I want to believe that there is such a thing...and at Halloween, I can.

uncletor · Post by **uncletor** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 8:01 am

A lot of things made it important to me...here they are in no particular order..
HALLOWEEN KISES..remember those nice light brown candies? I used to love the wrappers so much I would save them just to look at them.
All the farm houses would decorate the insides and you would come in..there might be a maze, or a room of horrors, or a ghost story told over some cider..something.
We had two big big big boxes of costumes..and Gramma had these very cool old old retro masks, with the pastel colors and WHATEVER they made them out of. Just the newspapers that they were wrapped in was worth it..neat old adds I would look forward to seeing every year..some verged on Salvador Dali surreal..like a cartoon lion wearing a ten gallon cowboy hat..(no, I have NO IDEA what it means or WHY it would be in a car ad..) A lot of the stuff was old period clothes that had holes in them, but in their time were just amazing clothes..we would do plays in them during the rest of the year..

uncletor · Post by **uncletor** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 8:34 am

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILM LAND..this magazine that came out..I wasn't allowed to BUY it and probably couldn't afford it if I was, but just those COVERS...plus the other WARREN magazines...they would be comics with black and white art and titles like EERIE..
Universal monsters from Aurora Models...you'd put them together like some kids would put together planes or tanks, but the ART on the BOXES was the best. We would go to the toy department and just DROOL. Baby Brother's fave was THE FORGOTTEN PRISONER. Mine was BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN..swathed in tourqoise bandages like some sort of cocktail dress, and with this look like she was angry and ready for anything you could dish out..the other models made you want to see the Universal movies they were from..it was what made me want to see Phantom of the Opera with Chaney...
The hammer and Universal movies were hitting t.v. at the time. Can anybody ever forget seeing DRACULA or THE HORROR OF DRACULA for the first time?
Watching Dad carve the pumpkins...he was the only person allowed to do it, Mom was convinced the rest of us would cut our fingers off...and eating the seeds later...and we could EAT AS MANY AS WE LIKED...
The ads in the paper in the movie section for the horror films.
The Addams family.
the Munsters.
The Outer Limits.
The Hilarious House of Frightenstein
Zacherly, Ghoulardy, Sir Graves Ghastly. Horror hosts we watched on Saturday..
the K. Gordon Murray movies like CURSE OF NOSTRADAMUS, DOCTOR OF DOOM, BRAINIAC, and THE LIVING HEAD.
Granny's contribution...telling us THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI with the lights down low, every year, and then finding out it was a German expressionist classic.
Having your very own personal bag of candy to eat for days and days.
My small, handpainted, very lurid plastic pirate mask...

tomanderson · Post by **tomanderson** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:33 am

Oh wow! Someone had to bring up FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND!

My favoritest thing in the world almost!

These Warren publications ran from the late 1950's through the mid-1980's. I had a couple of issues in the 70's and it was like every issue had a whole world inside it. Hard to describe exactly why it was so good but they had a perfect formula for making monsters and horror very kid-friendly.

If you've never seen one or had one, I recommend you go over to Ebay and search in the Ebay stores...I recommend something before issue #100 because they were really cooking in those issues...don't concern yourself with getting a perfect copy, just get a beaten-up used one for an inexpensive price if you can. (I always look for the messed-up reader copies because the wear and tear gives them such character...and I never feel bad about reading them!)

Just search on "WARREN FAMOUS MONSTERS" and you'll see a whole lotta wonderful stuff.

William · Post by **William** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 3:54 pm

For me it was when i was at a Halloween party at the age of 11, i loved it, from then on i always loved horror movies and Halloween as my first Holiday, then was christmas, and i can't wait till next year when hoppelfully i will be in england

Faustine · Post by **Faustine** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 4:33 pm

For me, it was when I carved my first pumpkin with my father at a church function. I had seen my sister carve pumpkins, but I was never allowed to do it until then. Like Boo, I've never done a lot with my father, so it was special in that respect as well.
As a child, I never liked trick-or-treating because I was painfully shy, and asking strangers for candy wasn't my idea of a good time.
Nowadays, I still love to carve pumpkins and to decorate. I don't pass out candy, but I do put some outside the door. I feel like Halloween is the only time I can display and celebrate my morbid tendencies and actually enjoy a holiday (Thanksgiving and Christmas are stressful for me).

midnight kitty · Post by **midnight kitty** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 7:45 pm

for me it's a combo of lots of stuff
1 childhood memories- i remember going to awesome halloween parties, a few games best costumes, bobbing for apples, dancing, hanging out w/ friends
2 being allowed to use my imagination- halloween was the only time my parents really encouraged me to be creative
3 haunted houses- can't go to them anymore (heart problems), but i remember having so much fun
4 the overall feel of the season- the weather starts getting cold, but i start feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. after summer (i hate summer, way too hot and i burn very easily. must be the vampire side of me

)
it's a very welcome change