Halloween Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Thinking about Halloween

the scariest story

Halloween not Xmas Thinking about Halloween, I don’t remember specifically what I wore when I went trick-or-treating as a kid. I’m sure it was with one or both of my sisters, and my mask was one of those weird plastic things with the eyes out so you can see

Maybe it’s partly because I don’t have a lot of photos of me then. I had this wonderful red photo album of mine, which I believe was left at my grandmother’s house when I went to college. Like my LPs and my baseball cards, it disappeared either from theft or subsequently when my grandmother’s house left our family’s possession in a narrative too complicated to get into here.

So, I remember Halloween as an adult much more than I did as a kid. Mostly, it’s because I have photos. I’ve mentioned before Sid and Shirley. I was invited to lots of parties.

Then, I would go out trick-or-treating with our daughter, which was fun. The funny thing about going trick or treating with my daughter is that she would get lots of candy, but a lot of it had peanuts to which she was allergic. This was good news for my wife, who loved Reese’s pieces.

When our daughter was old enough to go out on her own, I also liked staying home and handing out candy. I found that was very much a community thing, as we live very close to an elementary school. We would give away 200 pieces of candy at Halloween. Of course, in 2020, we passed. But the numbers haven’t come back post-COVID.

People complain that teenagers and young adults shouldn’t be going out, but I think they’re being too fussy.

Inbox

I was looking through some of my Gmail because I have way too old emails. I have about 700 items marked Use It. I’m going to post some of them here because I obviously kept them for an odd reason. Many were sent to me by my friend Dan.

I had been working on a comic-related project with ADD in 2015, and I contributed this as the scariest story I had ever read:

I used to own a bunch of the EC box sets that Russ Cochran released in the 1980s. (Why I don’t is irrelevant but annoying.)

The single scariest story I recall was in Shock SuspenStories #2, The Patriots! by Jack Davis, from 1952: “A mob whipped up by anti-communist sentiment” chastises a man “when he doesn’t doff his hat to the flag during a parade.” In their fury, they end up beating him to death. Only afterward do they discover he was a blind war veteran who couldn’t possibly have SEEN the banner.

It was far scarier than any ghost story because it was totally believable.

Links

White Zombies by Key and Peele

Aliens abducting Cows – the holiday is mentioned.

My late near-relative Arnold Berman sent me Rhinoceros – An Animation of the Absurd. In high school, I was in an Ionesco play, The Bald Soprano, so its absurdist sentiment resonates.

Dogs can sense magnetism! What they found is that dogs, um, poop along Earth’s magnetic lines, which is spooky.

This one has nothing to do with Halloween, though the guy is a nightmare: Le papier ne sera jamais mort / Paper is not dead on influencia.net ! It was sent by an SBDC colleague named Leslie.

Daft Punk Cockatoo has no Samhein connection except its oddly mesmerizing enthusiasm.

Those were all from 2012 to 2016 and were buried in my Gmail. More recently:

fillyjonk decorates for Halloween

We Want Our Mummy (1938) The Three Stooges

The Skeleton Dance

Sunday Stealing – Autumn Questions

horse chestnuts

The Sunday Stealing from WTIT: The Blog involves autumn questions.

1. Are there any fall-specific hobbies or crafts you enjoy pursuing?

Do I have ANY hobbies at all, aside from doing genealogy? I think not. I used to collect comic books but essentially quit in 1994. And I’m not at all crafty in any season.

2. Do you have any favorite fall-inspired recipes you like to cook or bake?

Nope.

3. Are you a fan of Halloween? If so, what’s been your favorite costume?

My interest in Halloween has waxed and waned my whole life. I’m sure I went trick-or-treating as a kid, but I do not recall a particular costume. Then I stopped, but I know I dressed up at least once in college.

I’m oddly fond of the one above from 1980. The mask came from FantaCo, where I worked. That’s my college graduation robe, but I don’t recall the source of the hat. There’s actually a better photo of me in this costume, which I cannot find. I’m leaning on my girlfriend’s car reading the New York Daily News’ Sunday funnies, and I look really cool, and I do say so myself.

I liked Halloween when my daughter was a kid, but now? Meh. I used to come up with holiday-themes in this blog, but that’s fallen off.

NOT on an open fire

4. Do you have any childhood memories related to the autumn season?

For reasons I didn’t understand, I used to collect the horse chestnuts that fell from a tree on Spruce Street, halfway between Cypress Street and Spring Forest Avenue in Binghamton, NY. I liked how smooth and pretty they were. But then, come spring, I’d just throw them out, then collect more the following season. I must have done this for about a half dozen years.

5. What kind of outdoor activities do you enjoy during the autumn months?

Nothing in particular.

6. Do you look forward to ‘sweata weatha’? What is your favorite go-to outfit for Fall?

I used to wear sweaters. I’m more of a hoodie guy now; one is from UNC Charlotte, near where one of my sisters lives.

7. Are you a fan of pumpkin or apple-flavored treats or beverages?

Apple pie, or the like. I can take or leave pumpkin, which I understand is really squash.

8. Which fall scents do you find most appealing?

Wood-burning stoves.

9. Do you like to visit apple orchards or pumpkin patches or corn mazes?

I have picked apples, but it’s been decades. I don’t do mazes; they make me anxious.

10. Have you ever participated in or attended a fall festival or harvest fair?

There was a Madison Street fair a block from here last weekend; I was there for about five minutes. In previous years, I’ve spent a couple of hours.

11. What’s your favorite thing about autumn?

The changing colors of the leaves.

Beverage

12. Are you more of a cider or hot chocolate person when it comes to fall beverages?

When I was living in my college town of New Paltz, NY, c. 1975, I lived in a house that was a coffee house on Saturday nights during the school year. One of the obligations of the housemates was to make mulled cider. My two housemates, both named Mike, hated each other’s guts, making the process unnecessarily onerous and soured me on cider.

13. What’s your ideal way to spend a crisp autumn evening?

Sitting on the front porch and people-watching.

14. Do you like to dress up for Halloween? What’s your favorite costume, or what costume do you plan for this year? Do you like to make your own costume?

In 1978, I had a girlfriend who suggested an outfit. She and her best friend took me dress shopping at a secondhand store in Schenectady, NY. I shaved, which I rarely did, and put on a cheap wig. Then we went to a party, and I spoke in a falsetto. I was surprised that even people who knew me did not recognize me until my five o’clock shadow started coming in.

Pigskin

15. Are you a football fan? What’s your favorite team?

I don’t know that much about soccer.

If we’re talking about American football, I start paying attention on Thanksgiving Day. I’ve learned that sometimes your team will suck, so you need alternate rooting interests.

In order: New York Giants – when I first learned about the game, I’d watch them on our CBS affiliate, WNBF, Channel 12 in Binghamton. I remember players from the 1960s: Y.A. Tittle, Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, Dick Lynch, Andy Robustelli, et al. My father and I saw a preseason game at Cornell University in Ithaca three years in a row. Later, the NYG trained at the uptown campus of the University at Albany.

Buffalo Bills – the only team that actually plays their home games in New York State

New York Jets – the first regular-season NFL game I ever saw was at Shea Stadium when they played the Houston Oilers, probably on October 20, 1969, when they won 26-17

Pittsburgh Steelers – I loved the 1970s Steelers, two of whom shared my birthday, Lynn Swann and the late Franco Harris.

Green Bay Packers – a small market team with Green in the title

Philadelphia Eagles – geography plus green uniforms plus NFC East

Conversely, I root against Dallas “Who named THEM America’s team?” Cowboys and the New England Patriots. Also, in the college ranks, against the Alabama Crimson Tide, on general principle.

Halloween songs, of a sort

Donovan

I decided to pick some Halloween songs, mostly because I haven’t done so in years. The only criterion is that it has to be something I own in physical form, with the exception of the second Bach. That means no Disturbia by Rihanna or Bury A Friend by Billie Eilish.

Oldies

Ghost Riders In The Sky -Sons of the Pioneers
Witchcraft – Frank Sinatra. OK, a bit of a cheat.

Comedic

Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Picket
The Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley
Nature Trail To Hell – Weird Al When he reviewed all of the Weird Al tracks, SamuraiFrog/Aaron noted that this song is about a minute too long; fair assessment.

Leitch

Season Of The Witch – Donovan
Celtic Rock – Donovan

Classic rock

I Put A Spell On You – Creedence Clearwater Revival; I don’t think I have the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins version
People Are Strange – The Doors
Sympathy For The Devil – The Rolling Stones
Black Magic Woman – Santana; I don’t have the Fleetwood Mac version
Boris The Spider – The Who

’70s/’80s

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) – David Bowie
Psycho Killer – Talking Heads
Werewolves Of London – Warren Zevon; always reminds me of Raoul Vezina of Albany
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper – Blue Öyster Cult
Runnin’ With The Devil – Van Halen

Motown adjacent

Superstition – Stevie Wonder
Thriller – Michael Jackson
Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell

Film/TV

Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr. I read at the time that everyone was praising his new video, which he figured was one he had done weeks earlier. Nope, they rushed this one out.
Tubular Bells Part 1, excerpt – Mike Oldfield. I’ve never seen The Exorcist
The Addams Family – Vic Mizzy
Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Show

Get Bach

Two versions of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. One of my favorite chords of all time is at about 7:30
Virgil Fox
unknown

Sunday Stealing Fall Meme (autumn)

Halloween 1978

The Sunday Stealing is a fall meme, appropriate because it’s autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.

1. Fave fall Holiday: Thanksgiving. Although there are complications about the origin story in the US (see this blog in eight days), it’s the event that was most tolerable when the family wasn’t around
2. The best thing about fall walks: walking on crunchy leaves
3. Favorite fall chore: Taking out the air conditioner, which is much easier than installing it

4. Least favorite fall chore: Raking leaves, which, BTW, my wife seems to enjoy. The thing about raking is that it is the perfect example of the law of diminishing returns, which I learned about in my freshman economics class in college. That first raking is quite satisfying, as one gathers up a good number of leaves, But subsequent raking in that area is less and less productive and, therefore, much less enjoyable
5. Best change in the home: Usually, the coins I find in the cushions of the sofa

6. Best tree in the fall: oak, maple, almost any deciduous tree
7. Fall ritual: watching (American) football on Thanksgiving and thereafter; I don’t really really pay attention until then
8. Most frustrating thing about fall: Getting darker earlier and getting lighter later

9. Favorite fall decorations: Some neighbors have creative Halloween displays. (And others are hideous, but we won’t talk about those…)
10. Favorite clothing: Any creative costume
11. Traditional fall candy: Junior Mints

Say it! Say it!

12. Favorite sound: Parents trying to coax their young Halloweeners to say “trick or treat.” Come on, my four-year-old, comply with the norms!
13. When does fall begin for you? October 1. There’s an argument between those who are in the meteorological calendar camp and the astronomical calendar camp. The former picks September 1, while the latter prefers September 22 or 23. But with global warming, I’m opting for the full month that everyone agrees is autumnal.

14. What is your favorite aspect of fall? I’m losing the feeling quite a bit, actually. It was the new television season and the arrival of serious Oscar-worthy films. But there are no seasons for TV anymore, plus I watch far less of it. And I haven’t gotten back into my pre-pandemic movie attending, plus so many are only streaming.

15. What are your favorite fall memories? Halloween parties I attended as an adult, especially in 1978
16. What do you like to drink in the fall? Mulled cider. I lived in a coffeehouse when I attended college, and we often had it
17. What’s your favorite fall food? Turkey. I can always eat turkey, not just in November

18. What color is the fall? Burnt orange, not that bright candy corn orange
19. What does fall smell like? Wood stoves
20. If you could go anywhere in the fall, where would you go? Vermont has great colors

A most peculiar Halloween

Math is everywhere

Ah, the peculiar Halloween of 2020. My wife and I mused on what we would do if we were to actually get a trick or treater at our door. I considered looking on YouTube for videos on building a candy catapult, but I opted against that.

I talked with a friend on the phone who was distraught during our previous discussion. He’s happier now.

At some point, I caught the news that Sean Connery had died. I was sad. Yet, here’s a confession: I’ve never seen ANY James Bond film. But I liked his advocacy for Scotland. He was a hoot in that third Indiana Jones film. I also enjoyed the movie Finding Forrester (2000). Here are 10 movie quotes.

I printed out three recipes for my wife. One was from Australia and had a reference to 160 Celsius. What’s that in Fahrenheit? I asked my phone, but it kept hearing “Once it.” Heck with that, I’m using pen and paper. I need to multiply the Celsius temp by 9/5, then add 32, which gets me 320°F. Hey, I still remember!

In the afternoon, a man in his 40s or 50s who I had never seen before rang the doorbell. He wanted to know if he could do some yard work. Immediately, I said “no thanks.” Then I thought about it. 1) He obviously needed the work. 2) I could afford to pay him.

And most importantly, 3) I HATE raking. It is what my economics teacher might call the “law of diminishing returns.” The more I do it, the less satisfying it is. I went to the front porch. The guy was already four houses up the street. I called, and he came back. He swept the porch and the sidewalk, as well as raking the lawn. Money well spent.

I did a couple of Venmo transaction for my wife so she could fund some teaching activities. I’ve yet to use it for my own needs.

The total was zero

Walking to the bank and back, I was struck by how few people were outside. It was a chilly day, but still. And I was reminded that it took a pandemic for my bank to dispense five- and ten-dollar bills, not just twenties.

I’d purchased about $30 of candy earlier in the week. NOBODY came to our door, compared to about 240 last year. Perhaps it was the fact that there were alternative activities.

From 3 pm to 5 pm the City of Albany will partner with a variety of sponsors and community organizations to host Halloween events in 11 City Parks.

“As per guidance published by New York State and the Centers for Disease Control, the City of Albany is calling on residents to avoid high-risk activities to help prevent the spread COVID-19, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating or trunk-or-treats, attending crowded costume parties held indoors, or going to an indoor haunted house where people may be crowded together. “

I had missed the memo. On one hand, I was really happy not having to worry about opening the door. On the other hand, I missed seeing the costumes. No satisfying some people, I guess.

My wife and I went out about 9 p.m. to see the full moon. A little while later, we went to bed. But I could not sleep at all. It really wasn’t the noisy next-door neighbors in their backyard. Maybe it was the over 98,000 COVID cases the day before. Or my fear of what the body politic was going to do this week. A peculiar Halloween, indeed