Tag: Halloween

Halloween 1986: Gary Carter and a Greyhound Bus Strike

The only time I saw Gary Carter in person was the year he was inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame, in 2003. It wasn’t at the induction ceremony, but in Cooperstown that same weekend.

For most of the 1980s, I would travel on a bus from Albany, NY, to my hometown of Binghamton, NY to attend an annual Halloween party, held by a high school friend of mine and her then-husband. The only way to get there was by Greyhound bus, and there must have been some sort of labor dispute in 1986 because they had replacement drivers. I remember the driver on the return trip to Albany get off the wrong Oneonta exit, riding through parts of the city not usually traversed on that route, and ending up in parts of the SUNY Cobleskill campus I had never seen before; two or three passengers, including myself, ended up being the navigators during a torrential downpour.

As for the Saturday night party itself, it happened to coincide with Game 6 of the World Series between the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox. Boston was up 3 games to 2. Usually, we didn’t watch the Series at this party, but the hostess was a big Mets fan. In fact, she was wearing an excellent replica of the uniform of the Mets’ All-Star catcher, Gary Carter, her favorite player, who was the hero of Game 4; her coif even replicated the curls in his hair.

The room went wild after the Mets’ unexpected Game 6 win, due in no small part because of Carter’s 10th inning, two-out hit. There had already been quite a bit of drinking going on and there was…more afterward.

Fortunately, I didn’t miss the final game of the Series, as I had feared. The same blinding rainstorm that made my return trip to Albany on Sunday so eventful also rained out the game at New York’s Shea Stadium, so I did get to see the Mets’ victory in the decisive Game 7 on Monday when I got back to Albany. Incidentally, “NBC’s broadcast of Game 7 (which went up against a Monday Night Football game between the Washington Redskins and New York Giants on ABC) garnered a Nielsen rating of 38.9 and a 55 share, making it the highest-rated single World Series game to date.”

The only time I saw Gary Carter in person was the year he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 2003. It wasn’t at the induction ceremony but in Cooperstown that same weekend. He seemed like a great guy who had what Yahoo! sports called an “unapologetic joy” for the game. I was sorry to hear that he died this week of a malignant brain tumor, diagnosed in May 2011.
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Gary Carter dead at 57, and on the passing of youth.

All Hallows Eve

I shaved my beard and a mustache, Susan and a couple of her friends made me up, with a dress from a second-hand store, a wig and shoes from somewhere, and we went to the party, she as “Sid”, and me as “Shirley”.

The odd thing about Halloween, as I think back on it, is that I have almost no recollection of the costumes I wore while trick-or-treating as a child. I’m sure I went, mostly in my grandmother’s neighborhood, but as to what I wore, it’s a total blank. It doesn’t help that most of the photos from my childhood were lost, so I have no cues. And I pretty much gave up the gig by the time I was a teenager, though I may have been called upon to take my baby sister, who was (and still is!) five years younger than I.

I may have donned a costume once or twice in college, but it was in my mid-twenties when I really began dressing up.

One year I wore a Frankenstein mask and a seersucker suit; really stylin’. Another time, I had a skeleton mask with a wizard’s hat and my college graduation gown; there’s a great picture somewhere of me leaning on a car reading the Daily News Sunday funnies in this outfit.

But my all-time favorite outfit was one planned by my girlfriend at the time, Susan, when I was 25. I shaved my beard and a mustache, Susan and a couple of her friends made me up, with a dress from a second-hand store, a wig and shoes from somewhere, and we went to the party, she as “Sid”, and me as “Shirley”.

The outfit, along with my affected high-pitched voice actually fooled people; no one knew who I was, though they were confused as to what I was dressed up as. It wasn’t until later in the evening, when my “five o’clock shadow” started to appear, that people started figuring things out.
Sid and Shirley

I don’t dress up now, but the daughter does. I enjoy the holiday more vicariously now.
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Samurai Frog’s Halloween posts over the years. Mucho posts.
For Thom Wade, Halloween lasts at least four weeks. My favorite post: The Top 10 Horror Themes in movies
An Open Letter to Pumpkin-Flavored Seasonal Treats
A recipe for candy corn.
Reader Wil on traditions.
And since nothing says Halloween to me like Mussorgsky, LISTEN to Night On Bald Mountain

The All Hallows Eve Conspiracy

The church organist played the postlude, which was Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. My absolute favorite chords, possibly in all music, appear in the last minute and a half. My wife asked if I were crying…


OK, what’s up with the change of Daylight Saving Time a couple years ago? Most countries in the Northern Hemisphere changed their clocks today, if they had not done so earlier. The former nations that were in the USSR, Europe, Lebanon, Iraq, Cuba, Mexico all change today …you can see the list HERE. And what are the countries that are holding off changing the clocks until NEXT weekend?

The United States and Canada. I blame the candy companies. By pushing the “fall back” until the following weekend, it assures more light for Halloween, thus more trick-or-treaters, and thus more candy sold. And the dentists are in on the plot, too!

In fact, here is the Halloween Duplex Planet: one song called Halloween by Duplex Planet, and six recollections of old people remembering the holiday. Note in Greed that the conspiracy theory is alive and well.

I was at church a couple of Sundays ago, and the organist, Nancy, played the postlude, which was Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. My absolute favorite chords, possibly in all music, appear in the last minute and a half. My wife asked if I were crying, and the answer was absolutely yes. Here’s an organ version and an orchestral version from the movie Fantasia (1940). And since I was in a Fantasia mood, how about Night on Bald Mountain?

From Ken Levine: The Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in Halloween. So the one night of the year when people would actually open their doors to them, they stay home.
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Dance of Death.

Happy Halloween Day from Sesame Street.

Peanuts: BOO!

From 1910, this is the first screen version of Frankenstein. It’s less than 13 minutes long; check out this piece of history.

Freaky Frankenstein Friday.

The World’s Most Haunted Places.

Talk about laziness: Me linking to Progressive Ruin linking to OTHER people’s stuff.

A Brief Halloween Meme


From SamuraiFrog:

1. What is the worst treat to get when trick-or-treating?

Black licorice. Hated it. Now RED; that was a whole ‘nother thing. Also, I’ve never been a NECCO fan either.

2. What character from any horror film would you most like to play?

Dracula. He is primal.

3. Would you rather be a zombie, alien, or psycho? (why)

An alien. Zombies are boring, psychos are too much work. Aliens allow for greater character development.

4. How many Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Nightmare on Elm Street movies combined do you have on DVD?

That would be zero. Not my thing. I’ve seen one Halloween movie. But, in the day, the store I worked at used to SELL them on VHS tape.

5. What is the scariest movie you have ever seen?

I was pretty freaked out by Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia. But THE movie that most terrified me was one I saw when I was nine or so, so it had to have come out in the early 1960s or before. Probably before, because it was a double feature with a Francis the Talking Mule movie, probably Francis in the Haunted House (1956). In the movie in question – I WISH I KNEW THE NAME! – there was this beautiful woman who men lusted after, but if they kissed her, she turned extremely homely. In order to regain her beauty, she had to bite the man on the neck, killing him, then blowing some powder. Seriously, my neck hurt for days.

6. Lamest costume you have worn on Halloween?

As a ghost, in a sheet.

7. Favorite Halloween treat?

Mounds bars, almost any candy bar without nuts or peanuts. I LOVE peppermint patties, or whatever they’re called.

8. Friendly-faced jack o’lantern or scary one?

Scary.

9. Have you ever had nightmares about a scary movie character chasing you?

Not chasing, but the aforementioned movie woman biting my neck.

10. The Best thing about Halloween?

The costumes. I used to really embrace costumes in the 1980s, when I was in my 30s, more than any other decade save for my childhood.

11. Strangest Halloween custom you’ve heard of?

Halloween lights. They’re like Christmas lights, only orange.

12. Person in your family who most likes Halloween (not counting yourself)?

Well, the daughter likes it. But the wife ALSO likes it because, since the daughter is allergic to peanuts, and I don’t particularly like them, SHE gets all the nut/peanut candy, sometimes with no effort.

13. Are you superstitious? If so, name at least one superstition of yours.

When I played baseball, I never stepped on the foul lines going to or coming from the field.

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