My Halloween Rant

[Famine]

I have fond memories of Halloween. I can remeber being mortified of the kid in the lifesize realistic Alf costume, or of the year I dressed as The Noid from the Pizza commercials, and I had a stack of Pizza Box's I stomped on. I remeber "Trick Or Treating" well into the night (8:00 was well into the night for me then) and then going home and chowing down on candy only after my mother and her boyfriend inspected it for razors, or AIDS, or whatnot. I remeber when kids used to egg cars, shaving cream each other on gate night, TP tree's, and cause all around chaos.

I remeber going into Haunted Houses and coming out with wet TMNT undies. Damnit, I remeber when EVERY house had a pumpkin carved, and on the porch, with some of those creepy fake spiderwebs. I remeber when we used to draw maps in crayon to mark all the houses that gave out the best candy!

Now, I ask kids, friends, and family what they are planning to do for Halloween...you know what response I get?

"I'm just gonna play video games all night. Eat some candy too."

What the hell? Halloween used to be a GREAT holiday. Now it's just a boring cheered up excuse for parents to take 3 year olds out for some snickers. Maybe it's just my town, but is Halloween dying near you too?

Maybe it's what inspired me to do a haunted house each year, to try and put some of the fear and fun back into halloween. I don't know.

I feel bitter. And old.

Kevin

[Morgbug]

I feel bitter. And old.

Kevin

 

[DSJ™]

I feel bitter. And old.

Kevin

 

 

[Jesse James]

I found that Halloween became less than important for most of my teen years, but when I turned 21 I was opened up to the world of Halloween weekend at clubs in the city.

Most give away prizes and there's great costume contests...  It opens up.  It's probably the better night at clubs you'll have all year if you ask me.  Last year was tops really...  Great night out with friends, drinking and having a blast...  Even made it into the finals for the contest that year.

When you're younger though, Halloween goes from being dressing up and going door-to-door to doing nothing really.  My family's always decorated extensively, done that kinda stuff, but you just don't do a lot unless there's a party being thrown by someone at school or something. 

[CorranHorn]

yeah as you get older, halloween gets overall less and less important. though i kinda do look forward this year to it, as the place im living at now is bound to get some trick or treaters. thankfully for the kids its on a sunday this year, if it was during the week, the kids would only have a couple of hours to trick or treat, my town has a 6pm curfew on halloween. man i remember doing trick or treating to well close to 10pm back in the day and get tons of candy, but psycho ***** have ruined things for the kids.

[Rob]

Halloween is still my favorite even though I dont' really do much for it anymore.

I can't this year, but next year I'm going to go down to Mexico to check out the Day of the Dead celebrations...

[Vator]

My friggen town has an 8pm curfew with officers patroling to enforce it.

I can safely say: Never underestimate the power of a Nazi Soccor Mom.

[Famine]

  Curfew?!

What the Hell?!

Halloween has just gone down the tubes.

Kevin

[Morgbug]

My friggen town has an 8pm curfew with officers patroling to enforce it.

I can safely say: Never underestimate the power of a Nazi Soccor Mom.

Quite so.  The folks at snopes.com tell a few stories

[Dimetrodon]

Halloween will always be about free candy as far as i'm concerned.
Broken windows, Smashing Pumpkins, and Toilet Paper too..

not to say I've done things like that..

well.. maybe the pumpkins..

[Famine]

Andy-Man! Long time no see here!


Yeah, kids are just slackers these days!

Kevin

[SilverZ]

I turned on Halloween the year I had to buy candy to supply trick-or-treaters, who mostly turn out to be teenagers too old to do it. And I hate teenagers, so Halloween can suck it from that perspective.

Jesse's right that there is a fun adult side to Halloween if you choose to take it, but you've got to have a good group of friends that are into it too. I seem to know nothing but old farts that are as bitter and filled with contempt for the world as me, so that's a no-go. 

[Jesse James]

Yeah, that is a key...  Having friends with an oz. of life left in them...  My buddy Dan is 27, but still has the mentality of a 21 year old guy, so he's all about going to clubs/bars...  At least a couple nights a week.  He and his girlfriend both have their costumes for this weekend, and my other buddy Eric lives for Halloween.

He's in prosthetics as his profession, so he goes all out every year.  Last year his costume was a Satan that had platform prosthetic legs, an unfolding set of wings on tracks/pullies that were hidden, goat-skin leggings/hoofs, a form-fitting prosthetic body-suit...  All hand-made.

This year it's an elaborate Jack Sparrow and his girlfriend's going as that woman from the PotC movie.

Myself.  A shark who'd had 1 too many...

[jokabofe]

Halloween is hands down my favorite holiday of the year - I even got married on mischief night, just so we could have a Halloween-themed wedding. It was awesome - Jack Skellington & Sally (which I made) on top of our cake, all the tables had these candelabras with cobwebs and stuff... real fun. Of course, none of that really matters anymore, but whatever.

One of my buddies has a halloween party every year - and I always go. Costumes are MANDATORY - otherwise you don't get in. Costumes don't usually get as elaborate as Jesse's buddy Satan (that must have been awesome - any pics??) but they are required by all, and they are usually some pretty good ones.

But the best part is the decorations - I love decorating for halloween. Carving the pumpkins, scaring the crap out of my neighbors - I just love that stuff

[Famine]

Halloween...a more elegant holiday for a more elegant time.


Kevin