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Halloween is almost upon us again, boils and ghouls, and that means handing out goodies to the little boils and ghouls. Once, though, it meant a lot more as we recall in these...
(Note: Ron Adams is the same Ron Adams who runs Creepy Classics Video and ringmasters The Monster Bash. In this article, we learn why he became monster (movie)-mad...and why so many of us "monster boomers" get so nostalgic around Halloween...) Was there ever a better time in the world than Halloween, 1965? It's one of the finest times I can ever remember. The smell and feel of the fresh candy corn that mom would pour into those fancy glass dishes on the dining room table. And those candy corn-like candies; the ones that are little orange and green topped pumpkins, yellow pieces depicting a husk of corn, little brown skulls and dark orange witches. Confections from the October Country. Flash! There on the door, putting it up with Scotch tape--a jointed paper Frankenstein with bolts coming out of his forehead, instead of his neck. A jointed skeleton and witch. The icons that mean American Halloween.
Then, on the picture window, colorful paper pumpkins to tape from the inside. Feel the glass, it's cold and the leaves outside are rustling across the sidewalks as the trees lose there yellow, orange and red harvest. Dad's home, it's off to shop for a costume, that I can actually wear in school tomorrow for the party. The silky thin pullovers with hard plastic masks and rubber bands are lined for what seems like miles in the G.C. Murphey's department store. There's red devils, werewolves, skeletons, vampires, Frankensteins (with big stitches), witches, mummies, creatures from black lagoons, gorillas and for the less ghoulish--Mighty Mouse, pirates, cowboys (with shiny plastic guns and holsters!), Popeye, Bozo, Superman and many more... The masks of egg-shell white, bright yellow-greens with red lips and black and blue painted on hair. I, of course, ended up with a Frankenstein. "Don't be scaring your baby sister, now," came the warning from the powers-that-be. It was still a few years off till I would graduate to the sought after...rubber masks!
Then, a stop in the candy department for plastic bags of treats. There was taffy in paper wrappers on white lollipop sticks, Black Jacks wrapped in waxy paper (pink, white and black striped taffy drops), Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Pops (a real treasure), Nico-wafer rolls and Bit-O-Honey pieces. It was dark now as we got in the car. The big heavy door shut behind me in a back seat that I could lay across. My mom, holding the baby in the front passenger seat. We were off to home and the promise of carving the pumpkin that had been sitting on the porch! In the door, the TV turned on (it would warm up in a few minutes). The slow gray blue fade-in on that convex tube. A click-click-click-click on the huge dial past snowy channels...stopping at Dialing For Dollars...a Frankenstein movie today! Glenn Strange was looking strained and all-powerful, an electric charged hulk that was unstoppable. I adjusted the dial on the big channel changer, the back dial could make the picture a little clearer.
"Okay, let's go!," from the kitchen. Sitting out the newspapers and the cutlery for what would be a mad doctor's operation on a very orange victim. A black Crayola for guidelines as a face (it had to have sharp teeth, not just the square ones!). Dad, did the cutting and I got to pull the guts out. Yuck! Slop, squish. Get the big spoon and scrape those inside walls out, till it's just creamy white (kinda like a potato) inside. The heavy smell of fresh pumpkin wafting. The candle dug in, the pumpkin on the porch and the Halloween party at school tomorrow. A man on the TV talked about the "count and amount, then back to the movie." I looked out the picture window into the blackness that was the neighborhood, my chin resting on the back of the sofa. My breath fogged a small area of the window. With my finger, I drew a jack-o-lantern and a crispy leaf blew up in front of the window. Was Dracula walking the sidewalks under the streetlights out there, somewhere? Wasn't this the best time ever? Halloween, 1965.
Yes, any Halloween that mixed monster movies and trick-or-treat was the best time ever for kids--even grown-up kids! Thanks for the nostalgic memories, Ron. Cheers! Article copyright Ron Adams |
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