Boo!

It's finally here! My favorite holiday, All Hallows Eve. Although, it does seem a little strange this year. I already celebrated Halloween on Saturday with Jen-nay and Julia's party, so my festiveness is done. But, I thought it would be fun to do some reminiscing about Halloween and what made it my favorite holiday of the year!

My parents were very into the holiday when I was growing up, and I think that transferred to me. Both my mom and dad were pretty awesome pumpkin carvers. We always carved about a dozen or so every year to display during Trick-Or-Treating. (Note: my last pumpkin of the season, Herman Munster at right) In particular I remember my mother always did a very intricate wizard and a two-pumpkin haunted house which had one smaller pumpkin inside the other. We always took them to my grandparents house during trick-or-treating because our house was in the middle of nowhere. I also remember instead of candles we put old school big colored Christmas lights in the pumpkins which made them a bit spookier.

In addition to the pumpkins, my family usually had some sort of display set up in my grandparents yard for the trick-or-treaters. Some of the better ones I remember are a vampire (my dad) jumping out of a coffin, and another year a mad scientist (my mom) eating the brains out of a head on a platter (me). I also remember a Halloween party my parents threw for my friends my sophomore or junior year of high school. They transformed our entire house into a sort of haunted house. The basement was the location of the party, and it was covered in gauze and lights and other spooky things. In the basement bathroom there hung a mutilated body in the shower and bloody hands floated in the punch bowl. Upstairs, the guests had to come through the kitchen where my mother dressed as a witch stirring a huge pot of guts on the stove, and pulled cookies out of the oven shaped and decorated like body parts. My father lay in a coffin in the living room (which was decorated to look like an abandoned and scary funeral home). My mother ushered the guests into the living room and made them just sit there with the "dead" body in silence until all the guests arrived. (Occasionally my father would open his eyes or jump up to scare the shit out of my friends.) I also remember someone standing outside chasing people with a chainsaw. My parents always kicked ass, but especially during Halloween.

Some of my past costumes have been (from most recent back):

• Pimpin' Pope Drewby the 69th
• Ben Franklin's gay lover
• Julius Caesar
  
• Judge Judy
• Out of work Parisian artist
• Zombie professor
• Chucky (from the movie)
  
• Disco dancer
• Carrie (again, obviously from the movie)
• Hippie
• Juan Valdez (Colombian coffee guy)
  
• Old Lady
• Cat in the Hat
• Clown

When I was younger, our town was a great spot for trick-or-treating, and we had the evening schedule down to a science. You always knew what houses to hit and which to skip so the two hours would be most efficient. I always skipped the old lady who made every child come in her house, take off your mask and tell who your parents were before she gave any candy, and the house that made you sign a prayer list and the treat was a prayer book. (Usually the house to get toilet papered and egged at the end of the night, thank God.) I never missed the houses that handed out the full candy bars or cans of pop, or the house with the homemade peanut butter and chocolate. (We lived in a small town where homemade wasn't really an issue). After the candy run, I made my way back to my grandparents house where the was always hot apple cider and glazed donuts (usually homemade).

And there it is, a not so condensed version of Drewby's Halloweens past. What are some of your favorite Halloween memories?

HAPPY HAUNTING!