Memories Dreams Reflections 9: Halloween Time

Halloween was one of my favorite holidays when I was growing up, second only to Christmas. And yet, while Christmas has retained its magic and charm for me, even after all these years, I don’t enjoy Halloween as much as I used to… or maybe I should say that I like the idea of Halloween more than the actual experience. I think this is because, more than any other holiday, Halloween is a holiday for children, not adults. Which is maybe why I tend to find adult Halloween costume parties so depressing: sometimes they reek to me of desperation, of adults frantically in search of lost time, pretending to be something they no longer are. Of course, maybe I'm just a joyless curmudgeon. 

But when I was a kid I certainly loved Halloween. To me, it wasn’t just all about the candy; I simply enjoyed dressing up in costumes. I can still recollect many of those costumes, actually. One year I was Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters. Another year I was Dracula. Then there was the time I dressed up as Steve Urkel from Family Matters (which I suppose would be very politically incorrect these days). Another time I was costumed as a gorgon. I think the last time I wore a Halloween costume was in 1995, when I went as the Mad Hatter (the Batman villain, that is). After that my parents wouldn’t let me wear costumes or go trick-or-treating on Halloween with my younger siblings anymore, claiming I was now too old for that. Of all the costumes my mother made for me, my very favorite one was the one she did in 1987. It was a shark costume, and the white belly of the shark served as the costume’s front, so that my face peeked out from the mouth of the shark (strapped to my head and hidden from sight was a cone, to fill out the shark’s nose). I believe I may have won second prize at the school’s costume contest that Halloween.

When I was a kid I also enjoyed writing about Halloween (something I would revisit years later, in my story "Tir-Na-Nog," for my second collection Autopsy of an Eldritch City). In the 4^th grade, one of my class writing assignments involved coming up with a recipe for a fictitious Halloween Stew. Here was my first attempt to write such a recipe:

 

18 c. snake barf

½ c. centipede heads

1 c. slimy frog skins

2 c. jelly fish brains

-Put snake barf in pot. Add centipede’s head. Mix slimy frog skin.

Slice in jelly fish brains. Cook until snake barf flies up.

 I actually got a “B” grade for writing that, so I suppose my teacher was feeling generous that day. Here’s an alternate version that I did. I leave it up to the reader to decide which of the versions is more grotesque:

   5 c. gummy worms

¼ c. frog legs

½ c. mosquito blood

2 c. lizard lungs

-cook until frog legs start hopping

 

            I also wrote a poem about Halloween on September 25^th, 1990:

 

“Halloween Time”

 

It's Halloween, and the Ghostly Queen,
is sending out monsters all slimy and green.
On the streets are headless goons,
and a wicked witch flies past the moon.
Jack-o-lantern’s eyes are bright,
as people run in terror or fright.
A ghost goes and haunts a house,
scaring away a giant mouse.
The werewolves run and bite people they’ve never met,
causing many horrible deaths.
Vampires bite people on the necks,
a giant frog says ‘Blech!’
But out comes the sun, the monsters run,
and Halloween is all done.

 

            That same autumn, our class was invited by a local radio station (actually located right down the street from Bernon Heights Elementary School) to read our poems on air. The poem I chose to read was the one I just transcribed up above, “Halloween Time.” I read this poem on-air. My parents recorded the broadcast on tape. I still own this recording, and I won’t lie, it could be me at my most adorable. A number of years ago, back in 2011, I released this recording as a single under my own name on my Mauve Zone Recordings netlabel: you can listen to it here: https://archive.org/details/MZR026

Here’s another Halloween-themed poem that I wrote in the 5^th grade, on September 28^th, 1990:

                                                    “Ghostly Autumn”

 Autumn is dreary, like very scary

Leaves fall down, and blow into town

People who don’t like to rake leaves frown

Autumn is also Halloween, spirits roam, it’s just a dream

However, Autumn is very beautiful, with leaves in the breeze,

But winter means freeze

So enjoy Autumn until it’s done,

Because soon it will be time for winter fun.