Earliest Halloween Memory

[Zombie-F]

What's the first Halloween-related memory you can remember?

For me, it's from the year I was in Kindergarten (1980). I can distinctly remember my mom made me a sheriff costume. I even had a badge and everything. I'm pretty sure the cowboy hat I used was one my parents bought me at Story Land when we all went up to New Hampshire that summer.

I can even remember winning a blue ribbon for my Jack 'O Lantern that year being it had a cowboy hat too.

I don't remember any of the specifics of Trick-or-Treating from that night, but I do remember thinking it was the coolest thing anyone ever thought of. I still do.

What's your earliest Halloween memory?

[Lilith]

I remember being a rock star years ago lol... I forget when I think it was first grade back when I lived in the apartments for a month.

[Sinister]

I would say I was about six. I had an old Ben Cooper costume and mask of The Frankenstein Monster, that had a little red light bulb that lit up when you pressed a spot on the costume. Remember getting a lot of candy that night and spilling it out on the floor to make sure nothing was open and such. That's just about it.

[Zombie-F]

We have a LOT of new people here these days, so I thought I'd raise this question from the ashes and see what everyone's earliest Halloween memory is.

[Spooklights]

My earliest Halloween memory was going to the Halloween party at our church. My mom got me a pony costume so I wouldn't look like everybody else, and I thought I was hot stuff. The church had these decorations they used year after year; great stuff from the 40's and 50's. They still had them until about 3 years ago, when they were replaced. I guess that's where I got my love for vintage Halloween decorations; all those church parties where I had such a great time! :jol:

[slightlymad]

My earliest memory is my father building a cardboard house that just didnt work and my sisters dressed me as a woman so i could go out.

[Wyatt Furr]

My mother made a Peter Pan costume one year,but everyone thought I was Robin Hood.Maybe cause my little brother would not dress as Tinkerbell.

[TipoDeemin]

I remember trick or treating with my mom and my best friend. We lived in tiny, close-knit farming town, so we just walked straight out our front door and hit neighbor after neighbor, stopping to talk, take pictures, and wave to friends we passed. Nothing quite so cool as that--a leisurely trick or treat by dim streetlights, and nearly everyone in town was participating.

[lady_bee]

I was in kindergarten. Back then we car pooled so I went to school that day in a neighbor's Gremlin (hey it was the 70's). We always got the afternoon to have a Halloween party at school. My mom made me the ingenious costume of a sheet with 3 holes cut in it, and an elastic band or ribbon that i got to tie around my neck. I loved it though, except that i had to take the whole thing off so that I could bob for apples and i remember that was a very hard game to play lol. I came back home in that Gremlin and I thought I was the bomb as I walked down the street towards my house. I remember flapping the sheet around and trying to act all scary to other people. Went home, had an early supper and went trick or treating with my mom and sisters until we were pooped and full of candy.

[TearyThunder]

I remember going TOT'ing when my sister was still a baby. I can't remeber if she was walking or not but I remember she was being pushed in the stroller while I was collecting candy. I can't remember the costume either but do remember the house who had the person in the gorilla costume who came from behind the house to chase us and the werewolf who was handing out candy at another. I would guess I was about 3 since I am two years older than my sister.

[pumpkinman]

My earliest memory had to be 1984, I still have a polaroid to remind me. I was a ghost that year, I was 5 years old. I remember my mom giggling as she put me in my costume. Then I remember my brother and sister holding my hand for trick or treating cause I could not see anything.

[Hellrazor]

My earliest childhood memory would be the kindergarten age as well. My parents had split when I was 3 and my dad moved to a nearby district (we call Countys districts up in Northern Ontario) So my dad would come in to take my brother and I T&Ting and my mom would hand out Candy at home. Someone gave us an apple one year and my brother went to bite it so my dad took it and threw it on the road. I remember that...

I also remember my mom decorating our porch.. We had an old victorian home. She rented it and brought it back to life. The porch wa an old wooden covered one. she would set up a set of ceramic pumpkins she made (I still have them) and she drew Ghosts and put them on the walls. Each Ghost had a different tie. My brother was a ghost that year with a green bow...

My mom hung a ghost up from the light fixture, it had hair. A few weeks later we had to move (so I think I was 7 then). My friend Jessica and I snuck back into the porch after the new people moved in and I got on her shoulders and got the ghost back... I still have him too....

I like this thread, It brings back memories.

[Hellrazor]

Couldnt resist:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/hellrazor_1/RaggetyAnnandAndy.jpg

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j76/hellrazor_1/chrisme1980.jpg

[Big Howlin]

I remember being dressed up by my mom in a really ghetto goofy costume. My shoes were cut out of sponges and i had one of those really sharp edged masks on...

[grapegrl]

The year was 1977...I was just about to turn 5. One of the greatest space epics in the history of film had made its debut that summer. My mother transformed me from mild-mannered kindergartener into......PRINCESS LEIA! She made me a white dress with a silver belt and I remember that I wore a white turtleneck underneath it. The best part was that she was able to take my waist-length hair and give me the trademark Princess Leia "cinnamon bun" hair do! Man, I was hot stuff!

That same Hallowe'en, my dad was helping out with the Jaycee's Haunted House that night, so we went by to see him. He was working crowd control and walked us through the bottom floor (the second floor was deemed 'too scary' for younger children'). This house looked haunted in the middle of July at 12:00 in the afternoon, so you can imagine how the added chaos of manufactured scares played on my 4-year old mind. I knew that nothing bad was going to happen, because "Daddy was there", but it was still scary. I remember that they had a vignette of a talking disembodied head (the old 'stick your head through a hole in the tabletop' setup). The lady's face was made up to look corpse-like and she kept pleading for help. To this day, I'm extra squicked-out at the thought of a living decapitated head. There was another room where a guy in a gorilla suit pushed through the "bars" of his cage and lunged at you. My dad was holding my baby sister (about a year and a half old at the time) and she punched the gorilla guy in the face. (She always has been a bruiser! :p ) Everyone around us got a good laugh out of it.

[Ugly Joe]

Earliest Halloween I can remember was 1970 - I was 4...I was a ghost (with a sheet to my knees, white pants and shoes so I wouldn't trip myself), and went ToT'ing with the neighbor kids all around the area...was out 'til WAAAY after dark (4yrs old, remember), was frightened by a few houses, had fun the entire night, and had a ton of candy to carry home...

Lived in Norfolk, Virginia at the time...autumn was autumn, and it's probably the perfect memory.

[Hauntiholik]

The earliest costume I remember was when I was in 2nd grade. My mom made me a costume. She didn't ask me what I wanted to be. She made a "Lady Mouse" form Peatrix Potter costume for me. She found a Holly Hobby dress and apron from a garage sale and she decided that's what I was going to be. I wish I had pics of it :(
She made the mouse mask out a the top half of a Clorox bottle (cut the bottle around the middle and then cut off the handle). It was covered with fake fur and it had pipe cleaners for whiskers.
She put a lot of love and creativity into that costume for me. *sniff, sniff*

[Hella]

wow. earliest halloween memory, hmm, must have been about 1st grade I think, I remember my mom and I worked to make a bird costume. I remember sewing feathers onto a leotard for days..lol we used to have a costume parade at the elementary school I went to, so everyone got to parade across the stage one at a time so you could really see the costumes...I remember flying around the stage that year..lol
I also remember going TOTing for HOURS on end, even in the rain and snow. and always walking...never any of this driving crap I see nowdays, and coming home with pillowcases full of candy and goodies.
There was this house on a street a few over that used to "decorate" for Halloween, I always loved going there to see what they had come up with for the year, they had boys a few years older than I that really got into the scare thing..lol wonder whatever happened to them...

[spideranne]

I remember my costume. I was around 5 years old and it was a store bought witch's costume with the plastic mask and cape, which was a big deal because mom ususally made all our clothes. I just remember the really distorted view of the neightborhood through those small ovals in the mask.

[mrklaw]

I have fond memories from when I was pretty small. I remember dressing up as a devil with the plastic face mask with the elastic band in the back.

I also remember being an astronaut with a Baskin Robbins ice cream tub over my head for a space helmet. My mom sewed a "space suit" (blue jumpsuit with white trim and a zipper down the front) that had an Apollo mission patch on it. I used the space suit as pajamas after that.

[Rocky]

One Halloween day I was outside helping my father (I was 5 or 6) and I remember some kids who walked near our house and one of them yelled: 'don't go there, they never have candies!'. I felt sad about it because my parents (especially my father) were not into Halloween at all and the only thing they might have given to these kids in the past was freaking apples !! Ugh !! And I never actually went trick-or-treating because my parents thought it was too dangerous. I lived in the middle of nowhere so how could it be dangerous !! :rolleyes:

[Big Howlin]

Thats where all the crazy old men with razors live, in the middle of nowhere!!

[Peanut5150]

My earliest memory was when I was 5 years old and my Dad had just bought a "movie make up kit" My costume was the Werewolf... a classic LOL Full make up and fur attached with spirt gum I think every place we stopped the wife had to call the husband to the door to see my costume...and you can imagine my repsonse when they asked if I was a dog LOL.... When we finally got home frome TOT'ing I was so tired that my Dad couldn't get all the spirit gum off so I had some still on when I went to school the next day LOL That was the very bigging of what would become my Dad's and later my love of Halloween.

[Hauntiholik]

I already mentioned the earliest costume that I remember wearing.

My earliest haunted house memory: I was 5 or 6 at the time. A friend's older brothers set up a haunted house in their garage. I remember having to sit in a grocery cart and one of the brothers pushed me through the dark haunt. All of the actors (3 at most) were wearing masks and they jumped out of hiding places and screamed. I balled my eyes out and tried to get out of the shopping cart. They wouldn't let me out and they tried to muffle my screaming because they were going to "get it" from their mother who warned them not to scare the kids.

[hedg12]

Wow, earliest memories... the years all seem to run together. The entire grade school parading down main street in costume with the local business owners giving out candy (one of the joys of small town living). Trick or Treating 'till the plastic tot bag was so heavy I was scared the handle would tear. Avoiding main street because that's where all the "big kids" hung out with their toilet paper & shaving cream & eggs.
I think I was in the 4th grade when one of the local churches put on a haunted house in an old abandoned Victorian that was slated to be torn down. One of my good friends went to that church & asked my brother & I to help. We wore these home-made masks that were panty hose that someone had sewn quilt batting into on the inside & sewn random lines in the batting to look like brains. I'll never forget jumping out from behind a tree and scaring the daylights out of one of my older sisters friends. I've had the Halloween bug ever since.

[EvilLump]

I can not remember what I was, but I can remember like it was yesterday the sound of the leaves blowing along the street and the smell of them. I remember it being Dark and seeing the shadowy figures running from house to house to get their loot. I was probobly 4 or 5 and I was probobly a cowboy. A childhood accident with a dropped fishbowl pretty much destroyed most of my Moms pictures so I guess I will never know.
Back to the topic, it is those memories that have kept Halloween so dear to me. For a few years around here (Racine, WI) they would have TOT from 2 untill 4 talk about lame. But they have since gone back to 4 till 6. Wich at least leaves around 1 hour of Darkness. It is that time of Darkness wich is truely Halloween to me. It is during this time that as a youth you may feel some fear. The problem with most kids today is they have no fear. So fellow Haunters lets gear up to instill some into them.

[Draik41895]

The first thin i think of,isnt really a memory,but i know i did this.I was about two,and i was a clown and i was a a halloween party.there was a dance contest, and iwas pretty much just bouncing up and down like babys do,and guess what? I won,out of all the people there.
The first thing i can remember is being a dinosaur a three or four, was like a body suit, but with hole where my legs and arms went and there were little dino hands and feet,and there was a hood over my headshaped like the dino head! i was the coolest costume ever!I wish i still had it...

[Johnmonster]

I cannot remember my earliest costumes, except that I think they were the type of glorified trash bag with cheap mask that unfortunately still sells today. I can remember always thinking that no self respecting monster would go around with a picture of himself on his chest.

I had a dream when I was about 7 or 8, however, that my mother made me a hand-sewn Creature from the Black Lagoon costume. It was made entirely of patches and strips of green cloth, sewn to resemble scales. Odd the dreams that never fade away.

[Night Watchman]

I have a goofy memory. I remember lots of things from when I was very young. When I was in kindergarten I was a Devil, my mom made me a pitch fork out of a broom stick cardboard and tin foil. The costume was store bought.

My earliest Halloween memory is from when I was 3. I went out as Gilligan from Gilligan's Island. I was afraid to wear a mask so my mother had a white hat and made a cardboard cut out of an island and wrote on it Gilligan's Island and pinned it on my chest. She somehow got me tp wear a mask that only covered my eyes. You know the ones that are black, have 2 eye holes and bridge at the nose.

The most vivid memory I have, though, is waking up the next day and the first thing I saw was a small ghost shaped candy holder sitting on my dresser. I don't know why but I always remeber that little ghost.

[nixie]

My earliest Halloween memory was in kindergarten. My mom made me a bride costume, I felt like a princess because the dress had little pearl beads on it and I had never seen a beaded dress before. I got to wear one of my mom's nice necklaces. My mom always made us the lovliest costumes. I loved falling asleep listening to her sewing machine, and getting up in the morning to see the progress.
A huge childhood Halloween moment for me was the year we stumbled upon a huge yard haunt with rotisserie motorized props and all. I was in awe. I spoke of nothing else for weeks. My dad and I built a few simple props for our yard. A guillotine, some tombstones, a static groundbreaker, and some leaf-stuffed monsters. I was really shy and didn't have many friends, but all the kids at school started approaching me to tell me how cool my yard was. It was fun. My dad started collecting rotisserie motors and the following Halloween, when I came home from school, my yard was full of motorized monsters. He had taken the day off work to put it together to surprise me. Every year after that, we built it together.
I guess to me Halloween=love.:)

[Zombies R Us]

I can remember my first Halloween at age 5 very distinctly because both myself and my sister were dressed identically (she's a year younger than me). We were both dressed as witches in costumes made by my whole family. We were not rich but my parents and grandparents were very creative in making our costumes. My grandmother and mother took black cotton fabric and sewed two long sleeved tunics. They added a short capelet and bordered it with those black and white swirled pom poms that dangle from a cord (when my sister and I got too close they would hook into each other). My dad and grandfather made us witches hats out of very thick poster board and cardboard and painted them black. They were held on with chin ties and they stood straight up. I remember how beautiful the night was and how the air smelled of autumn and seeing all the kids going up and down the street with their loot bags. My parents started our tradition of using pillow cases as loot bags. I fell in love with Halloween then and it still remains my favourite time of year.

[Master-Macabre]

I remember being like 3 (too young to go out and trick or treat) and seeing kids in costumes knock at my house and me being fascinated but also sooo jealous that I was still too small to do it myself

[Papa Bones]

Let's see...

Around 4 years old... scared the living hell outta myself by putting on a skull mask and looking in a mirror, spent the next week or two putting it on and jumping out at somebody every chance I got.

A little older... bit a witch who was trying to take through a haunt put on by a local fast-food joint (a Burger King?) because I wanted my dad to come with me and she wasn't letting him... "bit" may be putting it mildly, according to the family lore I ripped into her like a zombie in a Romero flick, my older brother was pretty sure I had gone rabid. But then again, my family tends to exaggerate.

first trick or treat memory- around kindergarten age, I was a soldier that year. For some reason there was a string hanging from my rifle, which dragged on the sidewalk behind and tangled in some leaves, pulling them along. I just about had a heart attack, just knowing a ghost was following me.

[scareme]

I was probably about 6, dressed as a cowgirl,this was my costume every year for about six years, I loved it and didn't want to be anything else. I was out toting with my older brother, age 10, also a cowboy (we loved Roy Rogers). He had a bar of soap, to soap car windows. We had to stop by the convent to show our teachers/nuns our halloween costumes. Dave hid his soap in my cowboy hat. The nuns were ohhing and ahhing over our costumes, and one told me to take off my hat. I started crying, cause I knew I couldn't disobey an nun, but didn't want to get in trouble. My brother got me out of there right away, and took me straight home. I cried all the way home. My earliest Halloween memory.

[DeadRN]

I will never forget this Halloween...I was little, maybe fourth or fifth grade, and I was so excited to be trick-or-treating with my cousin that I had been running ahead with her to the next house all night. My dad yelled at me a couple times not to run ahead of him and not to run over peoples' lawn - it was disrespectful. Well, I didn't listen and I ended up learning my lesson...I ran over this one persons lawn and ran smack dab into the water supply valve for the house. For some reason, it wasn't sunk into the ground properly and it was our of the ground by, like, a foot! My shin smacked that thing so hard that fell to the ground immediatly and my dad had to carry me home becuase I couldn't walk on it. Luckily, I didn't break my shin, but I bruised the bone. My leg was black and swollen for WEEKS!

Moral of the story kids...WALK, don't run, on the ROAD. :(

[Haunted Bayou]

I have a very vague memory of ToT with my Dad as a very small child. Pre-kindergarten, I think.
There was a house that had some small scares set-up. I wasn't scared but fascinated.
I remember it because my Dad talked about it. I vaguely remember him pointing out things to look at.

[Tricia]

I was probably 5. I was a pumpkin, all stuffed with pillows,and I had a little hat that was a stem. I remember my stepdad (who's 6'6) dressed up in a giant bunny costime. He sort of looked like this > http://www.funnychill.com/files/funny-pictures/evil-easter-bunny.jpg
He took me around in my grandparent's neighborhood, and everyone was terrified of him. We had so much fun.
My grandma would always make cakes, and she had these cake topper-ornamental things that were witches and happy pumpkins. My mom still has them, and hopefully I can fanagle those out of her soon. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1391/731905923_18058fbe9b.jpg

[Hauntiholik]

He looked like a web address??? Sorry. I'm a smart a$$. That website must not allow hot linking to pictures.

[randomr8]

1968
I remember the cold and the home made treats - cornballs in particular. It was a full moon. People gave me candy. What's not to love. I think I was a ghost with a huge (to me anyway) rusty chain around my neck.

[Devils Chariot]

I think the youngest I can remember I was Boba-Fet in kindergarten (maybe first grade). The little vinyl costume with the Plastic vacuformed mask with a dinky rubber band to hold it on. I was so excited to be a Star Wars guy! My dad took us out for trick or treats and I was thrilled because he lets us do more stuff than my mom. Man we were gonna stay out waaay past bedtime. Like 8 o'clock!

[Haunted Bayou]

YUM, I love home-made treats. My great-grandfather's second wife made a pecan fudge and gave it to us every Halloween. They lived across the street.

I recently got the recipe. Ahhhhh, good times.

[scareme]

I remember one neighbor gave out homemade popcorn balls. Everyone hit her house first cause she only made so many, and when she was out, she'd turn off the lights. I remember on time her house was within sight, and the lights went off. Shucks.

[HauntCast]

I think I wore a 70's style Casper costume. The plastic sweaty mask with the vinyl colored smock.

[GothicCandle]

when I was little my next door neighbor was a hollywood special effects guy and so of course he had the best "haunt" he had talking/singing heads in his window. They were really cool and they had a ohhh scary but i want a closer look type of alure lol. I went to his house for treats quite a few times just to look at them, plus he gave out peanut butter eyeballs. lol. quite awesome. No one remembers his name, or else I would look it up and write him a letter saying how he inspired my love of halloween. I also have partial memorys of me wearing various costumes but I'm not sure of my ages. I remember wearing a big pumpkin costume and standing in my house fiddling with the vine on the costume, and I remember once it rained and to my little kid eyes i thought it was flooding, the streets gutters were full of water. lol.

[Catatonic]

The earliest Halloween related memory I have is walking through the fabric store with my mom and older brothers. She made me a devil costume and robot costumes for my brothers. I believe I was in pre-school.....I'm 32 now and I still smile when I think about that trip. Thanks Mom!!