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How did we all come to be so...special

18K views 150 replies 110 participants last post by  dudeamis 
#1 ·
I think a post like this was created a while back but ther are so many new people (and the fact that i couldnt find it) helped me decide to start this again. This question has been asked to Haunters everywhere and the answers are usually pretty funny.

So as my 200th post (yay) is the simple but amusing question:

HOw did you become so obsessed with halloween?

lol you knew it was goign to be great didnt you :D lol

Anyway here is my answer:

Well it partly is related to the fact the my grandparents house backs onto a graveyard complete with mausolium (i will ad pictures later on when i get home lol im visiting my grandparents right now) Also my grandfathers have always ahd some freaky experiences when they lived down east (nova scotia) and would always share them with me. Also a small love for horror movies and a unusual love for the colours black and orange helped 2 :D. And also fall has always been my fav. season! woot. lol so how did you come to be so ...special?
 
#2 ·
There are several factors for me, as well.

Probably the main thing that got me all wrapped up in the season is that my birthday is only 5 days off from Halloween. I'd end up with cakes in the shape of black cats or pumpkins, Halloween specials starting just as I was opening my presents, and parties themselves that occasionally overlapped the holiday.

Add to that an elementary school that dedicated the whole day of Halloween to celebrating the holiday, a librarian that recommended Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a mother that went all-out with decorations and costumes, and a small farming town where trick or treating meant dressing up, gathering candy, and running into your friends all night, and I think you can kind of understand.

The whole month of October was like one really long party for me when I was little, and as I got older, I didn't want it to change.

That, and I'm kinda weird.
 
#4 ·
It all started for me four years ago. I had a halloween cd that I was playing for the TOTs and just as someone rang the doorbell, the cd played "You've entered the wrong door and you're not coming out alive (woman screams)!". When I opened the door, the kids said "that was soooooo cool". That's when it all started. The next year I made a custom cd that I played when the kids rang to doorbell. The next year, I created my first prop. I called it "the crate of terror". Last year, I made a fog chiller with a VEI-950 fogger, made a cemetary out of my front yard, created some skeleton stanchions, and made a FCG that greeted the kids at my front door. Here's a link to my video haunt last year.

2005 Haunt

I can't wait for this year. I've been planning my props since November 1st.
 
#5 ·
This is really gonna show my age, but oh well...

The Disney LP ( that's a "record" for all you whippersnappers..) "Sounds of the Haunted House"..Me and my friends would listen to it, and imagine what kind of house would have such sounds. Then my family took me to Disneyland, and I went into the Haunted Mansion for the first time..been hooked ever since. It also explains my proclivity toward animated props, I guess.

Halloween was celebrated all day at my school too! Costumes were MANDATORY, (hehe) and we all paraded around showing off our creations..we discovered that the costumes we made were WAY better than those plastic pajamas and plastic mask with the srting on the back! (All you older guys know what I'm talking about), There was NO Spirit halloween store or Walmart that carried those great costumes kids can avail themselves to now. If you wanted something cool, you had to make it,(or have your mom make it). Been making cool stuff ever since.

My creations cool'd off a bit, and my haunt displays remained stagnant, untill the Internet came along..Rekindled my love for the Holiday, and the rest is history.
 
#6 ·
I really don't know. Fall has always been my favorite time of year, and as a kid we always had great Halloween parties at school. My very first LP purchase as a kid was Disney's "Chilling, Thriilling Sounds Of The Haunted House" that I bought at the local Woolworth's. That, and growing up on the old B&W Horror classics on tv every Saturday at 2 pm.
 
#7 ·
Forbidden Crypts said:
I really don't know. Fall has always been my favorite time of year, and as a kid we always had great Halloween parties at school. My very first LP purchase as a kid was Disney's "Chilling, Thriilling Sounds Of The Haunted House" that I bought at the local Woolworth's. That, and growing up on the old B&W Horror classics on tv every Saturday at 2 pm.
Gee, that sounds very fimiliar to me. Saturday at 2 pm., Sir Graves Ghastly.
Sure miss that :(

Jeff
 
#8 ·
No. Unfortunately we didn't get him here in Upstate NY. Our show was called Monster Movie Matinee I think. It had Igor who you saw on camera, and The Count who talked like Bela Lugosi, but all you ever saw on camera was his forearm, and hand with two big black rings on his fore finger and pinky. I've looked all over online for info about that show, but alas with no luck. Sir Graves Ghastly does have a great website someone has made chocked full of info about his show.
 
#9 ·
How did I become so obsessed with Halloween?

well let's see, I have been fascinated with ghosts and monsters and other things that go bump in the night since I was little. I remember those costumes that we used to make...like Dr Morbius said, those were always better than the store bought ones...lol and the costume parade in front of the whole school, that was a blast! It's too bad they don't do that kind of stuff too much anymore.
I Love to still come up with my own costumes and try to get my kids to do that as well, but dang it they love those store bought things now..lol though as they get older they are getting more creative, I may just have to show my oldest some of the cool FX make up they have to so something for this next year.
what started my whole haunting thing was I remembered there used to be this house that would do creepy things in the yard, they would have their teenagers in the garage with it just craked open and they would touch your ankles as you walked by, that sort of stuff..nothing really fancy though like we all do..lol but I have remembered that house and how much I LOVED going there to see what they would do each year, as I got older and stopped TOTing myself I wanted to do that kind of stuff, alas my parents were real stick in the muds when it came to that..lol so once I was out on my own and had my own kids I wanted a place that my own kids (and those in the neighborhood) would remember as something special for Halloween, but you can only do so much in an apartment (which we lived in for about 10 years), so my displays are just a few years old and growing.
Halloween just has something magickal about it to me, I can't quite describe it.
 
#10 ·
I'm going to show my age too.

I too grew up with dressing for halloween at school.
We had a school sponsored halloween costume party on halloween night, with a parade and prizes for best costume and most origional costume.
Back then you had to make your own costume or do without, or at least the ones of us that were financially embarassed.

I think some financially better off kids did buy their costumes, but most of us didn't have much money so we made our own.
That was where the fun was, being origional and having something no one else had and being proud of the work you did to make the costume.
Thanks mom.:D

Along with watching old b&w scary movies on saturday night, spook spetacular, chiller theater and a couple more I can't remember at the moment.

Anyone can go out and buy a costume or props, but it takes thought and work to come up with something origional.
Personally, I don't want to be like everyone else, it is way more fun to be origional and creative.

What I really remember is my mom had a talent for taking almost anything and make something out of it.
She could take a piece of discarded junk that was bent, twisted, warped, or broken and make something out of it.

I've seen a lot of outstanding masks and props on the web I would love to have.
But there is nothing like showing a prop you made to people and have them saying my God Bill did you make that, its great I would love to be able to do something like that.
 
#11 ·
Ever since I was little I have been obsessed with Halloween. I too recall Halloween dress ups for school in the 80's, our elementary school even had pumpkin carving contests and parades as well.

My family wasn't too well off either, so for a few years, all I had was home-made costumes. I did eventually graduate to store-bought stuff, but then in my TOTing twilight years, I switched back to a homemade Dracula costume (aside from the makeup).

I was always fascinated with a yard that my bus drove by (in West Quincy) on the way to middle school that was packed to the property lines with decorations, mostly home-made I might add. I think that yard is what made me decide "I want to do that someday!"
 
#12 ·
I too did all the normal stuff as a youngster, parades in school and TOTuntil about 12 or so. That was the end of it until a few years ago when my rpg gaming group decided to have a halloween game and do the costume thing along with it ( I think that people that do rpg's are a little closer to halloween then most normal folks). But last year I decided that I would host the game and show them what a real halloween party was all about. So with tombstones in the yard, skulls on poles with candles along the walkway, a witch turning a skelly on a spit over a fire on the outside and the inside of the house done over in scene setters and spider weds I entered the haunting.
I knew I was hooked when I started planning for next years party the next day. And to be truthful, I was a little suprised to find that there were people like you, and this forum (my first) that were as in to halloween or more so then I had become. With lots of time on my hands, this forum and the people that make it up have been a great insperation to expand my creativity for years to come. (after which I will become the ultimate haunter)
 
#13 ·
My mom was a hair dresser, so she liked to do all the Halloween make-up. Also all the home made costumes that she made. I think that is what got me interested in Halloween. I still remember when she made me into the werewolf. She had taken fury fabric from some store she bought, and cut the hair off and glued it to my face. Instant werewolf. I guess this is my way to carry on the tradition.
 
#15 ·
You are right krough, it doesn't say that. But it does say that banned members can't enter the contest. Zombie banned the Devil last year because Vlad set fire to the Unpleasant Street chat room. He told Zombie the Devil made him do it so the Devil was banned. Since you are possessed by the Devil, and he is banned, then you can't enter the contest. Sorry.. That means that really good prop of yours can't be in the contest. OH, well. Maybe next year.
 
#16 ·
I had a Dad that was a great Halloween example. Every year we would cut out black cats, tombstones, etc. out of black and orange paper (I to remember no Wal Marts/Spirit.) We would tape them on the front windows for the ToTers to see. He would also put on this scary mask and a white sheet and hide under the front stairs and scare the crap out of the kids. My neighbor across the street would scare kids also.
Forgot all about Halloween as I got older until I moved out on my own and my 2 roommates and I had a party. Went all out and made a bunch of static props, tombstones etc. I've been doing it every year since. Unfortunitly where I live now we don't get much activity because the local school does a big, ruin Halloween, don't want to offend anyone, don't come scary or you might scare the kids (it's Halloween, Hello?) Fall Festival.
But this year I'm don't think I'm going to have a Halloween party. I'm going to turn the empty lot next to me into a haunted cemetary with a haunted undertakes shack they are going to have to go into to get their candy. Advertise, advertise , advertise!!
Liability and the neighbors be damned. Last year the ladies asked me to take my corpse out of the front yard bacause it scared their kids when they drove by. :mad:
 
#18 ·
Take your corpse down because it scared their kids as they drove by?
I was under the impression that people could turn their heads if they saw something they didn't like.
Silly me.

I thought that was what halloween was about, scareing people and giving them a thrill they would remember.
From what I've been reading here, that is what we remember when we grow up, the thrill of being scared.

Kind of sounds like they are really saying,
Your props scare my kids and they will remember it when they grow up and will want to build props themselves and that scares ME.

I've heard people complain about not wanting to scare or upset their children, but then they will rent blood, guts and gore movies for their kids and buy games that the kid can waste people all day long and not think anything about it.

I'm hard headed and beligerant, so I am told and proud of it, if someone tells me to take my props down, then you can bet the next day there will be twice as many props for them to complain about.:D

It takes talent, patience, thought, and imiganition to make some of the props I've seen on this forum and other forums.
While I can't do pretty, I CAN do ugly and that is what I'm going with.:D
 
#19 ·
I agree 100%. Unfortunitly we live in a small lake community where my wife is fourth generation "laker." And all these women don't work like my wife and they don't have anything better to do than sit around and gossip and stir the you know what. My father-in-law owns his own law firm and my step mother-in-law owns 1/2 of a large real estate company and they live down the street from us. I'm already kinda in bad standing because his daughter fell in love with me and not some doctor or lawyer and I just don't fit in with their crowd(but I am a nice person :D ) I'm sure they would have ended up hearing about it.
Anyway, it was just one prop and it was one of my wife's good freinds who called me crying feeling bad to make the request, :rolleyes: hit a soft spot. We compromised and agreed to keep it down during the day and put it up at night but it was such a pain in the ass that I just left it down until the party.
But next year we will see because it is America darn it and men have died for our freedom so I'm celbrating by turning the empty lot next door into a haunted cemetary!!!! :devil:
 
#20 ·
People say that I am a nice guy (shows how much they know:D )
But once in a while the devil in me sneaks out to play.

I have run into people who have nothing better to do than find fault with something.
Or something just doesn't suit their way of doing things, therefore it is wrong and they complain.

I feel it is my yard and my life and as long as I don't break any laws then no one has the right to tell me what I can or can't have in the yard.
I'm not talking anything risque' here, I'm talking halloween props.

Maybe because I'm older, but I live to pi$$ off snobs and people who tell me my way of thinking is wrong.

See what happens when you get to the 50 + year mark:D
 
#21 ·
AMEN!!
My wifes hair dresser is close to that age and she said to have the women call her and she tell them to mind their own business and to f-off.
I quess the older I get I kinda care less what people think also. Put it was just a tough spot with my wifes friend involved. By the way, my wife didn't try to tell me to side with her friend. She thought it was completely retarded and totally riduclous that her friends would over react so much.
I guess I'm just lucky because not to many wifes don't even blink when they walk in the door and find their husbands hanging from the rock climbing wall in their living room from their climbing harness practicing knots. Or find a corpse on the dining room table. :cool:
 
#22 ·
I guess I'm going to blame Colin here a little, and even though I havn't made any real props (Yet) I'm going to blame my heritage. I'm from Nova Scoita, and this whole Province is haunted (No word of a lie, there's like three forts in the city that have ghosts, almost all the islands in the harbor and of course the Town of Liverpool, from what I know, almost everythings got a ghost to it) So of course I grew up with a healthy love of the unknown with it growing to myths, legands and Cryptozooligy.
As for Halloween its always been a fun day for me. I can rember some of my first halloween memroys. carving pumkin, Dad would always bake the pumkin seeds (I don't really like them but hey...) and of course the first coustume I can rember was dressing up as a nija turtal, I was a little upset about that though because we had to put green face paint on and I got it on my sandwitch.
But Halloween never was a big huge thing for me until Someone said 'Hey Clay, please join up.' and I realized how fun it still was.
 
#23 ·
strange1 said:
Maybe because I'm older, but I live to pi$$ off snobs and people who tell me my way of thinking is wrong.

See what happens when you get to the 50 + year mark:D
Strange1, I agree totally with you. But then I've felt this way since long before I hit the 50+ mark. :D I have as my nearest neighbor a minister, and if he would have said anything bad, I would have doubled the display. However, he actually commented on how much fun it is.

As for how I became "special," we made a big deal of Halloween when I was growing up. TOTing was an all night thing, fill one pillowcase and grab another to go back out. And of course we had Devils' Night on October 30. You members from Michigan will know what I'm talking about. However, we didn't burn anything, of course, but we did soap windows, ring doorbells, and TP everything. Kind of an advance warning to those thinking about shutting off their lights on the big night. Heehee
Later in life, on the volunteer ambulance crew I was on, we did the same stuff, only just to the local cops, other ambulance members and firefighters. One year we were stopped by a cop in the next town over, we had a van full of toilet paper, and thought we were busted. As we sat there shaking, the cop walked up to the window, turned around for a second, and when he turned back he had a full pig mask on. We all had a laugh and he sent us on our way to continue our TPing.
When I divorced, and moved out here to Maine, I missed that stuff. And with a couple of exceptions, no one really seemed to put up decorations around here. So when we built our house, I started hanging a few ghosts in the trees, then the next year moved it out to the roadside with a couple of gravestones, and started adding monsters and lights and etc. the year after that. It grows every year (I have 400 foot frontage on a main road, so get lots of people stopping). Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of TOTers, I think we had 3 last year.
My current husband encourages this...he used to play a monster at a haunted house when the 911 Comm. Ctr. used to do a yearly thing, his ex-girlfriend was in charge (she's like us). So getting married to me, it was just more of the same for the poor man.
Now the comments I get just egg me on. It's very addictive and rewarding when people bring their kids by during the daytime to show them it's not so scary after all. And actually get the kid to stand still for a picture next to the graveyard or with a monster.
I would have loved to enter the contest this year, as I'm the queen of cheap, but maybe next time. I was finding it difficult to put prices on the stuff I grab from work. ;)

Sue
 
#24 ·
I am one of those that never stopped trick or treating. I don't remember having any Halloween parades at school or stuff like that though in school but, I just couldn't wait to get out of school that day and go trick or treating. Even when I was a teenager I would take my little brother and still get dressed up and take him around town. Even as as big kid (adult) I still get dressed up on Halloween. I usually take the day before Halloween, Halloween and the following day off from work. My house is usually decorated but on Halloween morning (6 a.m. start) I am setting up my movable props and things I don't want stolen or broken and pulling out all the stops (Mischief Night still goes strong in my hometown) and after that I usually get dressed and start setting up the inside of my house with food and drink. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon the weiners are starting to show up and that's when I have open house for anyone who stops at my house. My usually have 300 TOTs and even the neighbors love to stop and party at my house. After curfew (around 8 p.m.) I am out the door and trick or treating for beers and any alcholic beverage. I go around the neighborhood and then work my way around the bars in town. I usually don't get home until 1 or 2 in the morning. I am sooo glad I never grew up and stopped trick or treating.
 
#25 ·
Frighteners Entertainment said:
Gee, that sounds very fimiliar to me. Saturday at 2 pm., Sir Graves Ghastly.
Sure miss that :(

Jeff
LOL that is exactly what got me hooked into horror/halloween....... Jeff I even got to meet the old fellow, and had all my illusions destroyed upon entering the SET if you will..........
 
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