Happy Halloween!

I guess being a packrat has its merits. My mom recently gave me a box of stuff she found that she thought I might want. There was a lot of crap, but there was the occasional gem as well. BTW, the little image here, to the left of this paragraph, is a scan of one of my all-time favorite and memorable Halloween decorations. Whatever happened to cardboard decorations for the holidays? I really miss them.Here are a few things I picked out to show you:


[1] I have no idea who these kids are, but the picture was among some misc photos from the 80's. I think they may be some random people's grandkids that my parents were friends with, I'm not sure. I just liked the fact that one of them is dressed up like Witchipoo! from H.R. Pufnstuf + I like Casper (and not that new CGI crap..though the Casper movie with Christina Ricci was a lot of fun). I think this was probably taken at the kids' Halloween party at the Country Club, since that's where I was going in the next photo...

[2] Oy vey. Yes, this is me. I thought I was the shit in this homemade cat costume (complete with poseable tail). I remember my mom making it for me and I was so excited. Catwoman, eat your heart out. Whatta spaz I wasam. I have no idea how old I was in this picture, but I wanna say 9 or 10. I dunno.

[3] This blew my mind. This is a piece of my original first Halloween costume (and when I saw 'first', I don't mean that shit where people dress up the infant in some goddamn Anne Geddes monstrosity and tote them from door to door. I know I was pold enough to walk and be taken trick-or-treating, so I'm gonna guess I was 3 or 4. There are some photos of me wearing this somewhere around here, but I wasn't able to locate them in time for the post. I love that my mom kept this. I wanna frame it.

[4] Remember Ernest? As some of you may or may not know (depending on the region where you live), Ernest started out as the spokesperson for Braum's Ice Cream. He was featured in commercials where he'd be forever annoying his unseen friend, Vern. Anyhoo, they were giving these away at the Braum's in the 80's around Halloween time and I'm shocked that Mine is still intact and none the worse for wear. Fun!

[5] I totally remember this Halloween mask because they were giving them away at the local Hallmark at the time. I thought it was the coolest thing ever that they were free. Alongside the masks on the counter, there was a little container holding the stretchy think you you would put through the holes on the side, so you could wear it as a mask after punching it out of the cardboard background it came on. Of course there's no way that this could ever happen again considering some 'tard, roaming free would undoubtedly put out an eye or something with the cord. And/or some organization of witches would protest that it was "stereotyping" Wiccans or some such horseshit. Man, I miss the simple times.