31 Days of Halloween - Day 1: Halloween Memories

"Each day in October Deadly Movies and The Paradise of Horror will be bringing you a special little Horror fix to whet your appetite for the big day on the 31st."

-       Deadly Movie

I am kicking my side of 31 Days of Halloween off with a personal memoir of Halloween for me as a kid. I regret to say that I have no pictures of myself because all of them are on actual film and I don’t have the money to convert them into CD or digital format.

My story goes back to 1997 when I was 7 years old and it was the earliest Halloween I can remember. I was so excited to go out in my new costume and that year I was going to be the Ace of Spades… which was really just me dressed as a playing card with black gloves and a black top hat covered in other playing cards. For me, trick ‘r treating was much more innocent back then… of course we still had to check out candy but it wasn’t as paranoid as it would be today.

For a while, Halloween was traditional for me… and it wasn’t until I was about 10 or 11 when for the first time I had to trick ‘r treat in my aunt’s town all the way in southern Illinois because something happened to my mom… that night I went as a scientist but I didn’t get that much candy that year. It was after that when I realized that I really didn’t want to trick ‘r treat again and all I ended up doing was just passing out candy and dressing up my house to look scary.

For decorating my house I would normally make the front yard look like a cemetery with hands and legs and body parts sticking out of the ground, I would hang dolls by the neck from the roof and rafters, I poor blood all over the porch and driveway and I would hide in the bushes and jump out and scare little kids. The ones who were not scared I gave them candy.

Now, as I am older… I don’t normally trick ‘r treat or wear costumes at much but what I do instead is just hang out with friends and either wreak havoc in the night or just watch horror movies. I still celebrate Halloween and on that day I always watch either Halloween or The Thing, depending on what I feel. I still enjoy the holiday and maybe, when I have the time and when I have money I will make a costume myself (possibly close to the Scarecrow) and have fun. I have lost touch with my Halloween side of myself but I will always have my old memories.