Category: childhood

Looking back, to look forward.

As everything has reached it’s resting place for the ’08 season, it’s time to reflect on what worked…and what didn’t.

First, the struggle with the totems may be over.

ORIGINALLY, these were a TEST ONLY. Maybe be used one year, testing to see if the paper mache would hold up for the “real” project. (which was abandoned as I have no way to store it)

It was at my son’s Boy Scout Blue and Gold Banquet that the concept struck me. The kids had made these little totems out of brown paper bags and drawing faces on them for center pieces on the tables.

That got the wheels turning. Remembering how cool the old pumpkin totems were in the neighborhood growing up. And, as we sat for dinner, I sketched the idea out on a napkin.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Then began the construction. PVC pipe frame, chickenwire skeleton, and paper towel mache with 50% wood glue 50% water mixture. (this was before my power grab mache)

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Totem 1 went well, and was tested in early spring…to the confusion of folks driving by at the time.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Totem 2, however, was nothing but trouble from the get go. A new roll of chicken wire that, while the same guage and hole size, was softer. Then some trouble with the glue application that resulted in my sprayer actually filtering out the glue and applying more water. (it was a good idea at the time) The thing went soggy when I tried to apply a hardening coat with more traditional newspaper.

This led to the application of Monster mud over both to shore up Totem 2.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Finally, they arrived at a completed state.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

These things have single handedly resulted in more intimidation than most anything else. Especially coupled with the music. As one little Indiana Jones put it this past year, making it through the field of skulls, past the scarecrows, and being faced by the totems. “I’m NOT going in THERE!”

The Totems have become as much an icon of the yard as the skulls out front. Yet…the rain Halloween evening may have finished off Totem 2 for good. It may be time to re-envision the Totems in a more permanent fashion. Fiberglass is in the back of my mind, yet, that powergrab mache should do the trick cheaper, and survive a fair bit of weather.

The Grave Mounds have suffered a similar problem. Though only one fell victim due to the rain (well, more a victim of a bookcase falling on it the week prior to halloween to be fair), they all collapsed in the center due to weight in the weeks prior. They will be needing some re-thinking. Not to mention plans in store for them need them LIGHTER anyway….

Another in the ‘works, but didn’t work’ category are the bead curtains.

From Halloween 2008

Yes, you could KINDA see through em, but not well, PRECISELY as I wanted. I could hide in there unseen by approaching people just fine, yet see out perfectly thanks to the optical illusion they presented. However, their loop design caught on every pixy wing, every little mask, every wheelchair and stroller….

Time for SMOOTH beads….

Finally, while really neat in the daytime, the webs went largely un-noticed at night.

From Halloween 2008
From Halloween 2008

Simply not enough light to see them.

The solution WOULD be to add more light…that’s not possible with my torches. So, the answer is to add more webs. THAT would require a larger gun…

Just a few things to ponder as we close out the 2008 season.

…….or DO we?…..

From Christmas

Reliving Childhood.

My younger brother showed up the other day with a wee little present for me.

From Halloween buildup '08

Spud and I go back quite a ways for Halloween. From visiting Haunted Houses, to trying to make our own. I recall fondly the days he and I would put on silly masks and hide in the dark, or up in the trees…watching my uncle climb up on his roof to moon us…and winding up on his porch with nothing but blankets, waiting for trick or treaters to pass so we could go flash them in return….

(Yes, we had a fun childhood there…)

Well…He sure knows the right presents to bring these days.

And, as spoken of earlier, back in my childhood days, the first thing I tried to build was a scientist lab that really rather sucked.

Well, I got the opportunity earlier this week to rectify that. So, anyone out there who may have been subjected to my crappy attempt back in the 80’s, I hope you enjoy this a bit more.

As a special treat, here are some very rare sketches of the plan. I don’t typically reveal just how bad I suck at drawing, but it’s fun to see how this come to be.

From Halloween buildup '08
From Halloween buildup '08

My costume…a rather fancy piece of makeuping. I created the stitch appliances from scratch.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

It was especially fun to stop by a local grill afterward in full costume and have people stop eating to stare while I ordered.

Fred did a pretty good job as well.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

And, all the folks over at Halloweenforum.com were rather impressed by Mary’s performance as well.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Once it was clear everything was working, I was able to relax and enjoy it.

Back to school…

So….my mother-in-law asked me to do a room for her school’s Halloween carnival.

Now, this is a very special opportunity for me, as it harkens back to the days of my childhood. Days when I was just a lad, trying to find his Halloween way.

It was the same year when my brother was sick on Halloween, dad out of town, and mom not able to leave my brother, or have me wandering the streets alone. The first year I started staying home and handing out candy.

Mom sat and talked, some kids thought she was a dummy, she moved, they spooked, and I thought it was COOL.

However, the first inklings of how to go about making our house into a proper ‘spooky’ house came later in the year. At school.

I don’t know WHAT the assembly was SUPPOSED to be about. I just remember encountering a few things for the first time in my life. Tesla Coils, Jacob’s Ladders, and Black Lights.

They weren’t really being used in a halloween way in the assembly, more of a teaching, hey this is such and such, and it does this because of this way. It didn’t matter. As I sat there, I SAW Frankenstein’s lab. See, I had been to haunted houses before, but this was back in the times when these things were rather pricey. Not the under $20 they are today.

I was hooked. So much that Santa brought me a Tesla Coil lightning ball that year. I SOOOOOOOOO loved that thing. 2nd best present I ever got (best being a fish tank). Made me sad when it became a little…unsafe… 3 years ago.

That following year, I was going to make our porch into a science lab. I had the lightning ball, and I went out with my own money and bought me some makeup, and a ‘blacklight’.

That was a lesson in ‘buyer beware’. “Blacklight” my ass. It was a purple lightbulb. An expensive purple lightbulb packaged to say blacklight. So, I sat in the dark with my little lightning ball, burns on my face and hands (the makeup worked good), and a crappy purple lightbulb on the porch light.

Essentially…it sucked, and I had been ripped off in the process.

It would be years before I was able to purchase a real blacklight. And, by that time, we were doing more hide in the dark and go boo things at the house.

So, when asked to help the school, the Lab was FIRST on my list of ideas. Heck, I still have a habit of collecting things for use in a lab setting even though my theme doesn’t even approach allowing me to use them.

So, more than 20 years (man I’m getting old) after the original idea came to me, it’s time to start building my lab. So, here’s a little teaser with the test video. We’ll get a video of the full thing at the carnival.

Cemetery

Ya know, one thing I’ve never quite understood about the more normal Halloween traditions, is the inclusion of a Cemetery into the decoration.

They have never been a place of fright or danger to me. Perhaps that has to do with vacations that sought out strange cemeteries, or wandering them in search of names for my mom’s writing. Taking rubbings for fun…

I understand the history of Halloween with the stories of the spirits returning and dressing up to hide from them. I also understand this tradition still exists in some cultures, where the spirits of the dead can cause harm to the living, if not properly cared for. Project Nightfall even bases it’s construction on such a belief.

And yet, I’ve always personally felt it much closer to the Dia De Los Muertes tradition where the spirits come back to visit, and should be welcomed. And, there is something in the air around the equinox that makes feeling thos spirits a bit easier.

This morning, we took my mom and Grandma out to visit some graves that they did not get to see on memorial day.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

I’ve always been open to feeling spirits, I believe, and it was nice to revisit family I had not been to see since my childhood. Plus, it helped my Mom and Grandma in the process.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

We had so much fun there, we decided to head out to a more local cemetery this afternoon. Originally to get some pics of some more halloweenish tombstones.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

This is a gorgeous new one. I love the ones that are all statuesque.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Then, you can’t take a trip to the cemetery here without noting some of the more prominent ghost stories. Here is the statue standing over the WWII memorial. Legend has it that if you drive your car around it a number of times (vary according to which version), the statue will begin to watch you.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

And, as long as we were right there, Jen’s grandparents were buried near by. So, she went off looking while I got the picture of the statue. I got done with and went over to show her where the grave was after I finished, and she had still not found it. As I said, I’ve always been open, and I just KNEW where it was despite having never been there before.

Alec was rather interested to see family there.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

And, with Alec being so interested, I figured we may as well go see my grandparents.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

There is also a purported witch buried in the cemetery, and I’m certain I could have found it to get a picture, but with Talia off wandering and the shadows growing long, we didn’t have time to go looking before getting dinner.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Memory lane.

I was watching Jay Leno the other night.

Don’t remember the actor, but he was asking about his first acting experience which led to some grade school play and some funny pictures.

That got me thinking of the only school play I ever enjoyed…

A school play version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

I can’t remember exactly what GRADE it was. Or whether it was around Halloween or not. And, while I’m sure I was given some minor role to act out as well, what stands out in my memory was being placed in charge of the special effects along with 2 of my friends.

Now, the Headless Horseman has a special place in my heart anyway.

We had the classic decorations in the house when I was a child. The posable skeleton cardboard cutout for the front door. A witch and cat picture to hang up. A cardboard spider. You know, the classics. I’ve seen most of them at shops here or there since. But, we had one…always my favorite, and I have not seen it around since mom got rid of it. A picture of the Headless Horseman, pumpkin held high, against the light of a full moon. I LOVED that picture.

Couldn’t look at it for fear. But I loved it.

Then, there is the superb Disney film.

So, here we were making The Headless Horseman. With me and my friends in charge of the effects.

I recall making lots of sound effects. Mostly by hand or mouth. Babbling brooks, horse galloping, wind, etc. We even made a ‘flaming pumpking’ of a basketball with crate paper that mistakenly bounced off the wall ‘off stage’ it was supposed to disappear into and out into the audience…Some lighting effects here or there, even.

The play wraps up with the narrator telling that on some nights you can still hear Ichabod, and the three of us effects folk let a cry in unison into that microphone so eerie the memory of it still makes my hair stand up.

So, here’s to the Headless Horseman. Quite possibly a main reason I turned out so wierd…

The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight
By Jack Prelutsky

The Headless Horseman rides tonight
Through stark and starless skies,
Shattering the silence with
His otherworldly cries.
He races through the darkness
On his alabaster steed,
The Headless Horseman rides tonight,
Wherever the fates would lead.

And he rides upon the wind tonight,
He rides upon the wind,
Galloping, galloping, galloping on
Out of the great oblivion,
Galloping till the night is gone.
He rides upon the wind, tonight,
He rides upon the wind.

The Headless Horseman rides tonight
Beggared in robes of black,
To bear a being from the earth,
Never to bring him back.
He’s evil, foul, and bottoming,
With laughter on his breath.
The Headless Horseman rides tonight,
The minister of death.

And he rides upon the wind tonight,
He rides upon the wind,
Galloping, galloping, galloping on
Out of the great oblivion,
Galloping till the night is gone.
He rides upon the wind, tonight,
He rides upon the wind.

The Headless Horseman rides tonight,
He rides the wind alone.
Beneath his arm he tightly tucks
His head of gleaming bone.
His voice is harsh and hollow,
It is horrible to hear.
The Headless Horseman rides tonight
To fill the earth with fear!

And he rides upon the wind tonight,
He rides upon the wind,
Galloping, galloping, galloping on
Out of the great oblivion,
Galloping till the night is gone.
He rides upon the wind, tonight,
He rides upon the wind.

The Headless Horseman rides tonight
Upon his fateful trip,
With silvery stiles of steely death
Held fast in boney grip.
He sweeps it swiftly forth and back
As over the earth he glides,
And none in the world is safe tonight,
For the Headless Horseman rides.

And he rides upon the wind tonight,
He rides upon the wind,
Galloping, galloping, galloping on
Out of the great oblivion,
Galloping till the night is gone.
He rides upon the wind, tonight,
He rides upon the wind.