Thread: 2006 Hallowe'en Memories

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This year I went trick or treating with my sister and her kids. Eventually we went to the door of another ordinary house and recieved our candy, which we had to pull out of a bowl being held on the lap of a reaper figure in a chair. Just as we were turning to go down the steps back to the sidewalk, I caught the briefest movement. I HAD to take advantage of this! I said, 'Wait, what is this?' trying to sound perplexed,and stood up close to the reaper. I slowly reached out (making sure I had the attention of all) and carefully put my finger on the gloved hand of the reaper and AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! my sister screamed her head off as he lunged forward! It was classic. I'm sure he didn't want to scare the little ones, but he just had to do it once I started acting like I wasn't sure if I saw him move or not.
Whoever you are, guy in the reaper costume, Thank You!

That's great! I'm never home for trick or treat night here so I don't get to have fun with them.

This is the first year we let our oldest (pre-teen) and her girlfriend TOT by themselves (we'd wait at the end of the street & let them to it.) Brought back great memories of going around as a kid with my girlfriends all over our neighborhood...still had to semi-supervise, but I guess that goes with the times.

Sounds like raucous good fun theworstwitch - had a neighbor do that a few years ago, the kids screamed bloody murder!

That's the real beauty of Hallowe'en - it dosen't have to be big and elaborate to scare the kids and give them a Life-long memory. A guy who used to work for me said that his Dad would put a dummy out in the front yard for about a week before Hallowe'en. Full sized and very life-like, Full Head Mask, gloves coveralls, boots. The neighborhood kids would become accustomed to seeing the dummy there, propped up against a tree. Then, about 10 minutes BEFORE Trick or Treat, his Dad would take the place of the dummy. He said all his Dad had to do was raise his arms, and the kids would be scared into next week.

Wolfman, that is so true. I remember similar things from my childhood, and it's so fun when people get into it like that.

My son (18) has the greatest time dong exactly that. He'll ask me sometimes to put a dummy out in the yard dressed up as he's going to dress that way on Halloween night, the neighborhood kids will think it's still the dummy, but then he'll end up chasing some of the teens down the street.

I bet the guy in the reaper costume was grateful to you for volunteering to take the scare, even if you did it with a wink and a nod. Sometimes the scarer just has to let the perfect moment slide, which means nobody gets the benefit of the scream.

One year I did the trick where I put a fake arm in my jacket sleeve, and hid my real arm inside the box containing the candy. One teen girl reached in for some candy and I reached out of the box ("thank you, Thing...") and grabbed her hand. She didn't even blink, just looked at me with a "dude, what are you doing?" sort of expression. Suddenly I'm thinking, "oh, great, now she thinks I'm a lecher fondling teenagers." What good is scaring somebody who won't be scared?

My most vivid memory of trick or treating was the house where the boys in the family hid a hangman's dummy up on the roof of the porch. After you'd gotten your candy and turned around to go, they would push it off, and it would drop right in your face. I think that was what first got me started wanting to do a display.

I think my favorite memory from this year and the 16 days I worked at the haunt was some lady I followed out the door. I liked their reaction to me scaring the crap out of them in my room so I followed them outside.

It was a group of about six or seven and there was only girl in the group.
The group made it down the stairs and I made my zombie growl sound they turned and the girl in the group freaked out bad. Naturally I went after her and she got behind her boyfriend and made circles around him with me still chasing her.

I finally stopped chasing her around her boyfriend but not scaring her and I got on the floor and started crawling at them while they started to back up into the orange mesh construction fence behind them. I leaped at their legs and she grabbed her boyfriend real tight and the fence broke and they landed on their backs. I probably should have stopped when they backed up into the fence but I didn't because I was having too much fun. While they were on the floor I crawled right beside them and they immediately got back up with her refusing to come out of the area where the fence broke. I backed up so she wouldn't be so scared she came out and I came after her again(I'm so mean!) she starts yelling at me I hate you.


I did this once more during the season btw with about 100 people watching outside. I stopped scaring them so bad after the 2nd time. I just chased them around cars that were beside the waiting line.

Isn't it strange how even though you KNOW it's a person dressed up and having fun that's chasing you with FAKE weapons, you just can't convince a part of your brain to stop acting like your being chased by a bee?
I (obviously) love haunted attractions, and when I went to Haunt at Trout Air with my 13 year old nephew, and was having a blast as well, I found myself feeling like an animal trying to outrun a hunter when the scare actors all decided to narrow their sights on us and I really wanted to get away from them. Of course afterwards I was happy they chose us to entertain, but for some reason it was intense at the time, and unfortunately, it turned my nephew off of haunts for good.

One September I was asked by the neighbor kids what was I going to be for Halloween?
All I said was, "I'm going to be the guy that you are running down the street trying to get away from!"
And they were!
Tree branches blown from the tree overhanging the street made up the bones in the arms and hands, then 1/4inch steel rods made the arms move as I was buried inside an over-sized skeleton costume as I walked on homemade lifts and peered out from it's chest.
Days after Halloween I was still catching hell for scaring little toddlers at the parade!?
"I never saw you or your child, where were you?"
(I never made any advancements toward small children in costume)
"We were about 90 feet away, you Bast erd! You scared little Timmy!"
90 feet away at the intersection of a well-lit downtown corner and it's still my fault?
Of course I was about 9 feet tall. Great big styrofoam head on those shoulders, and my boney arms moved all by themselves!