Halloween

Today is October 1st, 30 days until my favorite holiday. "Your favorite holiday?" Some might ask. Yes, I like Halloween better than Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, or any other holiday.

I love the Macabre and all the ghoulish things this holiday brings. I've read allot of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and of the supposed witches Sarah Good and Rebeca Nurse and their memorials dedicated to these women accused of being witches.

Living in Salem Ma. was an experience all in itself. The people, the culture, the history was none like any other. I could give you links to different sites and tell you stories of different events, but to actually see things first hand is the only way to really understand it.

I lived in Massachusetts my whole life until the military found it necessary to move me to Virgina. The History of Boston and of Salem is unmistakable. The cobble stone streets the quaint little shops and eateries, to the pastries you can buy at 3am. But I digress, Halloween becomes a rite of passage for some, a spiritual time, a cleansing of burdens long past. For me, I love to scare teenagers! (As he chuckles to himself.)

I could get into a whole post about the hanging of the witches and their trials, but that would be a totally different post. I'm writing about my favorite holiday.

I guess it became my favorite holiday when I was about 11. I remember that because I was walking with my friends (I think I was dressed as a cop) and we were walking around the grave yard to go to some houses. I said, "Lets cross through the grave yard" and my friends said "Are you crazy? It's Halloween, all the ghosts will come out and get you!" With that I had to climb the fence and run into the night. Of course my friends (I'll change their names so nobody will get offended) Rick, Bruce, Ron and Dave where standing outside of the fence. (I was the one with the flash light) Ron decided that he'd jump the fence and come find me. Rick, Bruce and Dave all sat, scared outside the fence. About 5 min later Ron found me sitting on top of a crypt. He said "Dude, what are you doing?" my reply was just this "Waiting for ghosts, I mean my grandfather, and grandmother, uncle and cousin are all buried here, you'd think at least one of them would want to talk to us on this hallowed night, Right?" He was speechless. I being "11 teen" and Ron actually being a teen said "Lets get out of here before something happens". I jumped down from the crypt and was walking off when all of a sudden we heard a sound. It came from within the crypt. I shown the light at it and as the light fell on the crypt the flashlight went dead. (It had brand new batteries) We decided to run, not walk out of the grave yard. I think we hopped that 7' fence without using our hands. Rick, Bruce and Dave were scared out of their wits as to why we were running. Ron told them we'd heard a noise come from inside the crypt.

As we were sitting outside the fence of the graveyard 3 teens came running up to us from inside the graveyard and said "Man, You guys were so scared! You should have gone in that crypt, we'd have scared the crap out of you." With that I vowed right then and there that I'd get all teenagers back. (This doesn't explain the batteries dying! That will be another post.)


It had been my life's work to put the fear back into Halloween. Not so much commercialized but to have fun with it. I'll hang a noose in my yard with a ghost in it and I'll have a people in stocks or in a rack, or some other torture devise. I'll have gravestones with actual names on it such as Rebeca Nurse, or Sarah Good. I want people to remember the witch trials of Salem Mass. not forget about the history.

I'm thinking about asking the city for Halloween if I'll be able to reconstruct an actual hanging (not with live people of course) but to show the significance of it all. To place a person on a tower and put a rope around their neck and hang them until there's no life left in them. Wow! Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. I think they should bring that back as one of the death penalties instead of this injection. But again I digress.

I love watching all these horror movies and on Oct 24Th Saw V will be released. I have to say, that this has been my favorite series in a long time. The Violence and thought that went into it? Wow, it's kinda scary that people can think of stuff like this. What's even more scary, there are people that will actually do this! Look at Hostel this movie creeps me out, thinking this could actually happen. Ahhhhh.....

Halloween, one of my all time favorite movies. I absolutely love the remake by Rob Zombie. OUTSTANDING If you get a chance watch the original (Halloween) then watch Rob Zombie's remake. WOW, Rob is awesome. I wish we could make more scary movies.

I think I've kinda got off topic here but I'll just end this post with-

"You can give a kid candy and it will last him the day. Scare him once and it will last a lifetime!"

~Shadow Maker~