Night Smile

Image by firehouse.ie.

Basement Black & White

Square Teeth And Angry Eyes

Image by haoa192.

Memories Of Halloweens Past

The next entry for this nostalgic blog series comes from my gal Jenna.  I've had the pleasure of seeing this neat item up close, so it was really wonderful hearing about its backstory.

Jenna writes "Over the years people have often asked me, 'Why do you like Halloween so much?' or 'Why do you like such scary things?'  I don't really have an answer for them. Truthfully, I have always found myself drawn to darker interests. Poe and R.L. Stine in grade school. The Twilight Zone and heavy metal in middle school. But when thinking about my favorite memory of Halloweens past (thanks to Mr. Macabre), my thoughts kept coming back to a very non-scary subject: My Grandmother, from now on referred to as Grandie (a nickname of her own creation). She is decidedly not spooky, or scary, and does not relate to my love of horror movies and dark art, but she was formative for my love of Halloween. 

Grandie and my Grandfather lived out in the country, not far from the previously mentioned Hex Hollow. In fact, my first haunted hayride as a kid was the local fire hall hayride that took you though Hex Hollow the week or so before Halloween.

She was Martha before Martha - making loads of homemade candy, Golden Grahams smores bars, and soft pumpkin cookies with caramel frosting in the days leading up to the High Holiday. The house was filled with decorations - a sound activated laughing witch (long gone), tons of paper Hallmark party goods, and a unique ceramic pumpkin that she would save for me to put together (once I was old enough to be trusted not to break it). 

This particular decoration encompasses all the imagery I love and associate with Halloween - ghosts, a spooky tree, a cemetery, and a jack-o-lantern. Each year, I would arrange the ghosts around the tree, always in the same places, like a ritual. The tombstone and the jack-o-lantern were my absolute favorites, and would go in the very front, so that I could take them out and hold them whenever I wanted.  It wasn't truly Halloween until this pumpkin was on display. 

Grandie is still with us and turned 98 this year. Knowing my love of Halloween, she handed down her recipes and decorations over the years as she downsized and moved into a retirement community. I think the ceramic pumpkin was the first decoration she gave me when she moved - she knew how much I loved it. Now I am the one decorating and hosting for Halloween, and though she doesn't always understand the darker decor, she loves seeing how we spend our holiday, and will forever be an important part of my Halloween."

For anyone interested in submitting, you can email me at pumpkinrot @ gmail . com (remove the spaces, of course!)

And click here to see past entries!

The Order Of The Halloween Tree

A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.

Chapter 2:  George Smith

In the west, the sun, smothered and dying in clouds, sank. Moundshroud hooted his delight:

“There it goes, boys. The heart, soul, and flesh of Halloween. The Sun! There Osiris is murdered again. There sinks Mithras, the Persian fire. There falls Phoebus Apollo all Grecian light. Sun and flame, boys. Look and blink. Turn that crystal spyglass. Swing it down the Mediterranean Coast a thousand miles. See the Greek Isles?”

“Sure,” said plain George Smith, dressed up as fancy pale ghost. “Cities, towns, streets, houses. People jumping out on porches to bring food!”

“Yes.” Moundshroud beamed. “Their Festival of the Dead: the Feast of Pots. Trick-or-Treat old style. But tricks from the dead if you don’t feed them. So treats are laid out in fine banquets on the sill!”

Memories Of Halloweens Past

The next nostalgic entry for cherished memories and special Halloween possessions comes from Revenant Manor.  In his own words...

"Allow me to present Jack.  While he is certainly not our oldest Halloween item, and while at first glance he seems kind of silly and plastic, he has creeped his way into our Halloween season in a way that other treasures simply haven't (and really can't).

You see, Jack is a hand puppet; a sinister 10" little guy with articulated stretching arms that can act as a bit of an avatar for someone so inclined. 

He arrived on the scene ~20 years ago at the perfect time to help introduce two young daughters to Halloween. Offering the perfect mix of slightly scary and mostly silly when being chased around a house; he's been a part of the Halloween backdrop their entire lives.  

Over the years, he has spent spooky season leering in from darkened doorways, unexpectedly poking his head around corners, tapping the shoulders of unsuspecting people, appearing from nowhere at just the right moment during a spooky movie scene, greeting visitors at the front door, and generally causing the household pets to wonder what exactly is wrong with their humans. 

The kids (both the two and four-footed kind) have all known Jack since their earliest days, and have enjoyed his antics...it's really just not Halloween season until he arrives on the scene."

What an amazing design.  Seeing something like this makes me wonder why we don't see anything similar out there these days, as something like this would sell out every season for sure.  It's Sinister.  It's beautiful.

Thank you, RM, for sharing this incredible piece from your collection!  I love imagining its antics each Halloween season.  

And for anyone wanting to see this guy in action, click the link below!

Jack in motion.

For anyone interested in submitting, you can email me at pumpkinrot @ gmail . com (remove the spaces, of course!)

And click here to see past entries!

Memories Of Halloweens Past

The next submission for this fun feature (suggested by Mr. Macabre) comes to us from artist Jerem Morrow.  His nostalgic Halloween possession was given to him back when he was 15 years old, as payment for cleaning the house for one of his mom's friends.  "I'd never seen anything that embodied my sense of Halloween spirit so thoroughly," he shared.  "As an artist myself, I've drawn and sculpted many spooky pieces and this still remains the pinnacle of High Holiday art for me."

As a Halloween blogger since 2007, I have seen my share of ceramic Halloween decor and I have never come across anything quite like this.  It is packed with Old School Halloween charm, and it feels like something you'd see in October in the window of a shadowy house on some lonely leaf-filled street.

Click here for Jerem's Instagram account.

For anyone interested in submitting, you can email me at pumpkinrot @ gmail . com (remove the spaces, of course!)

Blurry Face In The Dark

Blurry Halloween photographs are a thing 

(click here to see a bunch on this blog).

Image by H Olson Sr.

Clay Jack

Image source.

Halloween III Candy Pails

Praying I see some kids carrying these around next Halloween.

Very cool designs from Trick or Treat Studios.

Click below...

Wooden Witch

Early in the morning before the children were awake, the witch grabbed Hansel and locked him in a closet. Then she shook Gretel awake, and cried, "Get up, lazy thing, and help me get the oven ready. 

I'm going to bake your brother into gingerbread!"

 

Gretel wept at the witch's words, but she had no choice but to do as the old woman commanded.

Once a fire had been lit beneath the oven, the witch pushed poor Gretel toward the oven.

 

"Creep inside," said the witch, "and see if the oven is hot enough."

Mad Monster Party

Images by Craig Walkowicz.

Some Autumn Music

Falling Leaves, by Glenn Miller.

The trees in these parts are finally glowing yellow, orange, and red.  We drove around last night finding curb leaf piles for the Haunt since the trees around here are holding on to them for the time being.  I often wonder what a homeowner thinks when they see a stranger raking their leaves or "stealing" their curb leaf pile.  I'm pretty sure this would cause me some anxiety.  No one has ever questioned me though, so I'll never get to use my planned reply "Don't worry, I will return them after Halloween."

Click below...

Pumpkin Soup And Porch Decor

Enjoying some homemade (and wonderful) pumpkin soup and savoring a porch that's taking shape for the High Holiday.  Last night after work, we went to a favorite farm and picked up ten giant bunches of cornstalks.  This place is a decent drive from here, but it's totally worth it.  Best prices around in an area that pretty much extorts folks when buying pumpkins and corn.  

It was dirty work, but some cold pumpkin ale, pizza from a favorite local place, and a lot of laughs made wiring the [ant-filled] stalks in place a ton of fun.  We worked as the sun was setting and got it all done in record time.  Some neighbors yelled over that they couldn't wait to see this year's Haunt.

I yelled back this year's theme and they seemed really excited.

Paper Halloween

Image by giveawayboy.

Halloween Mantel

Late Summer Garden

Still a lot of color out there.  And the pumpkin is looking really good.

Pumpkins

We purchased the first pumpkin of the season this weekend.  Nice to see them showing up in the bins at Trader Joe's.  And in a very cool development, an accidental vine is growing next to the porch, from what I'm assuming were seeds from last year's porch jacko's.  It's doing really well and has two small pumpkins on it.  Really hoping they make it.

[Metal] Garden Pumpkin

New purchase from Joann Fabric...  fifty percent off.  Solar LED inside.  Seems happy.

Wicked Ways

Halloween was the time she figured most prominently in our thoughts. First because she was a witch, of course, and second because of a time-honored ritual among the neighborhood children concerning her and ourselves and that evening of the year.

- Gahan Wilson, Yesterday's Witch

Image by thescarefactor.