Memories Of Halloweens Past

Was talking to long-time blog reader Mr. Macabre and he suggested a neat project of sorts for this old Halloween blog.  An open call to anyone who wants to partake.  An invitation to submit a photo and maybe a blurb about your favorite Halloween possession.  You know the one - that special item you've had for years and years.  The one that reminds you of all the things you love about our High Holiday.  That particular decoration or object you couldn't do without.  

The first submission is by Mr. Macabre himself.  This special piece was made by his daughter when she was in kindergarten - 30 years ago.  A jack o'lantern made from a brown paper lunch bag, with a perfect little face.

I can see why such a thing would be cherished and on display for decades.  It's perfectly nostalgic, and if I found something similar in a roadside antique shop, I would certainly buy it, wondering all about its backstory.

Thanks, Mr. Macabre!

I'm so glad you shared this Halloween memory with me.

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

Dead End Cemetery: Halloween 2009

Some wonderful (and nostalgic) photos from Mr. Macabre's 2009 display.  So strange to think of non-digital photographs as a thing from the past.  So grateful so many photograph scans are on this blog.  Halloween looks really neat on real film.  

Love these shots.  Feels dark and spooky and edgy.  Especially with the use of real flame. 

Dead End Cemetery: Halloween 2013

It'd be an honor to be buried in this cemetery.  I'd want it both ways and request that half of me be buried in a plot and the other half incinerated in the crematorium...  I'd prefer it if my ashes were to settle on the surrounding homes and cars.

Haunts like Mr. Macabre's below were what it was all about when I was trick-or-treating.  You'd see a display like this one and see the amount of work that went into it, and the vastness of the operation, and you'd be scared to even go up for candy (at least that's how I was as a kid).  You'd see multiple creatures roaming the grounds (those were always extra unnerving to me [and I think I always assumed they were evil teens waiting to steal my candy {or worse}]).  I came from a house where anyone past the age of 15 never wore a costume in any shape or form.  But here were adults manning a Haunt and using real fire, and running a crematorium no less - with a smoking chimney.

When you went up there and got your candy, you felt really proud of yourself.  And you definitely felt safer once you reached the sidewalk.  This'll be hard to articulate, but it almost felt like those times where you're lost and suddenly see a landmark or a street name that you recognize, and all is well again.  Haunters create this entire mini world where an ordinary suburban home becomes something peculiar and out-of-place, and unsafe.  Your logic and experience tells you it's just Halloween, but your senses are whispering something else entirely.

Here's to those folks who didn't just hand out candy on a pumpkin-less porch.  Here's to those folks who blared Alice Cooper or a sound effects cassette.  Who sometimes used a real casket from God-knows-where.  Who followed you around dressed as an ugly rubber-faced Witch.  Who made Halloween something better than Christmas.

Dead End Cemetery 2008

Pumpkin goodness at the Pumpkin Patch Cemetery...

Dead End Cemetery's Crematorium

I can't say I've ever seen a Crematorium in a home haunt.  This is definitely in the top five coolest yard haunt concepts of all time.  Very original, and crazy fun with the smokestack.

Excellent work, Mr. Macabre!

Dead End Cemetery

The Haunt of Mr. Macabre.

Really loving the feel of this display.  A perfect use of real flames too.