I found this cool Halloween popcorn tin at my grandparents’ house a few weeks ago, and just knew it was destined to be blogged about. The can is decorated with old postcard images on all sides. When I first came across it, I almost placed a call to the Halloween police, ’cause my grandma had been using it to store Easter decorations inside. That’s gotta be considered breaking the law where most Halloween fanatics are concerned.

Related Posts

Popcorn Tin

Took this image during a shoot last night for the 2010 Halloween Haunt vid. Though I already filmed the yard haunt on Halloween night, I decided to capture some additional footage to add as an intro. It was a little like creating a mini version of Halloween all over again, except the location was different and the Angel of Death didn’t make a return appearance. In the process of doing the shoot, I also grabbed a few stills along the way. This pic (taken from above, looking into the “grave”) represents the first time one my groundbreaker corpses has been placed below ground. Click image if you’d like to see a much larger view.

I’m hoping to have the 2010 Haunt vid posted this weekend.

It’s here! Happy October to you! In honor of celebrating the beginning of my favorite time of year, I wanted to share a couple photos taken during my visit to Wagner’s Farm yesterday. For the last three out of four years my grandfather and I have made our trek to Wagner’s, located in Corrales, New Mexico, for my cornstalks. I supply the cash for gas and for the stalks; he supplies the truck for hauling the load, and a few dirty jokes along the way.

The entire trip has become very special to me, not only because of spending time with my grandpa, but also because Corrales is a perfect location for providing my first true encounter with autumn for the year.

It’s a quaint little village with shade trees everywhere, grape vines galore, and interesting curio shops dotting the roadside amidst wild sunflowers. Most of the shops have already decorated with makeshift scarecrows and pumpkins along their sidewalks. And the scent of roasting green chile fills the air (a sure sign of fall in New Mexico) along with an abundance of other delicious scents from local restaurants. By the time you pull into Wagner’s and see their pumpkin patch, hay bales and stacks of cornstalks, you can really feel October and autumn coursing through your veins.

I thought I’d close this post with what seemed like an appropriate paragraph from the About page:

“There’s something tangible in the air as September draws to a close, removing itself from our awareness, as if surrendering to an unseen force being ushered in on an October breeze. This force permeates all matter, working itself into a feverish pitch over the next thirty-one days: The ground develops into one continuous pathway of fallen flora, harvests are being reaped, temperatures drop, wood smoke billows from chimneys, children anticipate the hordes of candy they’ll soon be carrying and I begin to polish my skulls.” Happy October, everyone.

Related Posts

Happy October 1st (2009)

It should be a lot of fun to finally grow my own, plus it’ll keep me motivated to deweed the yard more often.

Source: YT user, ehowgarden

For more tips on growing pumpkins for Halloween, you might want to checkout this article at Gardening Know How and also this one at Informed Democracy.

You know you’re obsessed with Halloween…

…When your sole criterion for purchasing a home is based on its “yard haunt potential.”

When the idea of a rubber band digging into the back of your head, and plastic pressed against your sweaty face makes you nostalgic for trick-or-treating.

When your local Spirit Halloween Store is on speed dial.

When you can no longer listen to music that doesn’t contain chants, moans, groans or the sound of crunching leaves.

When you shed a tear on November 1st.

When co-workers ask where you’ll be going during your upcoming vacation, and your answer is, “HauntCon.”

When you can provide precise customer service for Walmart’s, Target’s, and Kmart’s Halloween sections, though you’re not employed by any of them.

When your vehicle sports a bumper sticker that says: “My Other Car is a Hearse”

When your phone’s ring-tone is set to either the “Halloween” theme, “Tubular Bells,” or the “The Addams Family” theme, year round.

When going to hardware stores, you don’t see their purpose being for home improvement, but instead for home haunt improvement.

When you’ve actually spent time searching for formaldehyde scented candles.

When there’s an ENORMOUS presidential election campaign during your October haunt prep; and you sincerely respond to the question, “Who are you voting for,” by saying, “Who am I voting for, for what?”

When you organize a grassroots movement against Rob Zombie to prevent him from making another installment in the “Halloween” series.

When UPS delivers fake body parts and styrofoam skulls to your house on a weekly basis.

When the UPS delivery person grows quite comfortable delivering fake body parts and styrofoam skulls to your house on a weekly basis.

When you landscape your yard, strictly for the purpose of achieving the ideal haunt layout.

When all labels, describing the scents of your toiletries, begin with the word “pumpkin.”

During sporting events, you only cheer for teams wearing orange or black–and, when neither teams’ uniforms contain those colors, you just don’t give a damn.

Whenever someone uses the phrase, “skeletons in the closet,” you take it literally.

When you’re willing to incorporate clothing from an old Halloween costume into your everyday attire.

When you own, and happily use a Spirit Halloween Store credit card, even though the interest rate is 75%.

When the smell of fog fluid gives you a rush.

When you wear a jack-o-lantern tie to the office Christmas party.

Whenever the doorbell rings, you quickly answer it with a fistful of candy—in July.

When you visit Season of Shadows on a regular basis.

I hope you enjoyed my list. I have to point out that I was completely joking about Spirit Halloween charging 75% interest—in fact, I don’t think they even have a credit card.

If you have a few things you’d like to add to “You Know You’re Obsessed with Halloween…” I’d love to hear them.

Related Posts

You Know You’re Obsessed with Halloween 2
You Know You’re Obsessed with Halloween 3

After using cornstalks in my haunt during 2007 and 2008, I decided not to include them last year. While I liked the haunt a little better without the massive wall of corn behind my graveyard’s overseer, it was a little strange not having the stalks as part of the display. So, for Halloween 2010, I’ve decided to compromise — no wall of corn, however, I am going to bring the stalks back to the haunt. But this time, I’m going to place them in those lean-to bundles around the edges and back of the graveyard. And, in the vein of Tuesday’s post about Witches and Broomsticks, I decided to do a little digging on the history of those lean-to cornstalk structures, called “shocks.”

I learned that over a century ago (prior to major technological advances in farming), after stalks were cut down, farmers made shocks in the field so the cornstalks could dry out. After drying in shocks, the stalks were either loaded on wagons and hauled to another location for shucking, or they were shucked right in the field.

Today, this same practice is continued by the Amish, as is evident by the great footage of shocks in this vid:

Source: YT user, knoeful

There’s certain imagery that immediately captures the feeling of fall; seeing shocks is one of those for me. While I’ve never lived near an Amish community and machinery has removed the need for shocks among farms that embrace technology, associating those lean-to structures with Halloween and fall must go back to my youth. I used to consume a steady diet of Halloween books that included old artwork. A lot of that artwork featured creepy fields full of shocks, guarded by a lone scarecrow — all illuminated by a full moon.

“Shocks” image source: Wikipedia

A great resource for learning about the use of shocks and other aspects of pioneer farming is: Camp Silos.

One such decoration is the ever so common portrayal of a witch riding her broomstick. Whether it’s in the form of a cutesy cartoon, a decrepit looking old crone, or a sultry, scantily clad, black magic woman, witches are rarely depicted without their accessory for flight.

In the following video, YT user, esotericonlineradio discusses this very subject:

If we look elsewhere online, similar explanations, reflecting the video’s commentary are shared. All point to this “flying ointment” as being a real concoction, primarily composed of herbs, and/or molds, aka hallucinogens. Not all agree on the manner in which this ointment was applied, but they do agree it was not ingested due to either toxicity or because digestion was a poor means for delivery.

If someone was looking for the fastest means available (topically) to shuttle the flying ointment into the bloodstream, then it may not be too far-fetched to envision what esotericonlineradio alluded to in the last 30 seconds of the video. Now, whether or not the broom was employed as a method of aiding in that quick delivery of ointment can’t be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, but it does provide a strong clue about our modern day portrayal of witches and their brooms.

As the ointment took effect, the individual would experience amazing forms of hallucinations, trips, and flights; hence the idea of witches soaring through moonlit skies. Many of these experiences probably took place at night, in isolation, because of harsh judgments. This, no doubt, also led to the modern portrayal of “evil” witches doing so-called ungodly deeds during their nightly gatherings. That’s not to say the people involved in these experiences were even witches; most probably weren’t, but they quickly received the label of witch when their behaviors happened to be witnessed by neighbors, town folks, etc.

Overall, the connection between Halloween witches and their broomsticks probably stems from a variety of old references and practices, but the broom’s use in conjunction with flying ointment seems to be the most commonly discussed.

For more information on why we portray Halloween witches riding on broomsticks, I highly recommend the following articles. A few contain descriptions and very old artwork that some may find explicit, but all are presented in a very respectable manner:

What Really Happened: How Did Witches Come to Ride Brooms? (Contains an interesting collection of witchy artwork and its evolution over the last several hundred years.)

Science Blogs: On the Origin of Witches and Broomsticks

Straight Dope: What’s the Deal With Witches and Broomsticks?

Angelfire — Girls’ Paradise: Do Witches Ride Broomsticks? (This site creates a pop-up, but it should be harmless; just make sure your pop-up blocker is turned on.)

Yesterday, as I was going through a box of stuff from my childhood, I came across these 1980s Halloween stickers (click on the image to see the full page). The stickers came with an order I placed with “Troll Books” during 4th grade. If memory serves, Troll Book Club catered to children and was widely affiliated with most elementary schools. I used to live for the day their fall catalog arrived at school because it always had a wide variety of spooky collections available. In fact, it was the only thing I used to look forward to once summer had ended and classes were beginning again.

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned a creepy book about vampires and werewolves, which made an impression on me during my youth; I believe that book came from either Scholastic or Troll Books as well.

The date on the bottom corner of the sticker page reads 1984. I remember being a sticker fanatic during that time in my life (especially scratch-n-sniff), so I must have cared greatly for these Halloween-themed stickers to have never peeled them off of the original page. I’m going to have to look for a poster frame that will fit this because these guys are going up on the wall in my office.

In the above image, you’re looking at the backside of the Halloween sticker page. It’s a promo for a few of Troll’s books. Most are easy to see (click on image for a larger view), but on the far right hand side is one of my favorites, which didn’t come out so clear — it’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Related Posts

The Old Hag

In case you’re wondering why Ellen’s Halloween costume is an “O” Magazine, she was jazzed about her upcoming appearance (with Oprah) on the cover of the December 2009 issue.

Source: YT user, Stevespanglerscience

Related Posts

Halloween Without Dry Ice?
Glow Stick Anatomy

Source: YT user, SpiritHalloweenStore

Up next is a decor/prop “mashup” featuring Spirit’s lineup of animatronics.

Source: YT user, spirithalloweencom

I make a point to visit all three of my local Spirit stores every September and October, but there were many props in the above footage I’ve never seen before. It would seem that all of the regional depots (mentioned in the first vid) receive staple Spirit Halloween items from the main warehouse, but there must also be a few unique items that only certain regions receive.

I’d love to see a full-blown documentary on every aspect of Spirit Halloween. It could feature manufacturing, distribution, marketing, set up and breakdown of stores, in-depth interviews with management and employees, the customer rush during Halloween week, etc. I think it would be fascinating to see every facet of their operation.

Related Posts

Spirit Store Footage
9-9-09: Spirit Halloween
Revisiting Spirit Halloween Store
Spirit Halloween Store