Jonesing for some 70s Halloween!

[kingdom warrior]

gonna put up the decorations and build my cemetery in the garden this afternoon

I'm sure the neighbors will have fun watching this

[Nostalgiabuff]

those zombie babies are on the back page of a costume catalogue wegot and my 6 yr old daughter keeps saying she wants one. this from a kid who until recently was all about disney princesses and now calls van helsing her favorite movie. lol

[Meule]

I'm sure the neighbors will have fun watching this

Each year the neighbours come and stare at my decorations, some even bring their grandchildren

[gummi]

Halloween is my oldest obsession. I loved it as a kid, and I love it just as much now. I started decorating this weekend but still have a long way to go. Unfortunately, people's enthusiasm for the holiday just isn't the same as it was when I was young. I'm one of the few people on my street that go all out on the Halloween decorating . . . there are surely a few people that think I'm nuts. Since you mentioned Ben Cooper, I thought I'd post pictures of two old Ben Cooper masks that I have in my collection. Happy Halloween everyone!

[palitoy]

Although I totally respect your opinion about Halloween being for kids, I have to say that the reality these days is that it's a HUGE party holiday for adults. The stores probably make a lot more money selling adult costumes and accessories than items for the kids.

I have nothing against adult parties, I'm sure they are a huge revenue stream and they are fine by me.

I was speaking more about some of the decor they sell these days for "trick or treating", case in point, my neighbours dress like leather face and Jason every year and A LOT of young children are upset by it. Their front lawn has graphic displays of mutilation, it's not cool since all kids on the block are under 10. I've had to tell Jason to "cool it" when he approached my 3 year old once.

I'm not against scaring kids on Halloween but have some class.

[HardyGirl]

Yeah, to me, it's less about the scary stuff, (although when you're older, that's fun). But to little kids, it's the one day a year you can be whatever you want. That's why those Ben Cooper and Collegeville costumes were so cool to me. Sure it's only a piece of plastic and a cheesy mask. But when a kid puts those on, he can transform into whatever character they chose and there were a LOT to choose from. A child's imagination is a beautiful thing, not matter what time of year it is.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I put out my Halloween decorations last weekend. I have a light up Empire Dracula and Frankenstein, as well as a large jack-o-lantern and ghost. A big lighted spider web on our patio. And paper cutouts of monster faces that I put on our windows facing the road. Two are legit Universal Bela-Drac and Karloff-Frankie I got a few years back. The others are generic, but the Dracula looks like Count Yorga a bit.

I went over to my Dad's house this weekend and finally dug our old Halloween decorations out. My dad hasn't put much of anything out since my Mom passed away almost 10 years ago. I found our ceramic Halloween village a friend of my Mom's made, as well as several other old-school decorations, including those old standbys, the Ghost Rider-like flaming skull, scarecrow, witch, jointed cat, etc. Most were molded, and had to be thrown out, but I did save the witch and cat. So now my house is a good combo of my Halloween memories and my kids. Funny thing is, where we live out in the sticks, and are out with the kids on Trick-or-Treat night, we have NO trick-or-treaters!

I agree about the overly gory Halloween stuff. There's a house down the block from my dad that runs an impromptu Haunted House every year. They must scare the bee-jeezus out of those kids, because you can hear them screaming clear down the block! My son is almost 9 and has refused to even walk by it every year. I'm glad, because I'd hate to have to brain an over-zealous Jason-wannabe!

Chris

[Meule]

I'm sure the neighbors will have fun watching this

Well, the mailman almost had a heart attack today

[stevenlore]

Since all this talk about vintage halloween stuff, I wonder if I could plug a site my friend just published. If it isn't allowed, Moderators please remove.

http://www.vintagehalloween.org/

[UnderdogDJLSW]

Going through Target, every costume seems to be the same thing for the last 5 years or so. Toddlers are some form of Pooh or Tigger. Older tots get Elmo and Thomas the Tank Engine. The bigger kids get Jedis, Spidey, and Batman. I even had trouble finding my daughter a Belle (as in Beauty and the Beast) costume this year. Took 4 stores to find it. The 70's stuff was neat because you knew there would be old favorites or a new hot property based off of a hit TV show for the season. Today just doesn't seem to have variety.

[nvmbrsdoom5]

It doesn't seem like kids care that much about Halloween these days, at least not the kids roughly between ages 7 and 12. When I was young, I remember those years being the ones where I was REALLY into Halloween, and then when I got into my teens it died out. But now it seems like more and more the only trick or treaters I see are really young, and I've had friends tell me that their 8 and 9 year olds aren't interested and don't want to dress up, etc. Sorta bums me out, but at least the little ones still seem excited about it. But honestly I think the adults get far more into Halloween these days than the kids seem to.

I agree with Brian though, I think the whole serial killer/grotesque zombie fad with all of the costumes and decor these days has gotten a bit out of hand. When I was like 3 or 4, I thought the old Collegeville vampire mask was scary looking! lol I can't imagine what I'd have thought about some of the crazy stuff they have nowadays. But then again, I'm not much into modern horror and slasher stuff, it crosses that line from being "scary fun" into being "seriously psychologically disturbing"! Oh well.

[stevenlore]

My 13 year old will be trick or treating again this year. We usually get about 100 or so trick or treaters every year.

[generic]

I have nothing against adult parties, I'm sure they are a huge revenue stream and they are fine by me.

I was speaking more about some of the decor they sell these days for "trick or treating", case in point, my neighbours dress like leather face and Jason every year and A LOT of young children are upset by it. Their front lawn has graphic displays of mutilation, it's not cool since all kids on the block are under 10. I've had to tell Jason to "cool it" when he approached my 3 year old once.

I'm not against scaring kids on Halloween but have some class.

That makes sense. It's pointing out the obvious to say that many people today show no signs of common sense.

I remember having a great time trick-or-treating as a kid. I also remember that my friends and I kept trick-or-treating when we were "Too Old" to be doing it (according to the people giving out the candy). I guess they would have preferred that we go out and vandalize the neighborhood with the other people our age.

[Hector]

Halloween used to be my second favorite holiday after Christmas as a kid.

But now it has lost its luster...Halloween lags behind other ones such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July.

I probably would think otherwise if I had kids of my own...but I don't...for I'm allergic to kids in general...don't want them near me...

[spamn]

I have to say, when I asked a good friend of mine if she wanted to accompany me to the Stewart/Colbert Rally in DC on October 30th, she told me that's when her neighborhood was doing the trick or treating on Saturday the 30th before the sun went down, and she was taking her kids out.

I have to say, when I was a kid, once I was over 6 years old or so, Trick or Treating

1. happened after dark
2. on Halloween night, whatever day of the week it was

and

3. did not involve Parent escorts

Though having so many parents in the street would prevent the older kids from stealing candy bags from the younger - something I heard about but never had happen to me.

Obviously you would want to take your toddler kids out, but in our family, we walked to Elementary School solo, starting at Kindergarten (it was only a quarter mile or so), so of course you didn't need your folks with you to hit every door you could before it got too late at night.

It's a very different world today. When I saw ET in the theater at 1982, I was appalled that they were out during daytime. I'd never heard of such a thing. At what age do Parents allow their kids to Trick or Treat solo nowadays?