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During the 1990s and on into the 2000s, however, first retro-nostalgia toy and gift stores and then eBay popped up to provide Baby Boomers and Gen Xers the opportunity to pine for and purchase long-last treasures from their forgotten and discarded youth.
I bought a copy of all the Schoolhouse Rock videos on DVD, that was before I had children. But once I did have children, hey! Retro and educational. Those are still pretty awesome, nothing hideously dated about those.
At some point in the past fifteen years I fulfilled a desire for a few of the magazines I had enjoyed in my youth, with titles like Dynamite and Pizzazz. The one Dynamite issue I just had to have I found online, the June 1975 issue, which included instructions for a Monster Bash, the ideal monster themed party.
I thought it was important to have this artifact in the house and left it around for the kids to discover and look at, but that’s not really a thing the kids ever do.
My brother, whom I tried to emulate in so many ways, was inspired by this issue of Dynamite to throw a Monster Bash! including the suggested party games "Pin the Fangs on the Vampire" and recipes for creepy snacks and desserts like "Poisonous Purple Punch" and "Transylvania Treat".
There was also a face painting element, which traumatized me. No one offered to paint my face with scars or fangs or bolts because I was the annoying little brother. One guest arrived late, an exchange student, and he offered to paint my face, but he didn’t understand that this was a monster-themed party. He made me up like a clown, much to the amusement of my brother’s pre-teen friends. I was humiliated.
A few years later, when I was ten, I threw my own Monster Bash, which was really just an excuse to decorate the family room, have the guys over and eat ice cream. We didn’t play any of the games and we certainly didn’t do any face painting.
I’m not even sure what it all meant. Halloween debuted that year, the original John Carpenter film, and so followed an avalanche of slasher films which I did not watch. I mean, I saw one or two, and they were horrifying and not in a fun way. I’d rather sit up with my brother to watch Hoolihan and Big Chuck, but even that was just to hang out with him. It wasn’t really my bag, except for the comedy sketches.
We did have a few neighborhood Halloween parties, when the kids were small. They bobbed for apples, our creepy snacks were pretty freaking creepy. Once I even dressed up like a mad scientist and we played "Creepy Feely Feelings" where the kids have to touch things in covered bowls like peeled grapes which they are told are eyeballs or dried apricots which they are told are severed ears.
During the pandemic I have been stepping up my outdoor decoration game. I’d usually only have time to get things out the day of trick or treat, but starting in 2020 I started putting things out, a few at a time, starting at the beginning of the month. I wonder what I will wear to hand out candy this year.
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| Christopher Lee Black Light Poster Included! |
My brother, whom I tried to emulate in so many ways, was inspired by this issue of Dynamite to throw a Monster Bash! including the suggested party games "Pin the Fangs on the Vampire" and recipes for creepy snacks and desserts like "Poisonous Purple Punch" and "Transylvania Treat".
There was also a face painting element, which traumatized me. No one offered to paint my face with scars or fangs or bolts because I was the annoying little brother. One guest arrived late, an exchange student, and he offered to paint my face, but he didn’t understand that this was a monster-themed party. He made me up like a clown, much to the amusement of my brother’s pre-teen friends. I was humiliated.
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| Right to left: Rich, Jim, George, a tribble and a monster. (October 1978) |
I’m not even sure what it all meant. Halloween debuted that year, the original John Carpenter film, and so followed an avalanche of slasher films which I did not watch. I mean, I saw one or two, and they were horrifying and not in a fun way. I’d rather sit up with my brother to watch Hoolihan and Big Chuck, but even that was just to hang out with him. It wasn’t really my bag, except for the comedy sketches.
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| "Creepy Feely Feelings" (October 2009) |
During the pandemic I have been stepping up my outdoor decoration game. I’d usually only have time to get things out the day of trick or treat, but starting in 2020 I started putting things out, a few at a time, starting at the beginning of the month. I wonder what I will wear to hand out candy this year.
Wow. You have opened a part of my brain now. Must process. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteYour memories must be fresher than mine. Tell me about them some time!
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