2023, Gatherings, holidays, News, Uncategorized

Haunted Everything

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Our local newspaper has been running adds for the last couple of weeks for the various “haunted” venues that are being offered to the public. There is one in a small town about 20 miles west of us, and one here in town at the old hospital.

The Haunted Hospital is said to be quite frightening. The owners of the building rent out much of the space to the Food Pantry, some mental health provider offices, and some take-out food places. The bulk of the building, especially the older parts from the 1930’s and 1950’s is empty, and it is there that the haunting occurs. The owners make much of the fact that many people have died in the building. They recently bought out the inventory of a defunct haunted venue from Montana, including a really old hearse.

I have never been to any of the Halloween venues. I hate being surprised or startled. I can hardly watch a movie or read a book with any suspense in it. I believe most of the teenage population of town has visited this, I believe. The real world is scary enough without adding to it for Halloween. I suppose, though that I could tolerate performing as a scary person at a haunted venue. That could be interesting.

What was your favorite Halloween costume? What part would you like to perform at a haunted venue?

46 thoughts on “Haunted Everything”

  1. When my daughter, who has an October birthday, wanted to take her friends, all girls about 11 or 12 to a “haunted” venue, I was their chaperone. It was in a converted warehouse space. As we walked through the dimly lit corridors, various ghoulishly costumed characters would leap out, many of them brandishing some sort of weapon and in a physically threatening manner. I found myself stepping between them and the girls, getting in their face and telling them to back off. It was unpleasant and I hated it.

    When did Halloween come to be represented by zombies and ax murderers? Traditionally it was about unseen forces and mysteries, more paranormal than homicidal. I blame Hollywood and a general dearth of imagination. It’s a tawdry and distasteful development.

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    2. It is the same trend seen in comedians who lace “comedy” routines with profanity and the Fbomb in the name of funny. But not funny. Just profane.

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  2. I dressed as a hobo one year and wore one of those cheap plastic masks that were popular back in the early 60s. Might have been my first time wearing a mask, so I think I remember that for the novelty and excitement of it all. Not even sure I carried a bindle stick or dressed in “hobo clothes.” Just the mask.

    I’ll pass on acting at a haunted venue. Not interested. Halloween in general these days has devolved into a greedy capitalist holiday intent on selling tons of unhealthy candy to a nation that needs to abstain from candy for the next century or two, as well as persuading people to spend money on all sorts of yard decorations, parties, themed gifts, foods, accessories, etc. which most people can ill-afford and feed our overly competitive nature of always equating “bigger and more” with “happier and wealthier.”

    Chris in Owatonna (strangely grumpy this morning. 🙂 )

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  3. My favorite costume was being a nun – a fairly convincing one, and it was esp. fun to stop and put gas in my VW bug on the way to the party…

    I’ll join the Bah, Humbug group – I esp. agree about the zombies and axe murderers. Only thing I can imagine doing at a haunted venue is maybe offering a place outside to comfort little ones who have become overly frightened. So I guess I could dress up as Mary Poppins?

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    1. I have a friend who was driving her car while wearing a nun costume on her way to a Halloween party. She was smoking a cigarette while driving, and she flipped off someone who cut her off in traffic. She said that a guy in the car next to her at a stoplight saw her do this and stared at her with a horrified look on his face

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  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    My favorite was not mine. In the early 80s we were part of a social group who had costume parties at Halloween. One young woman had a pig costume, complete with a dozen nipple running down the front. I don’t know who made it, but it was brilliant.

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  6. Morning-
    I don’t like haunted houses either, and I probably wouldn’t act in one.
    As a kid, there’s a picture of me dressed, maybe, as a thug. Rough looking plastic mask, long coat. I don’t recall. There was the hard plastic masks, then the rubber ones that always smelled bad.

    The college kids talk about the scary movies and when I ask them why, they say it’s because they KNOW that this is what it’s about. And they KNOW it’s make believe. And I’ve seen some pretty imaginative costumes. So it’s not a dearth of imagination, it’s just a different imagination. And I’d rather be scared by stuff I know is fake than all the real stuff I that I can’t actually believe IS happening.

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  7. I’ve never liked scary stuff. I remember being terrified by a movie, American Werewolf in London, that was supposed to be funny.

    My favorite costume was Glenda the Good Witch. I didn’t want to be the Wicked Witch. I would have had to put greasy green face paint all over my face. No thanks. I bought a used wedding dress in a thrift store and enhanced my accessories with lots of glue and glitter. It was a great costume and lots of fun. That was my most memorable Halloween. Otherwise I agree with the Halloween scrooges – bah, humbug!

    OT, but not entirely: I had nightmares all night. One after the other. In one, a friend and I were chased into a large lake by a herd of bison! There were cold-hearted people watching from a glass house on the lakeshore. They did nothing to help. I woke up abruptly with a pounding heart. (The cold-hearted people in the House, not responding to reason.) In another, the same friend and I were responsible for a troop of monkeys. We had to herd them into a waiting van. They were running all over and not responding to our desperate calls. “Come on, Petey!” Cars were honking and I was terrified a monkey would be hit. (?) In the scariest dream, there were thousands of military planes flying over the same lake we had been chased into by the bison. They were flying in a long column, thousands of them, from north to south. Far to the south of the lake, I could hear explosions and there was a huge fire, one that was unbelievably large. Again there was the house on the lakeshore with the unresponsive, cold-seeming people inside. I should probably not watch the news anymore… thanks for indulging me. It was a scary night.

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  8. TGitH used to work on the ore boat in Duluth that did a Halloween event.
    Never been a Halloween participant, but I get why people like it except for stupid ghost and scary stuff. My son likes dress up but not in the mood this year with no job.
    The Mexico and Italy family visits and meals in the cemetery on November 1 are interesting. I admire that attitude. Most certainly not a mainstream American mindset.
    Clyde

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    1. you might suggest your son look into the minneapolis it market
      programmers and people with different language skills are in huge demand
      tell him to check meetup.com to get started
      he can call if he’d like ideas on how to get started or people to begin with

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  9. It was 1971, I was still 19, and stationed at Ft McClellan in Alabama. I had returned from Vietnam late the previous year.
    I liked to read, so spent a Saturday afternoon and until closing time in the old Post library reading ghost stories. It was dark when the library closed, and I walked down a hill on a path between trees. I’ve never been so scared in my life, and I did it to myself.

    A couple years later, back in Los Angeles, I went with a church group to a haunted house (put on by the youth group of a big Baptist church that owned an old house nearby). That didn’t scare me at all, apart from being afraid of tripping over something.

    I haven’t seen one of those haunted house things now for many years, but wouldn’t waste my time on it.

    Best Halloween Costume? Martin Luther with his diet of worms.

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  11. Repeatedly as a child I dressed as a “gypsy”, which I assume is now politically incorrect. It’s funny that since I shun make up and too much jewelry and fancy clothes most of the time that’s what I chose on Halloween. As an adult, the favorite costume I’ve done is Steve Irwin. This is back before he was killed, of course. I made a big crocodile out of green foam from the craft store. And wore it around my neck with my khaki outfit and my hiking boots. I wore that one a couple of Halloween, but eventually the foam crocodile disintegrated.

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  12. And I’m also not a fan of the haunted house or haunted hayride, or anything like that. I did go with clients to the haunted house tour in Jamaica (Rose Hill House) but it wasn’t very scary. It was way too easy to scan the room or the hallway to see what was unusual, and where could things pop out. One of my clients, however just about wet himself!

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  13. I recall one Halloween, I’m sure I was 18 or 19, out with some friends at a bar or something. And some girl, dressed up so I don’t know who it was, kissed me. So that was kinda cool. I remember standing by the bar, probably trying to get the bartenders attention, and she got off the stool, and kissed me.

    Ah, youth. 🙂

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  14. I will say that when Joel was 6 or 7, one set of parents from our group (we had done a preschool playgroup together) created their own Haunted Basement party, and it was very creative and cleaver. Can’t recall details now, but it was fun and only mildly scary.

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  15. I liked Halloween as a kid – though it was usually so chilly, my costume was covered up by a coat or jacket. I was never one for Halloween parties, probably because I am not particularly creative when it comes to costumes. I did go to two hosted by a co-worker. There were some very clever costumes. One guy dressed as Dracula and lay in a cardboard coffin just outside the door of the house. There was a very realistic Frankenstein. And one couple went all out. He was William “Refrigerator” Perry of the Chicago Bears – wearing a refrigerator box decorated as his uniform, and all the necessary gear. He had to wait until he got to the party to put the box on – unable to wear it in his car. His wife came as a hockey player, complete with a half a puck sticking out of her cheek. I was much less fanciful – I wore Dad’s WWII wool Navy uniform the first time and was a piece of sheet music the second time.
    These days I am not a fan of Halloween at all. Because my building is locked, we don’t get Trick or Treaters (thankfully). Who needs to go to a scary haunted house when the real world is scary enough!

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  16. Since the subject is Halloween, I just have to offer this photo I found at an antique shop. It’s vaguely creepy. There is so much you could spin from it.

    Halloween costume

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  17. A few years ago, when she was nine or ten, my oldest granddaughter decided she wanted to dress as a sea cucumber. Her mother made her a brown tubular costume with eye holes but otherwise featureless. You can imagine how that looked.

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  20. Just read an article about a family putting one potato in the snack bowl for Trick or Treating. Many kids chose the potato and his house became legend. 🙂

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