Scare Season

Originally Published

Halloween 2024

It's that time of year again when ghosties, ghoulies, long-legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night roam our neighborhoods. You can always tell when they have been around, even in your absence. They leave a trail of what closely resembles corn kernels.

Halloween has always been special for kids. After all, it is the only day of the year when they are encouraged to take candy from strangers.

I remember how it was when I was a youngster. (And yes I was, I have pictures to prove I was once a kid). For weeks leading up to the day, we were immersed in Halloween lore. Scratchy, black and white renditions of both, “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” and "The Wolf Man," were shown on TV late Saturday nights. Even though Dad allowed us to stay up, I don't think we ever lasted to the end of the movies. One by one, my sisters and I would fall asleep in the living room. The next day would be reserved for arguments over who lasted the longest before surrendering to slumber.

A Monster-thon of sorts would be shown at the local movie theater the Saturday before the holiday. I remember it cost 27 cents per kid for seventeen cartoons, three horror movies and a slew of those short serials of Flash Gordon and Commando Cody that were always shown out of order. We would be shipped off to the theater to be baby-sat by the likes of Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Bela Lugosi in the form of the most hideous monsters that the film industry could dream up. During this event, scores of screaming, Ju-Ju-Be armed children would be frightened out of their wits by Hollywood's worst offerings. As an aside: has anyone ever calculated how long a box of Ju-Ju-Be's would last if they were allowed to melt in your mouth? Or hasn't the first box been consumed in that way yet? Kind of like the Owl who has been spending the last few decades trying to see just how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. In between horror movies, Casper The Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Witch, and other cartoons would serve to lessen the tension a bit in the theater, albeit unsuccessfully.

Then, as dusk settled on our city neighborhood, these self-same scores of terrified youngsters were disgorged from the movie house. This was at least one day when the motherly admonition to, “Come straight home,” was unnecessary. Yep, we all went straight home and avoided any alleys on the way.

Now, those same movies that caused more than one too tardy trip to the restrooms have become objects of derision by children even younger than I was at the time. After all, how can a movie about a guy with slicked-back hair chomping on necks compare with what is on the 5 o'clock news?

My grandson, at the age of 6 was watching the original movie, “Dracula.” It came to what I always thought was the scariest scene, the one where the man in the insane asylum is happily munching on bugs, raving and drooling. Instead of being the least bit frightened, he broke out in laughter saying, “Lookit that stupid man eating bugs. My friend, Jimmie, got a time out when we were in Kindergarten for doing the same thing.” He also wanted to know why, if people were so afraid of monsters, didn't they just lock their windows since the bad guy seems to always come in the window.

Of course, these comments were made by one who considers Gummy Worms a delicacy.

On the other hand, we of my generation will tell everyone that one of the reasons that, "Life is Good," is because we didn't have to make do with those so-called fun-sized candy bars.

AT THE END OF THE LINE

WITH

ED KLELEMEN