Posts Of Halloween Past

I've been busy this Halloween; here's a round-up of the Halloween posts I made this year:

1. Vintage Halloween party recipes, from this issue of The Royal Neighbor.

2. Halloween's a blast! Back when you could shoot children who annoyed you, anyway.

3. My review of the retro skeleton game based on Dark Shadows' vampire, Barnabas Collins.

4. My review of a gravedigger's memoirs.

5. Did you see the antique vampire killing kits up for auction?

Halloween Nineteen-Ought-Seven: Tricks Bigger Than Treats

Straight out of the pages of The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, November 2nd, 1907, the story of "Two Brothers Filled With Peas." (Click to enlarge the old news article, or scroll below it to read copied text.)

Farmer Beaton's Sons Treated To A Warm Reception By Irate Farmer On Hallowe'en Night -- A Double Barreled Shot Gun Did The Businss

Two Small boys, the sons of a farmer named Beaton, who lives just outside the west part of Fargo, were shot at by an irate farmer on Hallowe'en and as a result they came to Fargo yesterday and had about a handful of peas picked out of them by a physician.

The Boys had greatly annoyed a neighboring farmer last Hallowe'en, and this year he waited for them with a double-barreled shotgun loaded with peas. The boys approached his place and he let fly with both barrels, and his marksmanship was excellent.

In future Hallowe'ens these particular boys will probably remain a long ways from that particular farmer.

Ahhh, Halloween in 1907, when kids could be shot just for being annoying, good times...

Note that people don't shoot people, "double barreled shot guns do the business."

10 Little (Vintage Halloween) Indians

1 An antique photo of a boy dressed as an Indian, with a rifle, on a bike.



2 Corey was once a sweet little Indian maiden for Halloween.




3 An adorable photo of boy dressed as an Indian, posed by a Tipi.


4, 5 & 6 Three bare chested Indian braves at the Kansas School for the Deaf party in 1958.



7 Five boys dressed up in 1905 -- we're counting just the one little Indian (and we're calling it a Halloween costume too).


8 Dana Collins wearing Halloween costume inspired by Native American clothing, Johnson County Museum photo.



9 Inspired? Make your own for next Halloween with this vintage Indian costume pattern.



10 Or, you could cheat and buy a ready-made costume. How about the retro Ben Cooper Tom Tom costume?

Halloween Parties Of Yesteryear

As I wrote, the JoCoHistory site is an amazing historical database; I knew I'd find some great Halloween images there.

From the Kansas State School for the Deaf, the Class of '53 in costume. I have no idea what the sack costumes are... "Sack race contestants" is a costume?


Don't you just hate it when other kids have the same costume? (Kansas State School for the Deaf, Halloween, 1959)


Well, at least you weren't the kid in the black face jack-o-lantern costume.


At the school's 1956 party, someone took their costume very seriously and spent much of the party scrubbing floors. Yes, I do believe that is a dude.



In 1958, one kid went dressed as Big Ben -- but looks more like a 1950's cartoon alarm clock.


The Johnson County Museum shows us Zorro; a Space Ranger; a girl with an oval white mask over her eyes, white cardigan sweater buttoned partway down over satin dress (lame!); and Droopy Dog.


Before we leave these Halloween parties of yesteryear, let's not forget to thank the Halloween Party Committee, the bakers and hostesses, the decorators and chaperons, for all their hard work!

Reflecting On The Halloween Safety Concerns Of 1960

Via hubby's Infomercantile blog, comes this lovely reminder to be safe on Halloween.

Halloween Costume Idea #24

Kids today may not recognize the clunky old bakelite phone style, but grandmas & grandpas will -- and they have some of the best candy.



Via Flickr.

A Meta-List Of Halloween Songs and Music

In preparation for Halloween, fire up your favorite MP3 downloading program (legal, of course!) and check out...

A Meta-List Of Halloween Music!!!

• 14 Vampire Songs, via The Onion AV Club
• Top 10 Halloween Songs, from Electric Roulette
• Ten Halloween Songs That Aren't As Lame As "The Monster Mash", from BlogCritics (with lots in the comments)
• Guilty Pleasure: Halloween Edition, from 'Retarded Fantasy' blog
• Ten Metal Songs For Halloween, from The Metal Minute
• 10 Scariest Songs Ever, from 8Hands
• 20 Best Halloween Songs, from TheTikiOasis
• Songs for Halloween, from Frankenstein's Fun House
• The Scariest Songs Ever, as submitted by readers, via Entertainment Weekly
• The Best Halloween Songs, from Praise for Folly
• The S-s-scariest Songs Ever, via NME.com
• Top Ten Halloween Rap Songs, from The Rap Up
• A radio set from someone called synap, at "The Ongoing Takeover Plot"
• A Halloween Top 50 from Desdinova, Super-Villain of the Ozarks
• 5 Halloween Jazz songs, via NPR
• Top 13 Halloween songs (the only 13 list I saw, sadly), from Caffeinated Wombat Records
• Songs For One Night Of The Year, a mix-tape for Halloween (it seems to be more environmental and creepy than singing about vampires), from blush-response
• Another Halloween mixtape from Roy's Town
• A list of Halloween music, from The Stranger's "LineOut" Music Blogs
• 20 Songs To Get You Through Halloween, a slideshow from Gigwise

And, just in case your iPod is already full, you can play a whole bunch of vintage and kitschy halloween records right from your webrowser, thanks to Creative Techs.

Spiders Made From Stolen Scissors

Ever wonder what happens to all those pointy objects that are impounded at the airports? Some turn into....

HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARES!!!!!

If spiders made out of scissors doesn't make your skin quiver with horror, you're not doing it right...or something like that. Remember, those scissors were taken away from airline travelers, which means these scissors are terrorists. Turning them into spiders is only empowering their horrible, violent spirits. Run, run while you still can. (via)

Don't You Just Hate It When Everyone Shows Up In The Same Costume?

OK, OK. So it's a vintage circus clown caravan photo. But it could be a soccer mom with a Dodge Caravan of costumed kids.

Hallocards at Zazzle

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

All of these products are produced using vintage Halloween illustrations. They are from our own cherished collection and we have lovingly restored them to be used on these products. We chose these images in particular because we feel they represent some of most stunning and beautiful Halloween art from the period. These beautiful Halloween images are from the early 20th century, mostly between 1905 and 1916. We have been collecting Halloween ephemera for years and love sharing this very unique era of history.
My husband's area of expertise is mostly antique Halloween postcards, while I enjoy collecting for all the holidays.

You can see his Antique Halloween website here.