This upcoming weekend is one of my favorite holidays, HALLOWEEN, sparking a FLASHBACK MOMENT, of a special HALLOWEEN PAST... Mom, can I have a Halloween party here in the basement? I have never had a party here at this house since we moved here. It would be really fun! Please? How many kids, Linda? Twenty ... girls AND boys!(A risky request back then, in my house!) Boys?? Well-ll-ll-ll ..... Ok! (Whew! Got by that one!!) THANK YOU, Mom! We can plan it together! It will be fun! ..... So, we put our heads together and had fun brainstorming. After planning what wed do for games, and buying decorations, the party planning was in motion. It was fun and festive when Mom and I put our artistic ideas and skills to work. So now... Let the party begin.... A bunch of my friends arrived, and at the bottom of the steps, they walked through a wall of black and alternating orange 2 wide, floor-to-ceiling streamers. (I love streamers !!!) The same colored twisted streamers covered the joists on the basement ceiling. Black paper covered the basement windows. The mood was set. The Monster Mash was playing in the background! We had orange sherbet punch (Mom always had to have punch at any of her parties!) and she decorated cookies, made homemade caramel apples, snacks and sandwiches on the Halloween-themed side table, all presented on a black table cloth, with candy corn strewn about for color. Enter, the game area. STATION 1: APPLE BOBBING Moms galvanized steel wash tub was perfect for apple bobbing. Beautiful, crisp, chilled, newly polished, shiny, perfectly round, red Macintosh apples, stems removed, floated atop the ice cold water, (yes, we added ice for a shocking effect), awaiting that first face, plunging in, hoping to get a nice mouthful of apple, to show off to the onlookers! Who was going first? Phil? Scott? Tom? Jim? I was never good at this game. I think my mouth was too small (yes, hard to believe that one, heh?) I practically drowned, trying to get my teeth into one of those apples! I did not like repeatedly bobbing my head into the water, coming up with nothing, looking like a drowned rat in front of all my friends, especially the guys! But, it was good entertainment, for sure! Apple Bobbing is the best spectator sport, though! It is hilarious to watch! And it can become quite competitive, and the techniques to get the apple, evolve as the game progresses! But, there was another game set up with those pesky apples.... STATION 2: APPLE SWINGING Here, apples hung on strings, close enough to cause interference as the player zeroed in on the one of his choice, trying to take a bite out of the apple hanging on the string! The apples were strategically hung, on different length string, close enough that as the player moved to his apple, he bumped the others like a domino effect and then they were in his face, hitting his cheeks, ears, forehead, swinging around the back of your head. The trick here was the string length so as soon as the players nose hit the apple, it started swinging and rolling around the side of his face away from his mouth. On its way, it would put other apples in motion until there was a free for all of swinging apples! Since the contestant was on his knees, hands behind his back, losing balance trying to steady the ball, it made for some interesting body movements to retain balance! Pretty funny! Another crowd pleaser. STATION 3: TAFFY TOSS This game was to see how many of those yummy taffy candies with peanut butter centers, a person could throw into a carved-out pumpkin a good distance away. This was a competition between two people. One had the orange wrapped peanut butter filled taffy, and one had the black wrapped candies. And, the pumpkin hole was not very big, of course! Then, a little prize was given for the winner. STATION 4: BODY PART DISCOVERY No competition here, just a place to feel all those gory body parts that were left by the ghouls and goblins... There were 5 carved pumpkins . Each contained a body part left by the ghouls and goblins. Each person would put their hand through the carved out hole in the pumpkin, to feel... 1st) the eyeballs (peeled grapes), 2nd) the veins ripped from within (cooked spaghetti), 3rd) liver (actual liver EEEK), 4th) blood (room temperature tomato juice) in a bowl, This had a good effect when pulling your red fingers out of the pumpkin, 5th) skeletal bones (cleaned chicken bones). This station was behind a black curtain so everyone could not see until they came to reach into the pumpkins themselves. STATION 5: GHOST STORYTELLING The last event was the telling of ghost stories. The room was darkened, there was one flashlight. The person whose turn it was, held the flashlight under his chin, upward,for that scarey flashlight monster look! The first person started the story, which evolved in yarn fashion, where the story was made up as went along. The storyteller told his scarey part, then, left a sentence unfinished, stopped, and handed the flashlight to the next person, who finished the sentence in scary mode and added more to the story. Each person added to the yarn, until it went around the circle, and then it was over. Very interesting stories evolved that way. (Maybe this is how I got my English Major start!) All in all, it was a memorable night of innocent fun, my first (sanctioned) party at our house on Poplar Street, a place I love, where Halloween Memories were made with my friends, on a favorite holiday, this FLASHBACK MOMENT of a special HALLOWEEN PAST, in Our Hometown, Merrill!
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 15:05:46 +0000
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