Trick or Treat! Smell My Feet!

Trick or Treat!
Smell my feet!
Give me something good to eat!

It's one of the oldest and most sacred Halloween traditions.  As a kid, you put on your best costume, grab the biggest pillow case you can find, and head door to door asking for candy.  When I was kid, Halloween was my favorite time of year because of this grand tradition.  I loved dressing up and getting a huge bag of candy.  I always thought this was a bizarre tradition, though, even when I was little.  This is basically the only time of year where our parents allow, and even encourage, us to take candy from strangers.  Where did this all start?  Like many things, apparently we have Europe to thank for this.

"If this lady gives us pennies again this year, I'm egging her front yard."

Flicking Through Netflix: Mad Monster Party

Rankin and Bass have become a staple of the holidays nowadays.  Every year in November, they start playing them over and over again on TV.  We've seen them so often that some of us have committed their movies to memory.  Rudolph, Santa Claus, Little Drummer Boy, all essential parts of holiday cheer.  Well, you can forget about all that.  It's the Halloween season and I'm not in the mood for a cutesy Christmas story.  I want something I can sink my teeth into.  Something with werewolves, vampires, monsters, and mummies.  Luckily, Rankin and Bass did have one special dedicated to all things Halloween:  Mad Monster Party.

Cynics Will Kill Us All!

OK, so the title of this post might be a bit melodramatic. But I have a point I'm building towards, I swear, so just go with it.

When we're young, very young, we don't really care what the crowd is into. We like the music we like, we watch the movies we watch, and we don't make excuses for it. Our thing is our thing, man. This went double for the monster kids before horror became mainstream. You couldn't explain to your parents or disinterested friends why you enjoy vampires and ghosts and zombies so much, but you didn't feel a need to either. You bought the new Misfits CD without a qualm. You went to the slasher flick that got poor reviews and appreciated the creative kills despite the shoddy direction. You spent $100 on a Dracula model kit and you were HAPPY!

Worth it.