Halloween Haunts: Halloween Doldrums by David B. Riley

My first few Halloweens when I was young were simply awesome–just a pinch of scariness coupled with an adventure with my friends. The trick or treating was almost secondary to the costumes and comradery of what excitement awaited us–almost. I was particularly fond of my skeleton costume for reasons I can no longer remember.

As I grew older, I also became aware of a darker side of the holiday–vandalism. The first time I encountered it someone went along the street and took people’s Jack-O-lanterns and smashed them to bits. That made little sense to my young mind. I’d carved that thing myself.

Then there were the high school kids on the neighbor’s roof. They dumped gasoline down the chimney, which ignited since the residents were using their fireplace at the time. The fire department got there in time to keep the whole house from burning down. I have no idea how much damage actually occurred. And then there was the bum [we call them homeless guys now] who was sleeping in an outhouse at a construction site. Yep, those high school kids pushed it over. That one made the newspaper as the bum spent the entire weekend trapped in the portable toilet as it lay on its side–door side down [they don’t really call them outhouses anymore, either]. Of course the poop spilled out of the tank and got all over the vagrant [sorry, homeless guy].

Those high school kids played rough. We stayed well clear of them–in some cases blending into a neighbor’s hedge rather than risking whatever fate might await us should we be detected by these hooligans. Third graders were no match for these guys. Heck, one of my friends sister and her little group got pelted with 24 eggs the same night the bum [er, homeless guy] got pushed over. But our group stayed clean and dry as we were better able to detect such threats than Ricky’s sister and her friends. We got our candy, dared each other to go up to one particularly scary house alone, and that was about it.

Then the next few years were spent at lame parties where we got candy apples and played stupid games with people like Ricky’s sister. And the quality of Halloween deteriorated considerably.

About that time we moved to California and I never saw those friends again. My new friends, well they didn’t seem to do much for Halloween. Parents were terrified of anecdotal reports of razor blades and such in candy and were actively discouraging kids from going anywhere. Although far more kids are run over crossing streets on Halloween than were ever poisoned, that didn’t seem to dissuade anyone from over reacting.

Heck my brother and I even made a haunted house. Hardly anyone came. They were all cowering at home worrying about razor blades. And that was basically it. There were a few parties in my final years of high school, but I never seemed to get invited to them. This cool holiday had turned to getting stuck handing out candy to what few trick or treaters remained.
As I moved into adulthood I noticed it seemed more folks were having parties. I also noticed it seemed like more people were wearing costumes where they worked. And, it seemed like people were making more homemade haunted houses and decorating their homes. Was Halloween back or had adults simply stolen the holiday from the kids? Yes. I think both were happening. Clearly, more adults were celebrating. But it seemed like kids were running around again, trick or treating instead of cowering at home worrying about razor blades. At least that was my unscientific analysis. I read somewhere that in 2014 spending on Halloween had overtaken Valentine’s Day. Yay! And, as my literary endeavors were taking root it seemed like there were more opportunities to do readings around Halloween. Those are always fun. That’s kind of my take over the years.

TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: David is giving away one print copy each of Six Guns Straight From Hell 2 and Heat of the Midday Sun. These are both weird western anthologies he has edited. David also publishes an annual fiction magazine, Story Emporium: Purveyors of Steampunk & Weird Western Adventure, and is offering one print copy. Enter for the prize by posting in the comments section. Winners will be chosen at random and notified by e-mail. You may enter once for each giveaway, and all entrants may be considered for other giveaways if they don’t win on the day they post. You may also enter by e-mailing membership@horror.org and putting HH CONTEST ENTRY in the header.

DAVID B. RILEY lives in the Vail area in the mountains of Colorado. He is the author of three novels and over 100 short stories. He has edited six horror anthologies and writes in the horror, science fiction and steampunk genres. His blog is http://sftrails.blogspot.com