Readers & Writers discussion

Next month is October my favorite time of the year. Fall weather for some of us, Halloween and spooky things. Post any spooky stories you have wether you wrote them or just heard about them. Maybe a real experience of hauntings or anything eerie. Post anything under the topic Halloween and don't forget to read the short story Trick or Treat at our topic Short Stories.

Wife and I will be attending our friends yearly Halloween party. They require that all guests be in costume. Oh well it's just one night a year and they furnish the food and cocktails!

I swear to God that I grew up in a house where a ghost lived in the basement. If I stayed up to watch Saturday Night Live (when it was good, remember those days Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd etc..), around midnight, a blast of cold would go by, and one night I followed it all the way to the back of the house. Every night at the same time, it would happen; I wasn't the only one who felt its presence. Additionally, items in the basement would turn on and off for no apparent reason. I'm sure the ghost is still in that house.

Good story Kim and no doubt you had a ghost.

My sister is a halloween nut. You wouldn't believe how she & Missy go all out for their party! About 4 yrs. ago we revamped the witch we made a long time ago. She stirs a stick in her barrel cauldren. 2 or 3 yrs. ago, she wanted a dragon head but they were like $450. So, we got some foam, glue, paint & a timed fog machine & made a good sized dragon that blows smoke. She's crazy! I was having enough time sanding dragon teeth to just the right size. Mom made wings for it!

I can't believe that people are already decorating their house for Halloween when September isn't even done.

Probably so they can start decorating for Christmas November 1st. It's crazy!

I don’t know about yall, but I enjoy eating turkey and wrapping Christmas gifts while passing out Halloween candy. The economic push to flood the stores with mixed holidays drives me nuts. Can we enjoy one holiday at a time? Walmart has Christmas stuff out. I haven’t even had Thanksgiving dressing yet.

We definitely had a ghost in our house growing up. One night laying in bed I clearly heard “Ruthie” in the top corner of my room. I was petrified.

Anyone reading anything scary this month?

Kim wrote: "I swear to God that I grew up in a house where a ghost lived in the basement. If I stayed up to watch Saturday Night Live (when it was good, remember those days Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd etc..), arou..."

Oh wow! That is so cool Kim!!

Back in 2009, my best friend's, from high school, father passed away. He was like my own dad. I called him dad and stuff. In 2010, my husband and I went to the house to help my friend, her husband and mom clean out the shed. Dad kept everything. And he didn't like getting rid of stuff. I was out front with his car, because we couldn't turn it off because the battery was low, and the rest were cleaning out the shed. I was standing there wondering why I was hearing music. I moved closer to the car and realized it was coming from the car. When they were done, I said to my husband, who had moved the car, why would you leave the radio running. He said I didn't. I said well it's on now and I didn't turn it on. So we all went by the car and they heard the radio was on and turned to Dad's station. I looked up and said "Dad I didn't clean or touch anything. It was all them". LOL He was definitely lingering that day.

When Dad passed (in my home) someone kept turning the hot water heater off. He was always on me for having the hot water set too hot. He said it would be cheaper to turn the hot down a little. To turn the hot water off, you had to pull a lever up. Uppppp. Not down. I thought if you pulled it down, it could have just been gravity, but no, you had to pull it up. I always thought it was him pestering me about the hot water. It happened twice.

Freaky!! I do think it's a little too soon for the stores to have Christmas stuff out & we haven't even had Halloween yet. My sister about freaks when the radios put the Christmas carols about a month early. I just can't believe it's October already!

Ruth wrote: "When Dad passed (in my home) someone kept turning the hot water heater off. He was always on me for having the hot water set too hot. He said it would be cheaper to turn the hot down a little. To t..."

Oh wow Ruth! Yes he is messing with you. LOL

Amanda wrote: "Freaky!! I do think it's a little too soon for the stores to have Christmas stuff out & we haven't even had Halloween yet. My sister about freaks when the radios put the Christmas carols about a mo..."

I don't think that the stores should put out Christmas stuff until at least Nov 1st. Let us finish with Halloween first.

I agree. Let us have our holidays one at a time.

What do you do on Halloween? Pass out candy to the Trick or Treaters, or leave your porch light off and ignore the doorbell? Of course eating the candy you bought after you determined the spooks were not worthy of your treats.

Not much. We don't have any little kids around here anymore. Sometimes I'll try to find a costume & go to my sister's party for a while, but since they changed teams, I don't really know anybody that gets invited.

Halloween was my favorite holiday when I was growing up. It was dress-up day at elementary school and everyone paraded around the block in their costumes. How cool is that?

Back then, we trick or treated the day before, the day of, and the day after Halloween. The day before was a little lack luster and most residents grumbled "Come back on Halloween" and then slammed the door in our faces. The day after was pretty good because most people wanted to get rid of their leftover crap so their own kid's teeth wouldn't rot out.

Anyway, on Halloween night, there was always the special houses that gave out cool cupcakes or over-sized candy bars. After we visited these houses, we had to run home and change costumes and make a second trip or maybe even a third, undetected, to collect more goodies. The most disgusting treats that I remember were the unwrapped popcorn balls. When you pulled them out of your sack later, other treats and pennies were stuck to them like super glue.

The most terrifying thing on Halloween was the urban legend of the "one light gang". Rumor had it that the "one light gang" was a car full of teenagers that would drive up beside you and steal your bag of treats. When you spotted a car with only one headlight, you immediately jumped into a ditch to hide from them only to find the ditch was full of water that came up to your knees, and then you realized the car was simply a motorist with a headlight out. Things just got worse from there. When you got home you realized the bottom of the sack had gotten wet, the paper bag had finally given way, and you had lost most of your treats.

Ahhhhhh, Halloween. I loved those days!

My grandsons love getting home with their bucket full of treats and laying them all out, then counting them before they pick out the 3 treats they want to eat. The rest go on top of the refrigerator to be parceled out the rest of the year.

I always loved dressing up I still do. If I could think of some character to be my mom would make it.

I love seeing the kids come for Halloween. We always give out candy, but the last few years, we haven't had many. They'll go to my neighbors but skip us, even though the light is on. This year we had over 35 kids. The most in a few years. When we first moved here in 1996, and up to about 5 yrs ago, we had tons of kids. One year we even ran out of candy and my husband had to run to the store and get more.