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Robert, Head Geezer
(last edited Sep 23, 2025 12:32PM)
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Sep 22, 2025 04:29PM
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Trick or Treat
By Robert M. Roberts
As long as I live, I will never forget Halloween of 1985. My oldest daughter,
Lisa, was ten years old at the time, and her sister, Kelly, had just turned six. It was their first year to go trick or treating on their own in our neighborhood. It was a safer time back then, but Mom and Dad did have rules that they had to follow. The kids had to stay within a three block perimeter of houses, only stop at houses with the porch light on, and had a time limit from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. The exact time was monitored at home by their mother, Doris. Lisa would also monitor the time by the cabbage patch wristwatch that she proudly wore on her arm.
The two tiny goblins were ecstatic as they dressed up in their costumes. Lisa wore a sparkling princess dress, and Kelly dressed as a bright, orange pumpkin. When I chaperoned them on previous Halloween nights, our last stop was always at the Rosemary Krantz house that was a couple of blocks over on a dead end street. Rosemary was an elderly widow that lived in an older two-story Victorian house that was sadly in disrepair. Her husband, Eldon, had passed away years before, so she lived alone and had no known relatives. She particularly loved to see my girls on Halloween and always put an extra large Hershey bar in each one of their sacks. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect she was not as generous to the other kids in the neighborhood. I had noticed her dropping candy corn in the sacks of other children that were in front of us before.
Soon it was time for the two to start out on their Halloween adventure. Doris repeated the ground rules. As they went out the front door, she reminded them to be polite and say thank you at each house.
Doris answered the door and handed out the treats at our house, while I sat in my recliner and watched the horror movie, ‘Halloween.’ I glanced at my watch every now and then, hoping the girls would return on time. Later on, the two came through the door with their bulging goodie bags. I felt relieved they were home, and it was also fifteen minutes early. Doris inspected their bags of treats as I listened to them ramble on about what fun they had trick or treating.
Doris held up two extra large Hershey candy bars. “Where did you get these?” Doris asked.
“Mrs. Krantz,” Kelly uttered.
“You saw Mrs. Krantz?” Doris asked.
“Yeah. She called us by name and told us happy Halloween, and we thanked her just like you told us to do,” Lisa replied.
My wife and I were speechless as we stared at each other. Rosemary Krantz had passed away over the summer and her house was completely empty. We hadn’t mentioned it to the girls, and her death had completely slipped our minds, until now.
I immediately drove over to the Krantz house. The weeds had grown up in the yard, and the windows and doors were boarded up. I shined the beam of my flashlight through the cracks in the boarded windows. The house was completely empty. I returned home and didn’t ask the girls any more questions. We never spoke of it again and I really don’t think they remembered any of it.
Ooooh that's fun and spooky, Robert.
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Nice little story. Completely drew me in.
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