Maybe I'm from another planet or just another time, but

Halloween was a lot different when I was a boy. You could blame

Vincent Price or Christopher Lee, but you'd be wrong. Boris

Karloff had a lot to do with it...and so did Famous Monsters.

Famous Monsters of Filmland was my favorite magazine as a small

child. I used to beg my older brother to let me stay up and watch "Rodan" and "The

Crawling Eyes." I conned my parents into letting me go see "The

Mask," the original 1961 3-D Canadian release at the local

movie theatre.

This was long before ratings. I cowered behind the seat with

my school buddies, laughing and freaking out in the packed cinema.

When you heard a voice say "Put the mask on now!" you

whipped on your 3-D glasses and suddenly you were in Hell. Traveling

down the river Styx with a rag-covered boatman. Creepy!

It scared the heck out of me, but I loved every frightening

second of it. I have the version hosted by Elvira. I highly recommend

it. Then again, I love a good scare.

That's how we grew up, scaring the pants off each other.

You'd go to hang up your cost in the front closet and someone

would be in there waiting to jump on you or you would run upstairs

after dinner into the darkness and be confronted with a creepy "Hello."

I suppose it was the priceless look of stupid horror on the

person's face that made breathing old coat smell for 20

minutes worth the wait.

It is not difficult then, to see how all this ghoulish fascination

spilled over at Halloween.

Around 10 years old is the prime Trick or Treating age. You

are too old to be treated like a baby and still young enough

to go door to door begging for candy. Yes, there is a point at

which it just becomes sad. For a brief, shining moment the world

seemed easy as taking candy from a baby, or your crummy little

brother...whoever was closest.

And best of all back then, there were neighborhoods and streets

where every door was another fun and scary surprise. We brought

bags home like little pirates, showing off our treasures and

adding them to the big bowl in the dining room.

Then there were rumors and stories about apples with razor blades

embedded in them and popcorn balls covered in hydrochloric acid.

Suddenly the older kids are soaping windows and egging cars.

The trees are tee-peed and pumpkins are exploding from squirt

guns filled with lighter fluid. The night goes up in flames... and

then it's all over. Time to clean up the mess.

Halloween is a lot of things to a lot of people. Some avoid

it like the plague. Others have Halloween every day..they call

them Goths. I do it for the candy. The whole horror and gore,

Uncle Creepy , Cousin Eerie stuff is just a sideline.

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself," some guy

once said. He was wrong. Children can be a lot scarier than you

think. Teenagers are even worse.

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