Sunday Stealing: Halloween

From Sunday Stealing

Halloween Meme

From the archives

1. What is the worst treat to get when trick-or-treating?

A. I have never been a fan of candy corn.

2. What character from any horror film would you most like to play?

A. Can I be Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

3. Would you rather be a zombie, alien, or psycho? (why)

A. Alien. You could be very creative with an alien, because we don't know what an alien would look like! I think "psycho" is a poor projection of mental illness, which deserves our concern and empathy and not our mockery and fear.

4. How many Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Nightmare on Elm Street movies combined do you have on dvd?

A. None.

5. What is the scariest movie you have ever seen?

A. The original version of The Amityville Horror (1979). That may have had something to do with my age, since it came out the year I turned 16, but I remember finding it terrifying. The Shining with Jack Nicholson (1980) would be a close second.

6. Lamest costume you have worn on Halloween?

A. That would probably be the most recent years when I did not dress up but simply put my camera around my neck and carried my press pass, and said I was a news reporter. Seeing as how I looked like that every day, it was pretty lame.

7. Favorite Halloween treat?

A. Rice Krispie treats. Seems to be the only time I get them.

8. Friendly-faced jack o’lantern or scary one?

A. Oh, scary. Although lately I have been enraptured by some of the terrific carvings in pumpkins that depict things like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings or anything else you can think of.

9. Have you ever had nightmares about a scary movie character chasing you?

A. Yes.

10. Best thing about Halloween?

A. It is a pagan tradition known as Samhain, and has been an important date since ancient times as it celebrates the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the season of darkness (winter). It is a time when boundaries between worlds thin, so the living can see the dead (or fairies or other creatures). I like the mystique surrounding the holiday, the fact that it is old and has pagan roots, and that no matter how hard people try, it doesn't go away.

11. Strangest Halloween custom you’ve heard of?

A. I know people who celebrate it as the Day of the Dead, which is of Mexican origin. But I don't consider it strange.

12. Person in your family who most likes Halloween (not counting yourself)?

A. Just me. I don't know of anyone else who likes it. It is my favorite holiday.

13. Are you superstitious? If so, name at least one superstition of yours.

A. I am not superstitious. If I were, I wouldn't be answering this question, as it is number 13! I also play Thursday 13, another blog meme, every week. 

14. What's your best Halloween memory?

A. When I was quite young, six or less, my mother took me trick-or-treating. She stayed back on the road while I went up to the house. At one house, a witch opened the door, and inside there was a big cauldron bubbling. "Would you like to come into my house, little girl?" the woman cackled. I took a big breath, held out my bag, and said, "No thank you. My mother doesn't allow me to go into the homes of people I don't know."

15. At what age were you allowed to go trick-or-treating by yourself?

A. Never, really. I just outgrew it. We lived in a rural area and if we wanted to go trick-or-treating my mother or father had to take us to my grandmother's house or some friend's place. So while they may have stayed behind while we walked the roads around the age of 10, we really were not "by ourselves" in that an adult had to hang around. This was long before the churches grew weird about Halloween and began trying to take over the holiday with their "trunk or treat" events.

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