11-06-2006, 10:53 PM
The monsters under my bed didn't scare me nearly as much as the ones in my head.
To this day, they still don't.
At least now that I'm older, I know I can handle them. When I was a child, I didn't have the capacity to ward them off. Not the confidence, not the strength, not the ability. As I got older, I got all three. So now, when I know there's a monster under the bed, I give it two choices: leave me be and I'll leave you be, or I'll kill you, 'cause I sure as hell ain't dying.
It's worked so far. Except for the one... but that's another story.
As for scaring kids at Halloween, I purposefully didn't wear a costume this year (and, mine needed to be washed and it was incomplete). I spent the last two years scaring the piss out of a few tiny little kids, without doing anything threatening. My costume was the "Angel of Death". It was very simple: a black cloak / robe type attire, very lightweight thin material, a red sash to tie around my waste to hold the cloak to my body, and a black hood with red trim, and a black screen in front to cover the face. That was it. I made no scary gestures, noises, or anything. I just handed out candy and acted my usual polite, kind self. Most kids were merely a little leery of me, or didn't seem to care much. A few, however, and I noted both girls and boys, were pretty darn scared, cowering behind their parents' legs. I got into the habit of taking the mask off when I saw warning signs, but it usually didn't help things much. So, this year, in addition to utter laziness, I decided it would be best to simply avoid anything that could be perceived as scary.
Aside from the first people I saw (that mother must have been a nut-case, although she certainly thought _I_ was the crazy one; damn woman looked at me like some kind of predator...), it worked out beautifully. No scared kids, although a few awe-struck babies in carriages not used to seeing someone tower over them quite so much.:)I have retained my nick-name as "The Candyman", and I'm very happy to say it's entirely a positive connotation.
I'm hoping next year to have enough saved up to do something a bit more... theatrical. Comical Jack-O-Lantern lightpoles, for example ($50 apiece at BJ's when I got the candy). Something to dress the place up. I'd love to do a real haunted house, outdoors, but I'd rather start small and work my way up. Besides, I have enough trouble getting people to come to my place, despite it being right at the end of the road. Hence why I have to stand at the end of my short walkway and call to people to hand out the candy. Otherwise, I'd never give any out.:P(It doesn't help that a row of hedges on my neighbor's yard blocks the entire view of my front porch from 90% of angles where the people tend to come from, so simply "turning the lights on" doesn't work.)
Hope everyone had a good Halloween this year. My Halloween is made when my little sister comes to visit me from across town. This year was no different, and it warmed my heart to no end to see her, and get almost bowled over when she ran up to hug me (I didn't know such a scrawny 14-year-old could almost knock over someone as tall as me, even if I'm not very heavy:P).
To this day, they still don't.
At least now that I'm older, I know I can handle them. When I was a child, I didn't have the capacity to ward them off. Not the confidence, not the strength, not the ability. As I got older, I got all three. So now, when I know there's a monster under the bed, I give it two choices: leave me be and I'll leave you be, or I'll kill you, 'cause I sure as hell ain't dying.
It's worked so far. Except for the one... but that's another story.
As for scaring kids at Halloween, I purposefully didn't wear a costume this year (and, mine needed to be washed and it was incomplete). I spent the last two years scaring the piss out of a few tiny little kids, without doing anything threatening. My costume was the "Angel of Death". It was very simple: a black cloak / robe type attire, very lightweight thin material, a red sash to tie around my waste to hold the cloak to my body, and a black hood with red trim, and a black screen in front to cover the face. That was it. I made no scary gestures, noises, or anything. I just handed out candy and acted my usual polite, kind self. Most kids were merely a little leery of me, or didn't seem to care much. A few, however, and I noted both girls and boys, were pretty darn scared, cowering behind their parents' legs. I got into the habit of taking the mask off when I saw warning signs, but it usually didn't help things much. So, this year, in addition to utter laziness, I decided it would be best to simply avoid anything that could be perceived as scary.
Aside from the first people I saw (that mother must have been a nut-case, although she certainly thought _I_ was the crazy one; damn woman looked at me like some kind of predator...), it worked out beautifully. No scared kids, although a few awe-struck babies in carriages not used to seeing someone tower over them quite so much.:)I have retained my nick-name as "The Candyman", and I'm very happy to say it's entirely a positive connotation.
I'm hoping next year to have enough saved up to do something a bit more... theatrical. Comical Jack-O-Lantern lightpoles, for example ($50 apiece at BJ's when I got the candy). Something to dress the place up. I'd love to do a real haunted house, outdoors, but I'd rather start small and work my way up. Besides, I have enough trouble getting people to come to my place, despite it being right at the end of the road. Hence why I have to stand at the end of my short walkway and call to people to hand out the candy. Otherwise, I'd never give any out.:P(It doesn't help that a row of hedges on my neighbor's yard blocks the entire view of my front porch from 90% of angles where the people tend to come from, so simply "turning the lights on" doesn't work.)
Hope everyone had a good Halloween this year. My Halloween is made when my little sister comes to visit me from across town. This year was no different, and it warmed my heart to no end to see her, and get almost bowled over when she ran up to hug me (I didn't know such a scrawny 14-year-old could almost knock over someone as tall as me, even if I'm not very heavy:P).
Roland *The Gunslinger*