I have a Halloween story from about 1970.

A friend of mine, I'll refer to as "G". Lived for Halloween. In particular pumpkin smashing. He was out two weeks before and a week after Halloween in search of them. Because of him one area quit putting pumpkins on ground level for some years after.

He'd fill up the back of his truck. Then go up the steepest hill he could find. Stop at the top. Open the tailgate and do a wheelie, to see them rolling down the steep road. Or he'd line up ones that were still lit across a road and drive over them.

One night G is driving his father's truck, a manual transmission, that neither I or a friend I'll refer to as "J", could drive. He spots a pumpkin on a porch. G stops the truck in the middle of the road, engine running and truck in gear. I'm in the middle so I hold my foot on the brake. So G can go grab the pumpkin and hop in and we'd take off.

G goes cat like quietly up to the house. Across the porch. Pumpkin is on a bench in front of a window with the drapes closed. He places his hands on the pumpkin. All of a sudden the drapes open and a man is looking at G. G panics and throws the pumpkin through the window at him and starts running to the truck. Yelling for me to let up on the brake so he can hop in and take off. The man is out the door and running after G.

Now the truck picks up speed and G can't catch up so G yells to get my foot back on the brake and slow down so he can hop in. I do, truck almost stops, G runs up and runs smack dab into the edge of the open truck door frame and goes down out cold.

Now is where it gets good. I lean out and grab G's pant leg with one hand while shoving down the gas pedal with my other hand. J is leaning across me and steering the truck as we made our getaway. Driving full speed up the street driver side door open dragging G on the road.

Once clear of the area and the man quit chasing us. We stopped. Got G up and got him coherent so he could drive. And off we went looking for the next adventure.

LTG : )

Game on !

LTG : )

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Well. There is always the Sledge-O-Matic.

LTG : )

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The good old days.

My friend G spotted a pumpkin on the stoop of a huge house in a rich neighborhood. About an acre of grass for the front yard. Late Halloween night G sneaks across the lawn towards the house. A few floors up in a picture window. A man spots G. This man had a pipe and fancy robe on. Starts laughing. I would imagine he's thinking he won't have to deal with the pumpkin after G takes it.

G gets smack dab in the middle of that front lawn, lifts the pumpkin high into the air and smashes it in the middle of that huge lawn.

The man dropped his pipe, and quit laughing.

We were gone before he made it downstairs.

LTG : )
Disclaimer : If they left their patio furniture out. I used to like grabbing all of it. And set it up in the exact same setting. Only in the front of the house rather than the rear.

An older man that worked for my Father was into tipping out houses over. One Halloween night, "R" went running up to tip an out house over. The owner was tired of this trick so he moved the outhouse over a few feet.

"R" ran right into the pit that would have been under the outhouse.

Some home owners fight back.

LTG : )

LTG : )

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I thought of another haunted house excursion about 40 years ago.

One evening our group toured many haunted houses around the city. Back then radio stations sponsored them for charity. Usually in condemned houses that would be torn down. Not always in good neighborhoods.

One haunted house in particular stood out that evening as being the groups favorite. So we decided to visit it again.

This time something was off. All the characters and monsters seemed frozen. Not really moving or trying to scare anyone. We were wondering what the heck ?

All of a sudden a bunch of cops came running past us, guns drawn. It seems that people farther through the haunted house than our group, had been shooting at the monsters.

That kind of explained why the characters and monsters weren't doing much.

LTG : )

Right after my Mother died. I started remodeling at my house. Now I never believed in ghosts or anything. Until now.

There'd be screams in the middle of the night. Wake me up. Terrified the two dogs.

One morning I was taking a shower and a voice kept calling my name. Put a robe on and checked the front door, everything. Nobody. and Lloyd doesn't sound like branches scraping on a roof or anything. No TV or radios were turned on.

The best was my friend was there helping. His wife and daughter were in the basement doing laundry. They saw my Mother there in the basement. They about killed themselves running up the stairs to get out of there.

My friend called me. He was worried. he knew my Mother. His wife and daughter had never met her. And no recent pictures were in the house. He told me they described her pretty accurately.

Now my sister had something going on at her house that was similar. So I started walking around my house reciting my sister's address and buses to take there. After a few months my what ever it was stopped. Don't know if it found it's way to my sister's house.

LTG : )

One Halloween when I was about 10 years old. My older sister had to take me trick or treating.

We went up Washington St. near my grade school. And this one house had two huge white flower pots sitting on a short pedestal, one on each side of their stairs leading into their house.

I told my sister, "wouldn't be great to pick one up and place it on the ground ? They'd hurt themselves getting that huge, heavy flower pot back up". I figured down was easier.

So my sister wraps her arms around it. And couldn't budge it. She stepped back. And now realized she was covered in white paint. I guess I forgot to tell her I saw them painting it on the way home from school. You don't go home to my house without a parent asking how the white paint got on her clothes.

Bonus Halloween for pacmanretro

I remember the first pumpkin I ever smashed. I was about 10 years old. A big, older house with a 3 season porch. French glass doors entered into the house. They had a beautiful display of a shock of wheat, Indian corn, lit pumpkin, etc.

So I go in there. But no one was around. I was a little scarred or nervous. All of a sudden out of the back I heard a lady yell, "I'll be right there". For the love of everything holy I don't know what possessed me. I yelled back, "You're too late !". I picked the lit pumpkin up and smashed it on their rug in the middle of their living room. And split.

LTG : )

She had one of her own going on. I had $200 a month house payments at that time. And didn't want to move and lose that.

So I thought she could use another one. She wasn't happy about my efforts at all. I never found out if it found it's way to her house.

Hers was into doing stuff when you were asleep. Open a window. Open a locked door ( dead bolt ). Move furniture around. All kinds of neat stuff.

LTG : )

I often ran into this. Happy Halloween sign. Please take one. Leave the rest for others.

I don't know how many times there would be an empty bowl sitting there when I came by.

So I'd take the bowl.

LTG : )

Well each house only put out one bowl. No candy, I grabbed the bowl.

Some years I got lots of them. But only ONE each.

Every once in great while I'd see someone grab the chair or table the free sign was on and run up the street. I never did that.

LTG : )

LTG : )

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LTG : )

LTG : )

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Do you get any trick or treaters ? Interesting to see how they'd react.

Many years ago I had a friend in a gorilla costume up in a tree in my front yard.

The trick or treaters bypassed my house. Went straight to the tree. And tried to shake or knock the gorilla out of the tree. Scared the hell out of him. He left after the first few attempts.

LTG : )

What do you get when you cut the diameter from the circumference of a pumpkin?”

PIE

LTG : )

LTG : )