Howdy hooligans!
I thought I’d slap together a few questions just to see how they might hit you. Since most of the answers are subjective, there’s no real score or prize here, other than the memories that might be triggered, and that’s the real focus. Halloween has always been a special time for me, and I thought we might share the road backward for a bit. (And please, if you feel compelled to copy this list to stir memories on your own blog, why, that’s mighty fine with me.) Enjoy.
1. What are your thoughts on green pea soup?
2. Would you rather be Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy or Sarah Jessica Parker?
3. Do you carve pumpkins or do you consider it to be a violation of their civil rights?
4. Have you ever screamed whilst watching a horror movie? (Legitimate screaming, not mere gasping or knocking over your wine glass.)
5. Who was the actual killer in the original “Friday the 13th” movie?
6. As a young child and presumed trick-or-treater, did you carefully plan the streets and houses you would conquer, or did you rush up to each one you could find, full of great expectations, thus setting you up for a lifetime of disappointment?
7. As an adult and presumed non-trick-or-treater (not judging if you still do), have you ever turned off your porch light on Halloween night because you just weren’t in the mood and/or somehow forgot it was Halloween despite the candy displays that have been in every grocery store since Labor Day?
8. If dared, would you stand in front of a mirror and repeat “Candyman” five times?
9. Do you remember the time when you could safely eat anything in your collected stash of treasures without fear or worry?
10. Do you remember the time when those treasures might be popcorn balls or candied apples because grownups made an effort to do it up right for the children of the neighborhood? And we would say thank you, ma’am, and really mean it?
11. Do you believe in ghosts? Spirits? Lingering traces of what once was?
12. Have you ever read “Something Wicked This Way Comes?” (Because Ray Bradbury is a master, and you should.)
13. If you were raised in a country or culture that doesn’t observe Halloween, do you have a similar holiday or time of year? We all have shared experiences, but they often go by other names…
14. Did you (or your parents) make your own costumes as a child, or were they store-bought? We always made our own, because we were broke-ass poor most of the time. (Slight exaggeration, but not by much.) Example: I once sauntered out as Dolly Parton, using slightly-deflated soccer balls to represent her signature anatomy as well as my own mother’s green-velvet mini-skirt, because it was the 70s and women actually had such things in their closets. It took me a few years to come out of my own closet…
15. What are your thoughts on school systems and communities having “Fall Festivals” instead of “Halloween Parties”? My opinion? The overwrought religious folks who want to dilute the innocent fun of Halloween (because it’s all about Satan!) are doing a disservice to the very children that they are pretending to protect. Let the children use their imagination, because it’s the most important thing about them, and without that imagination, we stagnate.
16. Did you ever read a scary book, in your bed and under the covers, with a flashlight?
17. Who is your favorite horror author, if you read such? If you don’t, why are you still taking this quiz? Just kidding. Sort of. (Alternative question: What author best reminds you that life is far too short to read anything that isn’t worth your time?)
18. What horror movie series starred a young Johnny Depp in the first installment?
19. Would you rather walk through a remote cornfield in the middle of the night, talk to a clown that you discover in a sewer grate, be the winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, live in the last house on the left, sign the guest register at a questionable motel that features a taxidermy theme, or use an ATM in the bad part of town at 3AM?
20. If you were to write a horror story about your own life, would you change the names of the people who did you wrong?
21. If you were offered the chance at everlasting life, albeit with some not-so-good side effects like having to suck the lifeblood out of innocent people who happened to be in the Ikea parking lot at just the wrong time, would you do it?
22. Of all the people who have passed before us, known or unknown, who would you most like to see sitting across from you at a table in a tapas restaurant in southern Spain, with that golden sun making everything surreal yet perfect, and you can just talk and talk and talk? Because I shouldn’t end this thing with real horror, but with love, and remembrance, and hope, and peace, and the imagination of little Dolly Partons in green-velvet mini-skirts who clutched a bag of treasures and briefly thought that everything was right as rain…
Categories: My Life
Bonnywood Manor 
These are all so good. And funny and terrifying
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And just a wee bit of heart to confuse everybody…
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23. Do you think that asking charmingly funny questions will endear you to your readers even more during this scary period of Halloween? Because it worked!
But I am a rebel. So I am not answering any of your probing questions.
Except.
Bette Midler. Obviously. I love her far too much.
And you ❤️
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1. Haunting Exorcist memories
2. Bette Midler
3. Brutalise the Veg!
4. Yes, like a little girl…
5. The Mother
6. Just Neighbors I knew
7. I’m in the UK and don’t understand what Labor Day is ???
8. Nothing Happened …
9. Fear or worry of what? Gaining weight?
10. What are popcorn balls? and do you mean toffee apples?
11. I’m on the fence here.
12. No (hangs head in shame)
13. We have Halloween in the UK – Just not as ‘big’
14. Always home made
15. I have no idea what a ‘Fall Festival’ is?
16.Yup
17. Anne Rice
18. Nightmare on Elm Street
(do I get a bonus point as I’m wearing a Freddy Jumper to work today?)
19. Overlook Hotel
20. NO
21. Tempting …
22. Tesla or Houdini
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I grew up in the UK so we didn’t really do Halloween and trick or treating was seen as extortion by a minor so I can’t answer most of your questions but I’ll have a go at a few just ‘cos they’re fun:
2. I was once told I looked like Bette Midler (and wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or not) so I’ll go for that
4. Yes, during the Medusa Touch but only because I heard footsteps on the stairs when I was home alone (it was actually my Dad, I just hadn’t hear him come in)
8. I would most definitely not stand in front of the mirror and repeat anything 5 times…just in case
11. I have seen ghosts 3 times in my life so I guess that would be a yes
16. Yes, Salem’s Lot….I wish I hadn’t
17. Clive Barker
19. None of the above
21. As a huge fan of all things vampire related I would like to say yes but it reality it would all be a bit icky and messy and sunbathing would be out of the question so I’d have to say no.
22. My husband; I’d give anything to be able to do that….
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# 1 – I love pea soup. Great with a ham hock (I’d like to see the Exorcist spew THAT up!! # 3 – I don’t carve pumpkins, but that’s just plain laziness! # * – not Candyman, but I have tried Beetlejuice. # 17 – Toss up between King, Koontz and Carpenter. # 20 – Hell No.
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1. What are your thoughts on green pea soup? When I was growing up, there seemed to be signs all over California informing you of how many miles you were from “Buellton, Home of Split Pea Soup”. I was actually grateful for the signs, because it was always reassuring to know I was too far away to ever have a close encounter with something that sounded so revolting. So far, so good.
2. Would you rather be Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy or Sarah Jessica Parker? Divine Miss M, of course. Because that woman can paaaar-tay (as I saw during an encounter in a Chicago nightclub where we had both arrived by dinosaur, of course…)
3. Do you carve pumpkins or do you consider it to be a violation of their civil rights? Getting carved is every pumpkin’s inalienable civil right and destiny. I’m proud to do my part.
4. Have you ever screamed whilst watching a horror movie? (Legitimate screaming, not mere gasping or knocking over your wine glass.) I will never, as long as I live, be able to go into a bathroom with a shower curtain without tiptoeing over and dramatically sweeping it open. Yes, there was much, much screamage involved.
5. Who was the actual killer in the original “Friday the 13th” movie? I am a horror-movie wuss. So I have never seen (and never will see) any of its triskaidekaphobic permutations.
6. As a young child and presumed trick-or-treater, did you carefully plan the streets and houses you would conquer, or did you rush up to each one you could find, full of great expectations, thus setting you up for a lifetime of disappointment? As a young child in a California suburb where there were exactly five house models build by the dozens over several excruciatingly-planned blocks, the fathers shepherded the children around houses staffed by eagle-eyed mothers. Kind of like whether or not to go to college, absolutely no choice was involved. (Although, as we grew older, we did learn what to hide from our fathers, such as the better chocolate bars and just what we got up to at those colleges…)
7. As an adult and presumed non-trick-or-treater (not judging if you still do), have you ever turned off your porch light on Halloween night because you just weren’t in the mood and/or somehow forgot it was Halloween despite the candy displays that have been in every grocery store since Labor Day? Four kids. FOUR. Halloween is engraved on my soul. (What you ask is just so wrong.)
8. If dared, would you stand in front of a mirror and repeat “Candyman” five times? I was a preteen girl once. I’ve gone to slumber parties, so I’ve tried this. (And “Mary Worth” and about half a dozen others…)
9. Do you remember the time when you could safely eat anything in your collected stash of treasures without fear or worry? No. I have nine siblings, and four children (who could hear the sound of a candy wrapper being unwrapped from upstairs on the other side of the house). It was never going to happen.
10. Do you remember the time when those treasures might be popcorn balls or candied apples because grownups made an effort to do it up right for the children of the neighborhood? And we would say thank you, ma’am, and really mean it? I remember it but NOBODY ever meant it. We always wanted weird candy in unlikely colors. Always.
11. Do you believe in ghosts? Spirits? Lingering traces of what once was? Of course. No other explanation for cats.
12. Have you ever read “Something Wicked This Way Comes?” (Because Ray Bradbury is a master, and you should.) Yes—to the book, and to Bradbury’s mastery.
13. If you were raised in a country or culture that doesn’t observe Halloween, do you have a similar holiday or time of year? We all have shared experiences, but they often go by other names… I live in Scotland now, where they have “guising”—children have to sing or recite to be rewarded with coins or candy.
14. Did you (or your parents) make your own costumes as a child, or were they store-bought? We always made our own, because we were broke-ass poor most of the time. (Slight exaggeration, but not by much.) Example: I once sauntered out as Dolly Parton, using slightly-deflated soccer balls to represent her signature anatomy as well as my own mother’s green-velvet mini-skirt, because it was the 70s and women actually had such things in their closets. It took me a few years to come out of my own closet… We made our own costumes. I made costumes for my children too, but of course they never wore those.
15. What are your thoughts on school systems and communities having “Fall Festivals” instead of “Halloween Parties”? My opinion? The overwrought religious folks who want to dilute the innocent fun of Halloween (because it’s all about Satan!) are doing a disservice to the very children that they are pretending to protect. Let the children use their imagination, because it’s the most important thing about them, and without that imagination, we stagnate. Halloween is one of the most important days in a child’s year, and I think it’s morally bankrupt to deny it to them.
16. Did you ever read a scary book, in your bed and under the covers, with a flashlight? Duh. Of course.
17. Who is your favorite horror author, if you read such? If you don’t, why are you still taking this quiz? Just kidding. Sort of. (Alternative question: What author best reminds you that life is far too short to read anything that isn’t worth your time?) I don’t like the kind of horror where teenagers get turned into ketchup, but classic horror stories are great. (Dracula, Turn of the Screw, anything by Stephen King or HP Lovecraft…)
18. What horror movie series starred a young Johnny Depp in the first installment? Nightmare on Elm Street?
19. Would you rather walk through a remote cornfield in the middle of the night, talk to a clown that you discover in a sewer grate, be the winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, live in the last house on the left, sign the guest register at a questionable motel that features a taxidermy theme, or use an ATM in the bad part of town at 3AM? I’ve already walked the cornfield. And the clown is just a complete nonstarter. No clowns.
20. If you were to write a horror story about your own life, would you change the names of the people who did you wrong? Sure, if they’re still alive enough to file lawsuits.
21. If you were offered the chance at everlasting life, albeit with some not-so-good side effects like having to suck the lifeblood out of innocent people who happened to be in the Ikea parking lot at just the wrong time, would you do it? Yup. People at IKEA should know the risks…
22. Of all the people who have passed before us, known or unknown, who would you most like to see sitting across from you at a table in a tapas restaurant in southern Spain, with that golden sun making everything surreal yet perfect, and you can just talk and talk and talk? Because I shouldn’t end this thing with real horror, but with love, and remembrance, and hope, and peace, and the imagination of little Dolly Partons in green-velvet mini-skirts who clutched a bag of treasures and briefly thought that everything was right as rain… Neil Gaiman AND Terry Pratchett. Because… Neil Gaiman AND Terry Pratchett!!!
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This broadcast has interrupted my holiday. Blame goes to Barb for sharing this in Twitter Land. A place I should not be whilst on holiday. The words ‘Halloween, Random & Pointless’ were the hook. Halloween is a VERY IMPORTANT DATE on our calendar, hence the holiday. Expect a post. But not yet, cos you know, holiday. Did I mention I’m on holiday?
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1.) Green Pea Soup is best served hot over crumbled cornbread with slice jalapenos over the top. 2.) Pass on that one, I like being me 3.) Yes, but it’s a family affair, we carve without mercy. Pumpkin is evil and deserves to die. 4.) No, I’m a quiet viewer. 5.) There was no actual killer, it’s a fiction sooooo yeah. 6.) On the rare occasion when trick or treating was a thing I generally was in charge of a bunch of kids and took them up and down the streets near our home. 7.) No, I’ve never turned off the porch light and I always remember to have candy for the little beggars whose parent’s can’t afford to buy them any. Poor little dears. 8) Yes, I’ve done that, he didn’t come to visit me, I think he was afraid of me, I was a terrifying child. 9.) No, candy eating was always risky 10.) Yes, I remember when home made treats were common. 11.) Hmmm maybe energy traces, it has to do somewhere, right? 12.) Yes, read it but it was so long ago that I remember the watching better than the reading. 13.) I prefer harvest and moon festivals to the trick or treating thing, just more down home family fun. I’ve been in families that focused more on that and to me it was a lot more fun. 14.) Always made our own. Parents who bought costumes were considered lazy and spoken of in condemning whispers by all the “good moms”. 15.) I prefer fall festivals for family fun, Halloween parties for scary fun and I don’t think kids care one way or another as long as they aren’t too scared and there’s lots of fun and candy. 16.) Yes, 17.) Stephen King 18.) Was that IT? 19.) ATM bad part of town 20.) Yes, I’m changing the names 21.) I’m already immortal so that offer would be moot. 22.) I’d like one more meal with Bill
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You asked . . .
1. The real soup made with a ham bone: yum!
2. Hmm . . . They all have sass!
3. Pumpkin pie requires their death!
4. I refuse to answer on the grounds . . .
5. I was screaming and I missed it.
6. I just kept walking until I reach The Last House on the Left.
7. It’s a good excuse to spend the night in a cheap motel. Costs the same as all that candy.
8. HELL NO! But I don’t believe in all that hookam.
9. Yes, I am that old.
10. Well, I would SAY it. My Mother would know if I didn’t!
11. On a dark, foggy night just after midnight . . . yes.
12. Of course! And yes, yes he is.
13. Canada loves a good Halloween party!
14. I didn’t know they could be ‘store bought’ until it was fashionable to make your own.
15. Do-Gooders miss the point: if you deny they will not comply.
16. Yep. Scared me so badly I threw the book away. Only one ever!
17. Dean Koontz
18. Nightmare on Elm Street?
19. ATM. Absolutely the ATM!
20. Bwahaha Not by much!
21. Nope, I like the sun.
22. My parents.
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Fun questions, so i gave thought to playing the game, but since i am not so much a Halloween/horror fan, perhaps not. Ill have to give this more thought. Maybe I’ll be selective.😜
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1. I’m against it, no matter the colour. It’s the consistency.
2. I’ve always liked Kathy Najimy – she’s funny and bubbly.
3. I paint them.
4. Yes. And this is not the least of my sins.
5. Never saw it. Probably smoking. Smoking kills.
6. I had no plan but was not disappointed.
7. No. I like to be a good citizen.
8. I would.
9. No.
10. No!
11. Not with any conviction.
12. I have, but you’ve just put me in the mood to read it again.
13. n/a
14. We also wore terrible, home made, scraped together costumes due to the no money thing.
15. The more parties, the merrier. I open to anything.
16. Of course.
17.I read tonnes. Plenty that’s bad. Little that’s horror.
18. Hm, don’t know.
19. The only one I wouldn’t do is be a caretaker. No thanks.
20. No!
21. I would not. I wouldnt take it even without the side effects.
22. Sean. Always Sean.
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#22: Of all the people who have passed before us, known or unknown, who would you most like to see sitting across from you at a table in a tapas restaurant in southern Spain, with that golden sun making everything surreal yet perfect, and you can just talk and talk and talk? Because I shouldn’t end this thing with real horror, but with love, and remembrance, and hope, and peace, and the imagination of little Dolly Partons in green-velvet mini-skirts who clutched a bag of treasures and briefly thought that everything was right as rain…
Me? I’d pick the author of this lurverly little quiz…Mr. Brian Lageose. Who might now think he has a stalker. I bet we’d talk for DAYS…… ❤
Here's the link to the rest of my answers, because in true fashion, I was verbose in answering them:
http://sparksfromacombustiblemind.com/2018/10/30/candy-korn/
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I am so glad I read this before it was too late! You see, I had intended to carve a pumpkin today for Halloween. But now I fear that doing so would, in fact, violate their civil rights. And that’s a chance that I am unwilling to take, even if it means depriving myself the pleasure of getting elbow-deep in pumpkin guts. Now I will just have to find something less satisfyingly messy to do today.
Perhaps it’s a good time to make a costume for the dog… 😜
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1. I like it. Is that wrong?
2. Bette Midler.
3. Nope.
4. Never. Scary movies don’t scare me.
5. Never saw Friday, the 13th. Is that wrong, too?
6. Never got to go trick or treating.
7. Every year!
8. Sure. I like a piece of candy now and then.
9. I remember when other children could.
10. I do remember those things, but only because other children had them.
11. Umm…I’m not sure. I’ve never seen one but I have had some really strange things happen…like hearing my daddy stomping around and smelling his cigarette smoke…years after he died.
12. Don’t read.
13. Raised here.
14. Never had a costume until I was an adult. I won “best costume.” Made all of my childrens’ costumes and they too, won “best costume.”
15. I think they suck.
16. See #12.
17. LOL.
18. Nightmare on Elm Street.
19. Talk to the clown. Clowns are not creepy to me.
20. Fuck no! I’d want everybody to know who they were and what they did.
21. Sure.
22. My grandparents.
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Betty Miler always…..
Why would I watch a horror movie if I can’t scream and worst why writing about who made my life horrific without stating their real names?🤣
I can’t barely cope with the idea of walking through cornfields not to mention side by side with a clown😫
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I love, love, LOVE the thought of you dressed as Dolly. And despite not being a country music fan, I always loved Dolly. Do you remember her short stint of a variety show, where every show began with her on a swing singing “Love is like a butterfly, as soft and gentle as a sigh…”
By now I’m sure you’re guessing I’m not really a horror kind of gal. However I think the real killer of the first Friday movie is the dead boy in the lake’s mom, is that right? (I’ve not read other comments, so if someone else already said it, I swear I’m not cheating.) I was a freshman in college when I innocently walked into the TV room (remember those?) where it was playing. Or at least I think it was Friday the 13th, maybe I have the wrong horror movie in mind. It was the one with the oversexed teenagers and they get picked off one by one with various sharp implements. Does that sound familiar? 😉
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1.Love making and eating it but never waste it by spewing.
2. Bette forever. Especially the bit where she begs God to never let her walk around with a fried egg on her head.
3. Used to carve at least a dozen pumpkins. Where I live now has no tick-tackers. (Ever hear that one?)
Can’t watch scary stuff so a “no” answer to any/all of the fright film questions.
10. Where I used to live we had around 200 kids come to the door. I made caramel popcorn balls. Same kids came every year and they called me the Popcorn Ball Lady. (Kinda proud of that cuz I’ve been called a lot worse.)
11.Lived in a town full of them. Hated walking alone at night.
12. Know I read it but can’t remember it. Do remember it from Shakespeare. By the pricking of my thumbs…
15. Always had homemade costumes sewed/constructed by Mom or Aunt Marie, who made the best. Ever. One of my favorites was Morticia Adams. And that giant white rabbit from the play…was it spelled pookah?
17./19 King is the king forever. Always thought cornfields were creepy but The Stand made me avoid them utterly, as in never stand closer than a few feet and make somebody else tear off the ears.
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