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…
Previously published, slight modifications made.
Mea Culpa Moment: I just reviewed the comments from the last time I shared this post and, to my embarrassed surprise, I discovered that I only responded to the first of said comments and then I left the rest of them forlorn and neglected. There is no valid excuse for my malfeasance, especially considering the sterling quality of most of the contributions, but I’m fairly certain that the negligence was the result of my sudden but relatively-short abduction by aliens. That seems fair, doesn’t it?
In any case, if you are still smarting, two years later, from my inexcusable affront, please accept my apologies and I promise to do better this time. Unless the power goes out and a strange orb descends on Bonnywood. One never knows…
Categories: My Life
Bonnywood Manor 
Did I hear alien abduction? Can you hook a girl up? I think my insurance would cover it. No, no, never, and no-one to most of the questions. Definitely no to 21. (I took a visit to Harajuku’s IKEA store via YouTube video out of curiosity and will not visit in person). Pirates of the Caribbean is the answer to 18? Is POTC a horror series? I mean the milking of the franchise, and overuse of CGI in each instalment make it a horror production for me. I fast forwarded through the third film. I am sure I did not watch the fourth one. I thought I was dreaming about a fifth instalment but I am watching the trailer right now (still can’t believe this was released). I suppose that counts as my Halloween horror story?
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First, sure, I can hook you up. You may not appreciate it once I’ve done so, but I’m here to serve.
Second, there are other Ikeas where you could do your hunting. Perhaps you shouldn’t rule out this option just yet…
It’s not really clear, but it seems like you might not particularly care for the POTC franchise. Was there an unsavory incident in your past involving swashbucklers?
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I am from the Caribbean, as you know, so I grew up hearing the whole story, and visited the historical sites. I can say it is way too hard core for Disney.
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Halloween is a thing of the distant past for me. It’s barely observed in Australia. As for 22, the list is way too long, but at the top would be my dad, who was killed in a car accident when I was a teenager.
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Oh my, I didn’t know about your dad. That sounds like a perfect meal in the Spanish sun…
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Number 12: “Something wicked this way comes” is chanted by the witches in Macbeth, which is a truly horrifying story, both fictionally and in reality. (The real Macbeth wasn’t a bad guy; he became the object of revisionist history because Shakespeare knew which side his bread was buttered on, literally, and he is nw thought of as the pinnacle of evil, poor sot.)
And number 22 would be M. No question.
🙂
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Well, you’ve educated me quite nicely about Macbeth. I had no idea, though I did know about the quote. This one of the many reasons why I love the comment section, picking up trivia tidbits for my already enormous collection… 😉
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No I’ve never screamed at a horror movie😂 And I would say “Candyman” 5 times😅
Number 19: No!! I’d never do any of thaat shit😂 Even reading about doing all that makes me palpitate🤯 Especially the clown part!
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I’ll admit that I’ve screamed at horror movies, but usually because of the bad acting. And I HAVE said Candyman five times a number of times, usually on a bored Saturday night, yet nothing exciting happens, damn it. As for #19, I’ll give you a pass on the clowns, since they can be very unsettling, but surely you’re tempted by one of the other options. No? Maybe that’s just me… 😉
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Haha fair enough😂😂 Some movies really catch the hype though
What do you mean nothing exciting happens, I’d only be TOO relieved if it didnt 😂😂
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Whoa, that’s a lot of questions. I admit I dozed off half way through, but here’s my 2 cents worth – pea soup is an abomination that I have to cook for my husband three times a year. It was in the marriage contract. 🤢
I’d like to be Sarah Jessica but I’m afraid Bette is a more apt description. Did I mention my mother played tennis at her uncle’s courts? This was back in 1970’s New Jersey during her Bathhouse Betty days. She was unknown nationally but he was so proud of her.
Scream at a horror movie? Never. I don’t frighten easily. Though watching a Trump rally does make me shudder.
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Wait, you DOZED OFF? That’s a dagger to the heart, River. But I’m sure there’s enough alcohol around here to help me get over it.
Now, this Bette connection… it’s not the first time you’ve hinted at a glamourous and exciting life. What’s the real story, here? Are the rumors true that you come from old money and your own possible connection to the Rockefellers? I await your answers with bated (and mildly inebriated) breath…
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While that’s slightly humorous, my mother traveled in what you would call high society circles in her day. And yes, there are some wonderful stories about NYC back in the glamorous days.
😉
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1. I rather like green pea soup. The only time I didn’t enjoy it was when it was shooting out of one of my childrens’ butt.
2. Umm…Bette Midler, I suppose. “The Divine Miss M.”
3. No. I don’t carve pumpkins. Never have. I don’t like pumpkins…especially in pie.
4. No, I never have, but I have had my arm almost ripped out of its socket when “someone” grabbed my hand (like he thought I was going to be scared). “Jaws” comes to mind…and Aliens. That’s why I started sitting in a chair, so as to keep my limbs intact.
5. I’ve never seen Friday 13th. Is that wrong?
6. I didn’t get to go trick-or-treating when I was a child.
7. Bwahahahahaha! I always decorated inside and outside, but on Halloween, I would turn off all the lights and pretend that I wasn’t at home, but I haven’t decorated in years.
8. Who is this Candyman of which you speak? I’m not a big candy person, so probably not. Now, if I thought Doughnutman would bring me some sweets, hell yeah. I say his name as many times as he wanted me to.
9. I remember when I could safely eat anything I found in the yard or in a tree.
10. Ummm…no can do.
11. Hmm. Well…once I went to spend the night with mama. When I walked into the house, I smelled cigarette smoke. Mama never smoked, so I asked her if she had started. She said, “no, your little daddy has been here.” (He smoked like a chimney.) I thought “okay. He has been dead for a good twenty years, so where is that little white rabbit and what have you been taking?”
Anyway, that night, I woke up to this stomping noise. My daddy, whom I called “B” always stomped when he walked. I sat straight up in bed and said, “B…stop it.” So, no…I don’t believe in ghosts or spirits or lingering traces of what was. LOLOL.
12. Sigh. No, I have never read it.
13. This country. Halloween.
14. I never had costumes but my children did…all homemade of course…and they always won best costume. I dressed up once as a “motorcycle mama,” and I won best costume.
15. Piss on school systems and community crap. “Fall Festivals?” Give me a break. Halloween is the name of the holiday.
16. No.
17. My favorite horror author? Why, me of course. 🙂
18. One of those nightmare on 18th street or something like that. I heard my children talking about Johnny Depp.
20. Cornfield. Clowns never bothered me…well…that is until I married one.
21. You bet your sweet bippy I would…but I would want to pick out the “innocent people.”
22. So they have to be dead? I guess that leaves out Wentworth. I’d say…Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
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1. Butt-shooting is never good.
2. That fits my vision of you.
3. We differ here. I love pumpkin pie.
4. It’s always important to keep as many limbs as one can.
5. No.
6. That explains certain things that I’ve wondered about.
7. I haven’t decorated in years, either, but there was a time when the whole house was my staging ground.
8. I’m babbling about the “Candyman” movies here. The first one was especially creepy.
9. I draw the line at what I might find in a tree. There was a childhood incident.
10. See number 6.
11. Yes, you do. Embrace and accept.
12. You should.
13. Ditto.
14. My favorite costumes were always home-made. We would spend weeks planning the outfit.
15. Completely agree.
16. Try it some time.
17. I’ll give you this one. Only because I’m nice.
18. Bingo.
19. Oh, you didn’t answer this one. Hmm.
20. But you answered it here. Are you messing with me?
21. This does not surprise me.
22. Perfect answer.
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Here’s my extended answer list in blog post form. You knew my answers would be far too ‘wordy’….
https://sparksfromacombustiblemind.com/2020/10/21/nibbles-from-the-candy-bowl/
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I just realized that I’m not seeing any of your blogs. That’s happened with several of the people I thought I was following. Last year, I had to literally follow a blogger every single day. Maybe the new WordPress? I hate it.
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Melanie: As usual, you have outdone yourself with a delicious take on the matter.
Laurel: WordPress is evil but addictive.
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Too many to reply to all. So.
4/ No. The closest was a scene in a non-horror film, ‘O Lucky Man.’
7/ No, the slavering Doberman needs to see its prey…
12/ Yep. Dark.
13/ Guy Fawkes. Sigh. Fireworks in the sky but no sugar rush for us kids.
15/ Odd, is it not, how spirits are downright satanically evil till you get to Pop, Junior and the Holy Ghost?
17/ King; His work stands.
19/ Everything you offer is just another walk in the park in our neighborhood.
22/ The older we get the more we rue and miss those now forever lost conversations. I thought sometimes Ma Pa and elder brother would waffle on forever. Not so.
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4. Really? I’ve never seen “If…” or “O Lucky Man”, but now I’m even more curious about the two…
7. Ah, so you’re one of those… 😉
12. In more ways than one. But oh, the words he cobbled together…
13. Trivia: As a wee urchin, I recall reading a “young adult” book that involved (then) modern-day children getting caught up in some complicated saga that involved a Guy Fawkes dummy and (maybe?) a murder. I remember being fascinated with the book, but the details of the plot, as well as the title, escape me now…
15. Biting my tongue.
17. I have the “uncut” edition of “The Stand” on my Kindle, but I’ve never gotten around to cracking the cover.
19. Sounds like we live in similar burghs. Even stopping by the corner store to fetch a loaf of bread is a flight-risk.
22. Agreed. Tomorrow is not always another day.
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4/ One scene- right out of left field and therefore even more chilling.13/ Trivia; Nothing I ever read about the Guy moved me beyond utter boredom. But we didn’t have Halloween so I’m entitled to feel disgruntled and cheated out of childish calorie fuelled extravaganzas. Still.
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I got lost in an angry rage at #15 and didn’t settle down until #22 so the only thing I remember is: yeah, we made our own costumes and could eat everything in the bag including Mrs. Buller’s Easter Eggs. cheers
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#15 is out of control in a number of ways. I’m all for respecting various cultures and traditions, and that includes me leaving things alone that don’t affect me…
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Value the Prime Directive. cheers
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I love the place in your mind where all these questions came from! I have the same kinda place… (different color, knock-off brand)
Did no one recognize the irony of Johnny Depp being attacked by Freddy Kruger, then playing Edward Scissorhands??
Aliens huh? Is that really the story you wanna use?? I would’ve gone with “held hostage by a dominatrix in training” or “got distracted by something shiny”🤷🏼♀️
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I always have fun with that special part of my mind. I’m glad we have the same basic floorplan…
The irony was sharp, indeed. (Ahem.) Side note: I love me some Johnny. Who knew, 500 years ago when he was on “21 Jump Street”, that he would turn into one of the most fascinating actors we have. (Unless you don’t care for him, in which case you can ignore this paragraph.)
The “alien” angle was a bit weak. I was tired and just wanted to get the post out. That’ll teach me. (But if I ever DO end up in a situation where I am held hostage by a dominatrix, you know something has gone terribly wrong and you should call 911…)
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P.S. Better Midler of course but NOT as a Sanderson Sister… BTW, Ben *still* has Hocus Pocus playing on repeat… I wonder if Guinness would give me a prize for movie continuously play since… I don’t even know.
K… I’m done now. Maybe…🤔😂
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I just realized I left out the writing your own horror story. Already did it…LOL. (Did change the names.)
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And I’ve written mine as well. I did change the names, but I left the first letter the same… 😉
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Have you published yours?
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I published part of it. Needless to say, there was a bit of a dust-up when I did…
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Is it a two-parter? LOL…the dust is still kicking from mine. It was a pyrrhic victory…cost me everything.
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#4 I assure you that knocking over the wine glass was the legitimate screaming. I had to sleep with the light on for days.
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You complete me. 😉
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❤️
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good
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Thank you!
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Hmm… I can’t remember reading this before so I’m assuming I am not one of the commenters you neglected. If I am, you don’t have to admit anything. My poor memory absolves you.
I enjoy Halloween, celebrated it with the kids, went to a church that staged a haunted house with no preachy messages just good old-fashioned frights, and I hand out candy with a cheerful greeting until I get tired and then the lights go out. But as for horror movies, I’m not one for screaming or even gasping/knocking over wine. I prefer campiness. Ever see The Abominable Dr. Phibes with Vincent Price? Such fun!
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Well, I was hatched in fundamentalist Oklahoma, so there WAS a bit of preachy, but I don’t recall the church festivities being all that annoying in my tender years. It was only later that things turned, and by the time my youngest sister was making the rounds, so to speak, it had evolved to the point where the churches were doing that “Hell House” mess, with… well, I don’t need to go into it, as I’m sure you’ve heard the stories.
I have seen “Dr. Phibes”, but it was a LONG time ago. I do enjoy a well-done horror movie, but most of them just get too stupid and over-the-top for me. I like subtle creepiness that never gets in your face and quietly tightens the suspense without veering away from the viability of “this could actually happen (to me!)”.
But camp? Well-done camp (and it IS an art) is delicious.
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I had a go (https://neurosesundefined.com/2020/10/26/pointless-halloween/) and the last question was one I enjoyed answering
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I just left a few snacky things in your goody bag… 😉
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Hello. While reading this I remembered that my elementary school gave us labels from UNICEF that we attached to small, empty milk cartons. When people opened their doors on Halloween we’d say “trick or treat for UNICEF” and they’d put coins in the cartons and also give us candy. We turned in the monies at school the next school day. This was decades ago on Long Island. Did kids do this where you grew up?
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Hey, Neil. I actually remember the UNICEF cartons, and we did try it a few times. But it seems like it was only popular for a couple of years and then most of the folks who opened the doors had no idea why we were waving around something that smelled faintly of old milk. Still, thanks for the flashback to a time when most people DID try to do the right thing, if they could. Now? Sheesh.
Good to hear from you!
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Hi! For number
1, neutral – certainly nowhere near as alarming as hospital mushroom;
8, tried it, didn’t work. A good way to end a late-night twosome though, if it isn’t going well. Only the bravest make it past three.
19. I always wanted to winter in the Overlook! Really!
22. Ah, the memories! A girl called Pip, still wearing the leotard from her ballet practice. I guess she won’t look quite the same after fifty years, though. But this is an intellectual exercise, isn’t it?
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1 – I’m somewhat hesitant to inquire on the backstory of a “hospital mushroom”. Some things are better not known.
8 – I hadn’t really thought of it in that aspect. I’m filing this suggestion away for future endeavors…
19 – I’m right there with you. I would winter in the Overlook in a heartbeat, even if my sanity was in the balance. The lack of outside contact would be charming…
22 – I’d like to think that every post at Bonnywood is an intellectual exercise, despite my oft-noted failure to actually get there… 😉
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Yes, I see some of my wisdom was lost in the typing. That should have read ‘hospital mushroom soup’ and the comment was heartfelt, because I had just experienced some of same.
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Brian, you might enjoy this…..:http://jadicampbell.com/2017/10/29/happy-halloween/
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Hi, Jadi. As predicted, I did enjoy the piece. (I think I even shared it on Twitter back when I first read it, but this might be a small lie.) Lovely memory!
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