Friday, October 31, 2014

Halloween Cartoon Party

It was still sunny when I got up this morning. I started the Halloween specials as I ate oatmeal with peanut butter and brown sugar for breakfast. In Boo To You Too!, Winnie the Pooh and his friends are looking forward to a holiday filled with lots of treats and more than a few scares...except for Piglet. Piglet is so frightened by Halloween, Pooh declares they won't celebrate at all. Eeyore, Gopher, and Tigger don't agree, and they and Pooh get a good scare themselves when they try to prove to Piglet that Halloween is nothing to be afraid of.

Went to Garfield's Halloween Adventure as I cleaned up from breakfast. Garfield and Odie dress as pirates for trick-or-treat, hoping to plunder some candy booty. They get a lot more tricks than they bargained for when they find themselves stranded on an island inhabited by a group of ghostly pirates out to get their treasure.

Bugs Bunny's Howl-Oween Special follows Bugs' various close encounters with Witch Hazel, as he tries to avoid being the cackling hag's next experiment. It's really a collection of bits and pieces of various horror-oriented Looney Tunes shorts, revolving around the theme of Bugs dodging Hazel. At the very least, they did weave in some cartoons that were set at Halloween, unlike Bugs' Easter show.

I made a quick run to the Acme around 9:30-quarter of 10 for groceries. The Acme's having a lot of big baking and cooking sales as people start thinking of next month's major holidays. I took advantage of the baking sale to get good prices on canola oil, sugar, cooking spray, the large jar of Skippy Natural Peanut Butter, Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix, and canned pumpkin. Restocked tomato sauce, apricots, skim milk, eggs, muffin papers, and honey after last week's meals.

I saw quite a few Acme employees dressed for the holiday. One cashier went as Ralphie from A Christmas Story in his pink bunny suit. (She even had glasses.) Another was Snow White. A male cashier was a hockey player. One of the managers was the Lucky Charms leprechaun. (A deli worker joked that he made her crave cereal every time she saw him.) My cashier at least wore a Halloween-themed T-shirt and had a bat painted on her cheek.

When I got home, I put everything away, then pulled out the dolls. I wanted to get photos of them in their Halloween costumes. I think they came out quite well. Whitney in particular makes the most adorable little flapper.

Halloween at the Riverside Rest

Continued with the cartoons as I worked with the dolls. "Spook-a-Nanny" was the only original cartoon written for the 1960s Woody Woodpecker Show. After spending most of the episode blowing up balloons for his boss Walter Lantz, Woody's ready to have a fun Halloween party with other Lanz creations like Chilly Willy and Andy Panda. He just can't seem to get inside, no matter how much he tries. He finally gets in with a ghost music group, but he forgets that he can't walk through the walls like they can.

Had leftovers for lunch while running Halloween Is Grinch Night. When a sour sweet wind sends the Grinch a prowlin' with his cart filled with psychedelic scares, the Whos hide in their homes, scared for their lives. All except for little Eukeriah Who, who gets lost up in the mountains. After he encounters the Grinch and his cart, he becomes determined to save the town by taking the scares himself.

Probably the most famous of all Halloween specials is It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Linus is gearing up to spend the night in the most sincere pumpkin patch he can find, waiting for the arrival of the title character. Against her better judgement, Sally joins him. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown has trouble trick-or-treating, while Snoopy spends his Halloween fighting the Red Baron.

Popeye has his own Halloween problems in the Famous Studios short "Fright to the Finish." Bluto convinces a spooked Olive that Popeye has been playing tricks on her. Popeye doesn't need spinach to prove who's been doing the real tricking...and get a treat from Olive.

I did dress up for work again this year. I was a fairy. Or an angel, depending on your point of view. The outfit I bought from Goodwill last month didn't fit, so I threw something together. I already had white wings, a wand topped with a huge, glittery foam star, and a golden sequin-trimmed tiara. I just put them on over a white long-sleeved shirt and my good black skirt. I received quite a few compliments from customers who thought I looked very cute. Not bad for something I just threw together.

While the college kids who work later in the evening mostly didn't bother dressing up, I saw quite a few very cute trick-or-treaters out with their parents. One boy was Spider Man. A little girl was an utterly adorable Doc McStuffins; her sibling was a triceratops in a green and blue plush outfit. An older teenager group was dressed as a wolf man, a vampire, and a sorceress.

Oh, and my schedule for next week isn't too horrible, about par for the course at this time of year. The only question mark is an 8-hour day on Monday. Maybe a lot of people will be busy getting ready for Election Day? Otherwise, Tuesday and Wednesday off again and one late day on Thursday.

As soon as one of the college kids came in for me, I raced out. Even after giving a dollar to a family who needed money for the bus on the Black Horse Pike, I still made it to Oaklyn just as the Halloween parade was starting down the street. I quickly caught up with them, changing from my winter jacket to my wings on the way.

Some of the costumes I saw this year were amazing. Quite a few of them were home-made. One family honored their Hispanic heritage with a boy dressed as a Mexican peasant and someone in a full-body pinata suit. Another family sported Mom as a Ghostbuster, Dad as the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, and a kid Slimer. There were tons of Elsas and Annas from Frozen, but my favorite was a Mom Anna and a sweet kid Elsa. (Mom's dress looked home-made.) A woman had her little brown dog in an orange and black witch costume. Another group was Star Wars-themed, with a Jawa, a Jedi, and several stormtroopers. There was a tween Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and a Cheer Bear who was about the same age. One boy was a Minecraft character. Another was Emmett from The Lego Movie in a home-made costume. There was a really awesome home-made dragon costume. There was a scary clown, another clown with a pumpkin mask head, and nifty ghost, and a really gruesome ghoul. A small, plump Alice In Wonderland sported a pretty cornflower-blue dress and ruffly apron.

I loved watching all the kids strut their stuff. Alice In Wonderland's parents were neighbors of mine. I chatted with them while Alice and her little sister, one of the many Elsas, showed off their costumes for the judges. There was so much candy left at the end, everyone got to take home some - even me.

When I got in, I ran a quick Three Stooges short as I cleaned up and put my costume away. "Spooks!" is one of two 3-D shorts the Stooges made in the early 50s. A trio of detectives dress as bakers selling their wares in order to get into a haunted house. They're supposed to be rescuing a beautiful girl from a mad scientist, but they may need to rescue themselves instead when the scientist and his assistant do everything they can to scare them away!

It started clouding up as early as my grocery trip this morning. By the time of the parade, it was dark, cloudy, cold, and windy...perfect Halloween weather. It's supposed to rain later tonight and get much colder. We'll see how things go.

And I hope all of you had a really safe and happy Halloween with your own little ghouls, Lego men, Care Bears, and Elsas!

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