You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween

Began my Halloween with material from the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. "The Blue-Nosed Witch" is a scatterbrained young sorceress who is always late for her coven's flight formations. She sets her alarm back so far, she ends up trick-or-treating with the kids on Halloween instead. Another young witch tries to make a fairy appear for her friends, but she ends up conjuring "The Water Nixie" instead. We also get a couple of poems on trick-or-treating and Halloween traditions.

Watched The Woody Woodpecker Show on Disc 3 of my first Woody Woodpecker set during breakfast. Woody spends most of the episode between cartoons blowing up balloons for his boss Walter Lanz. They're preparing for a big Halloween party with all of the Lanz characters created up to the early 60's (most of whom were actually comic book characters). They're holding a big "Spook-a-Nanny," but won't let Woody in. He joins a ghostly rock band, but forgets he can't walk through the walls like they can.

Switched to Raggedy Ann and Andy and the Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile as I made my grocery list. Ann, Andy, and their dog Arthur bring a glum pumpkin who wasn't bought for Halloween to a little boy whose aunt won't let him enjoy the holiday. After they finally get the gourd to the kid, they remind his aunt that you're only young once, and there was a time when she enjoyed Halloween, too.

Put on Sale of the Century while I got organized. Their "Trick or Treat Week" from 1988 played pretty much the same, only with Halloween-themed questions and prizes. The one woman came back during the Speed Round to win a beautiful heart-shaped diamond pendant necklace that would look pretty on her. Too bad she didn't have as much luck with the Bonus Round.

Hurried to go grocery shopping next. I didn't need a whole lot, and I didn't have much time to get it. Sprouts was having a buy one, get one 50 percent off sale on their bakery cookies. I went with their seasonal flavors, ginger molasses and white chocolate cranberry shortbread. Also picked up coconut milk and sparkling water. Found cookies and cream Made Good granola bars and a plastic container of lemon curd dried mango slices that were on clearance.

The Acme was a lot busier when I arrived. I'll be getting fruit and vegetables at the farm market tomorrow, so I mainly needed yogurt here. Got canned tuna and sliced chicken for my own mini-pantry. The Kind Kids' bars were on clearance, too, and I had a good online coupon for Kind granola. Popwell and the new Bloom Pop sodas were on good sales, and yes, they had Fresca this time. Dug mini chocolate Bundt cakes off the bakery clearance racks. 

Cut through Newton Lake Park on the way home. It's fully fall here now. The trees have finally turned fabulous shades of gold, rust, scarlet, and lime green. It couldn't have been a nicer Halloween. Though 40-miles-an-hour winds lingered from yesterday, it was otherwise sunny and relatively warm when you could get out of the wind, in the upper 50's-lower 60's. 

Put everything away, then had a quick lunch while watching Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special. Witch Hazel chases Bugs, turns Speedy into her, and spooks Daffy's niece in this piecemeal anthology. At least they used sequences from horror shorts and ones actually set on Halloween, rather than the random cartoons seen in Bugs' Easter and Thanksgiving specials. 

Hurried off to the Thomas Sharp School after the cartoon ended. I was slightly late...but I could have been infinitely late. There were nine pre-schoolers there when I arrived. I colored printed pictures of Jack o'lanterns and Pikachu in a witch's hat laying on a pumpkin with the girls. By 3:30, when we took the kids outside, there were five boys left. In fact, they originally said I could leave at 3:30, but I figured I could at least help get them out to the playground. I finally left the boys running around and enjoying the lack of line for the swings at 4. (Oh, and I was one of only two teachers who dressed in costume. The other was a Phillies baseball player. One teacher did admit that her Spirited Away costume was a bit too lavish for school.)

Soon as I got home, I hurried upstairs and grabbed the rest of my cowgirl costume. Yes, I was a cowgirl this year in my blue-checked LL Bean shirt, the corduroy vest Mom made me for my first cowgirl costume in 1989, jeans, boots, a jean jacket, and the hat I picked up from Goodwill. Glad I got the bandana and metal sheriff's badge. They really completed the costume. Added a crocheted "belt" with a plastic knife and bow tied on. Grabbed the trick-or-treat bags and candy and hurried outside with my red stuffed bull Romeo soon as I was ready.

I got outside at just the right time. Trick-or-treating starts at 3, but it doesn't really pick up until around 4:30. We had a ton of kids. I gave away all of my trick-or-treat bags in less than an hour. All but a few Sour Patch licorice sticks were gone by 6. 

Saw lots of great costumes, too. There was a pretty and adorable baby dressed as a pearly pink shell. A Winnie the Pooh group had a dad Pooh, a big brother Tigger, a mom Eeyore, and a pre-school girl Piglet. Another large group were all Lord of the Rings characters, including a mom Gandolf. Two teen girls were variations on Alice In Wonderland, while a third was the White Rabbit. Teen boys wore a gas mask and a Jason Voorhees mask. A couple in long Matrix black coats walked their dog Trinity. A tiny pre-school Wednesday was too adorable! There were two Elsas and three KPop Demon Hunters. Saw a couple of Ghostbusters, a bloody nurse, an Iron Man, a Spider Man and Spider Girl, Ginny from SuperKitties, and Connor from PJ Masks. 

I headed back out around quarter after 6 to have dinner at Phillies Phatties. Trouble is, they were mobbed with families who just came in from trick or treating and people ordering a quick dinner. I had to wait more than 20 minutes for my slice of cheese and slice of sausage. (I did get the can of Diet Pepsi right away.) 

It took them so long, I ate them on my way two doors down to Tonewood Brewery. My sister Rose was there with her 8-year-old daughter Finley and several of Fin's friends from school. Finley was an absolutely stunning marionette in a black and white sequined ballet outfit, wrist ribbons, black and white spooky stockings, a bun, and spooky makeup. I ate my pizza and chatted with Rose and the kids a little bit, admiring Rose's sleek new haircut and telling her about my vacation earlier this month. 

For once, the Halloween Parade started right on time. I saw a lot of great costumes here, too. One boy was dressed as Ben Franklin, complete with flying "kite." Another was a dinosaur in a home-made costume. One little firefighter had a pretty realistic costume, including a bright red and yellow jacket. There was a Mario Kart group with a big sister Peach, Mario in his cart, and a dad Luigi. Two little oceanographers rode around in a huge cardboard "shark" wagon. Saw two more Demon Hunters, an elementary schooler dressed as a grandma with gray hair, curlers, and a cane, a lovely witch in glittering purple and black, a big Ghostbusters group that included a mom dressed as Louis Tully and inflatable Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, and a hilarious Men In Black group with parents in sunglasses and suits and an infant alien in a flying saucer stroller. The Nightmare Before Christmas group had impressive inflatable and hand-made costumes, including Oogie Boogie and the Mayor of Halloween Town. I thought the pre-teens dressed as Sesame Street characters were adorable, especially Ernie in what I suspected was a hand-made head. 

To my delight, Finley deservedly won first in the second-to-sixth grade division. She and Rose really did do well with that costume. I didn't win anything. The other adult costumes included a guy in a scary mask up on stilts. I still enjoyed walking in the parade from the Oaklyn School to the Fire Hall, twirling my garden rope "lasso" (I lost the cap gun walking over to Oaklyn) and cuddling Romeo. 

Took as shower when I got home, then put on It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Linus spends his Halloween waiting in a "sincere" pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin, who is supposed to leave treats for all of the good little girls and boys. Against her better judgment, Sally joins him. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown has trouble trick-or-treating, Lucy is still pulling away that football, and Snoopy spends the night preparing for Veteran's Day and fighting the Red Baron.

Mom called me around this time. She sent me a really cute Halloween card. Needless to say, with a newborn around, they've been incredibly busy. Like most of my family, Mom and Keefe get really into Halloween and decorate inside and out. They were all bee-themed this year. Aurora was a bee. Julia and Elijah were bears, and Keefe was the beekeeper. (Oh, and three-year-old Aurora is apparently a huge fan of KPop Demon Hunters too.) Mom did tell me Anny finally got a duplex for her and her daughter Lilah in Millville. Not the best part, and she has to commute 40 minutes every day for her tiring job fixing fishing boats at Lund's Fisheries in Wildwood Crest. 

Switched to YouTube for this year's Halloween Marathon. I arrived in time for the second half of the 1994 Richard Dawson Family Feud. They only decorated (including with a very ugly paper mache vulture), but some people gave such bad Fast Money answers, it was scary. Caught the entirety of a Super Password episode I saw part of earlier in the week on Buzzr, with Pat Sajak and Rebecca Arthur of Perfect Strangers. The contestants all opened "tricks," like a jumping dinosaur, or "treats," like a propeller beanie cap. 

Bob Barker may have been getting on in years by the time of the 2004 Price Is Right episode, but he was still beloved by the college kids who appeared on the show. One woman said she'd watched him on Truth or Consequences, too...and ironically, she was one of the ones who made it to the Showcases. The first Showcase featured a witch model conjuring prizes with her cauldron (and running afoul of California's strict anti-pollution laws). The second had the witch dealing with a fussy Beverly Hills model trick-or-treater who wanted expensive prizes, including gold bars and a sports car.

Here's this year's Halloween Party, for your enjoyment!

Trick or Treat - Happy Halloween 2025 Spooktacular Marathon

Got my schedule at this point, too. In good news, slightly more hours. I do work next Saturday, but only 1 to 5, which means I'll be able to hit the Farm Market again. Still not enough hours, but after this week, I'll take this.

Stayed on YouTube to finish my holiday with two more vintage Halloween specials. Halloween Is Grinch Night has the Grinch, stirred up by animals howling in a sour-sweet wind, dragging his Paraphernalia Wagon full of wild psychedelic scares down to Whoville. When little Eukeriah Who gets lost in the mountains, he takes it on himself to make sure the Grinch never makes it to town.

The Halloween That Almost Wasn't has Dracula (Judd Hirch) in a tizzy because the Witch (Mariette Hartley) refuses to fly over the moon at midnight and kick off the holiday. Seems she doesn't feel appreciated and demands more even footing with Dracula. While he sputters over sharing the limelight with her, one little girl dressed as a witch reminds her of why she's so important to the holiday.

And here's hoping you had a spectacular Halloween of your own, with all your own little Demon Hunters, marionettes, and Ghostbusters! 

Halloween Dance Party

Began the morning with breakfast, pouring rain, heavy wind, and the second Doc McStuffins Halloween episode. It's a "Hallie Halloween" when Doc is taking the toys around to her cul-de-sac's block party, and Hallie the hippo gets stuck on a witch's broom after she gets out to see a girl dressed like her. She's too scared to go back out at first after a check-up, until Doc and the others remind her that Halloween is fun if you follow the rules, like staying with your group while trick-or-treating and not running off. Gustav the Gulpy Gulpy Gator says "Don't Fence Me In" when his head gets stuck in the fence. Doc searches the Big Book of Boo-Boos for a solution, only to realize that sometimes, you have to go outside the box to help your patient.

Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon putting together the trick-or-treating bags. I first made the bags in 2020, when the pandemic made it necessary to get creative with trick-or-treating. They went over so well, I've made bags for trick-or-treaters and given out traditional candy ever since. That's what that bag of party favors I bought from Westmont Party a couple of weeks ago was for, and the vampire teeth and Moon Pies and bags of Tootsie Roll variety candy were for, too. Had just enough time for a quick lunch before I got ready for work.

Watched Sinners while I worked. This huge hit from earlier in the year about twins who open a nightclub in 1932 Louisiana, only to encounter a supernatural force who wants to use the music to raise his community, was a huge hit earlier this year. I go further into it at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Happy Halloween! - Sinners

Though the rain had ended by quarter after 2, it remained cloudy, windy, and very humid. Not to mention, everything was still soaked. I called Uber for a ride to the school. I actually had to go through two before one picked me up...and they took almost 20 minutes, making me late to the Thomas Sharp School.

I think you can guess no one went outside today. Though it wasn't raining, the playground and blacktop were too wet for games and running around. After the little kids had their snacks in the library, we set them up with two projects. The first, and more complicated, of the two had them gluing Q-Tip "bones" to outlines the teachers drew of their hands to look like skeleton hands. Most of them honestly did pretty good with that, once they got the Q-Tips to actually stick. The second involved them sticking eyes, ears, noses, and other accessories onto Halloween figures - witches, zombies, ghosts, or vampires. They really liked that one, and some of them got really creative with the extra eyes. 

While the skeleton hands pictures dried, we moved the chairs and tables aside for a Halloween dance party. The kids played "Freeze Dance" to "Ghostbusters," both the Disney Goofy and original versions of "Monster Mash," "The Batty Dance," "Do the Garbage," and several songs from KPop Demon Hunters. It was utterly hilarious to see the poses the kids froze in! I hadn't laughed so much in ages. They all loved the bubble wands they won for the best freezes, too. Unfortunately, it got so hot in the library, and the kids got so crazy, we ended up moving them to the cafeteria/gym with the big kids.

Since it still wasn't raining when I finished, I walked home. Wanted to stop at Dollar General and get more Halloween candy, too. Heard a woman tell two teen boys not to come back in. Apparently, they'd been caught shoplifting the day before and hadn't gotten the general idea that this is not a good idea and will get you thrown out.

(Incidentally, it did rain really hard again, about a half-hour after I got in. Thankfully, that ended around 8 PM. I don't think it's rained since.)

Returned to the Disney well for two of their vintage Halloween specials as I worked on the Sinners review. Halloween Hall of Fame from 1977 has Johnathan Winters as a security guard at the Disney studios who discovers a grumpy jack o'lantern (Winters) hiding out in a crystal ball. Seems Jack thinks Halloween just isn't scary enough nowadays. Winters directs him to the shorts "Trick or Treat" and "Pluto's Judgement Day" and the featurette "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" to prove otherwise.

Disney's Halloween Treat is the Disney Channel's Halloween special. A far friendlier jack 'o lantern narrator introduces the cartoons "Donald and the Gorilla," "Mickey's Parrot," "Pluto's Judgement Day," and the Oscar-winning "The Old Mill," along with the Wizard's Duel segment from The Sword In the Stone and a segment on the cat's contribution to horror mythology. The Magic Mirror (Hans Conried) takes over with "Disney's Greatest Villains," a special from 1977 focusing on the best bad guys in Disney movies up to that point. (The 1977 release date does explain the inclusion of Madame Medusa from The Rescuers near the end. The Rescuers had just debuted that summer.) The special ends with what's probably Disney's most famous horror-oriented shorts, the Goofy/Donald/Mickey romp "Lonesome Ghosts" and Donald's nephews teaching him not to mess around with "Trick or Treat." 

Switched to the original 1984 Ghostbusters during dinner. After being fired from Columbia University, paranormal professors Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Ackroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) goes into business for themselves as professional ghost chasers. Business is sparse until classical musician Dana Barrett (Signourney Weaver) insists she's seen a monster in her refrigerator. Venkman's thrilled to take on her case, but as it turns out, she's far from the only one seeing ghosts. After the Ghostbusters catch a slimy spook in a major hotel, they suddenly have more work than they can handle. In fact, they hire a fourth man, Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), to help them out. 

Their secretary Janine (Annie Potts) says she can't help feeling something bad is going to happen. As it turns out, she's right. When an official from the Environmental Protection Agency (William Atherton) insists on shutting down the containment unit holding the ghosts, the spooks break loose. Not to mention, Dana and her nerdy neighbor Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) end up possessed by the demon Gozer. The Ghostbusters are put in jail, until the Mayor (David Marguiles) realizes there's only four men who can save New York from this supernatural menace. Now, it's up to the guys to stop the ghost and the giant marshmallow man, before downtown Manhattan becomes the world's largest charred marshmallow.

The 1989 sequel isn't bad, I still think the 2016 all-female remake gets a bum rap, and I haven't gotten around to seeing the recent movies...but for my money, the original is really all the Ghostbusters anyone needs. This is one of the funniest movies of the 1980's, and certainly one of the funniest horror movies ever made. Murray and Ackroyd stand out as the most and least skeptical of the four, but everyone gets some great lines in. The special effects still hold up really well, too, especially Slimer in the hotel! If you want to find out what the franchise is all about, this is the best place to start.

Finished the night with the soundtracks from Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. The title song of Ghostbusters is by far the best-known song from either of these. It was as big of a hit as the move in 1984, and continues to be frequently played during the Halloween season to this day. I also like the eerie "Magic" by Mick Smiley and the Doo-Wop spoof "Cleanin' Up the Town." The hit from Ghostbusters II was Bobby Brown's "On Our Own," which while not being as ubiquitous as the title song, still managed to get a fair amount of airplay during the summer of 1989. Doug E. Fresh's vibrant rap "Spirit" is the other big number here. 

Here's even more vintage Halloween specials to tide you over until trick or treating!

The Fat Albert Halloween Special

The Wickedest Witch 

Disney's Haunted Halloween (Educational Short) 

DTV Monster Hits

The Trouble With Miss Switch

Miss Switch to the Rescue

Betty Boop's Halloween Party 

Casper the Friendly Ghost: To Boo Or Not to Boo

The Great Bear Scare

Halloween Safety (1985 Educational Short)

The Last Halloween

Buttons and Rusty In Which Witch Is Which? 

Once Upon a Midnight Scary

Before the Storms Came

Began the morning with breakfast and Sheriff Callie's Wild West. "The Great Halloween Robbery" has bandits stealing a giant jack o'lantern full of treats for the entire town. Sheriff Callie, Deputy Peck, and Toby have to search a corn maze for the thieves and the loot. Peck's story of "The Ghost of Scary Prairie" is fictional, but Toby and many of the townspeople think it's real. The duo really get carried away when they see what they think is a ghost riding across the plains and go after it.

Speaking of scary, I learned at work today that not all scares are the fun Halloween kind. About an hour from the end of my shift, I overheard a co-worker doubled over in stomach pain and fever. She was really upset! I looked up her symptoms. They had to send the paramedics for her. She was sitting up when they took her out and looked better, but the head manager said they took her anyway as a precaution. 

Otherwise, this was a pretty quiet morning. Between the cool, windy, cloudy weather and it being close to the end of the month, we just weren't that busy. Most people will probably come later next month, when they start thinking of Thanksgiving. I had no trouble anywhere, including with the carts.

Put on The Halloween Tree while eating lunch when I got home. This 1993 animated version of the Ray Bradbury novel has Bradbury himself narrating the tale of four kids, three boys dressed as a skeleton, a mummy, and a monster, and a feisty girl in a witch costume, who follow their ghostly friend Pip to a spooky tree filled with Jack o'lanterns on Halloween night. The owner of the tree and pumpkin, Mr. Moundshroud (Leonard Nimoy), insists on them following the Pip through 3,000 years of Halloween tradition and horror history, from mummies and leaving food out for spirits in Egypt, to witches and Celtic festivals in Ireland, to gargoyles at Notre Dame in France, to the modern Mexican Day of the Dead celebration. 

Surprisingly sweet look at Halloween history that doesn't get discussed as often as similar traditions for Christmas. I love how devoted to Pip the kids are. They literally follow him through history to help him and won't let Moundshround hurt him once they figure out what he's up to. Charming animated film well worth watching with your kids during October, especially if they have any interest in horror or Halloween itself.

Hurried out to the Thomas Sharp School even before the movie ended. The kids were still pretty rowdy today. I'm glad we were able to get them outside for a little while despite the wind and chill. I don't think we'll be going outside tomorrow! It's supposed to pour all day. I chased the kids around, chuckled as an older boy hid from an energetic younger one, and chatted with the boy and some of the younger girls. We ended up going in early when it it started raining, and I spent the remaining time coloring and working on an artwork of Maple embracing Victor while Pavla fumes in her wedding gown and the enchanted deer Betty looks on. (Betty was supposed to have been Walter the Bear, but like I told the kids, I don't draw animals well.) (Oh, and incidentally, the rain stopped as soon as it started. It was just cold and windy again when I rode home.)

Switched to Young Frankenstein when I got home and while I ate dinner. Fredrick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) travels to Transylvania after he inherits his grandfather's castle. He's not proud of his family's ghoulish legacy, until he discovers his grandfather's private laboratory and wonders if the old man had something after all. He and his assistant Igor (Marty Feldman) find the appropriate massive body, but Igor's mistake with brains leaves the monster (Peter Boyle) less-than-brilliant. Fredrick manages to calm him, until his housekeeper Frou Blucker (whinny) (Cloris Leachman) releases him. Now the monster is running loose and the Inspector (Kenneth Mars) and the townspeople are screaming for both their heads. Not to mention, Fredrick has to figure out what to do about his prim fiancee Elizabeth (Madeline Khan) when he's courting his female assistant Inga (Terri Garr). 

This has been a favorite in my family for as long as I can remember. We're not the only ones who love it, either. Apparently, the cast enjoyed making it so much, they added extra scenes just to keep going! One of Mel Brooks' best movies is highly recommended for fans of Brooks or the cast, those who prefer their scares on the mild side like I do, or families with older kids who'll get a kick out of the horror spoof.

Worked on Maplepunzel for the rest of the night. The moon's glow on the last remaining mirror shard restores everyone to their human forms. The citizens of Hope Springs turn back into humans, including court musicians Eugenia and Mr. Foley. Hilary turns back into her regal self, and she helps Jeff from the mirror. Betty becomes a human again as well and runs to Scott's arms. Hilary haughtily admits that Scott is more than worthy of her ward, while Victor adds that he understands if Betty is no longer interested in their engagement.

Finished the night with two vintage sitcom Halloween and horror episodes as the rain started to come down much harder. We're not the only one having storms close to Halloween. It's "A Dark and Stomy Night" on Silver Spoons. When a storm knocks out the power, Edward insists that Ricky and his friends tell a round-robin ghost story. The boys really get into the tale the concoct, about three brave lads who are stranded in a strange mansion owned by a mad scientist (Edward), a pretty lady (Kate), and a very polite monster (Dexter).

The cops on Barney Miller are dealing with something much scarier than Halloween. Swine flu has decimated the police force, and they've been working nonstop for over 24 hours. Wojo is afraid of needles and tries to avoid the nurse giving them shots, while Harris flirts with her. Barney has his hands full dealing with an elderly couple visiting New York who were robbed by a cab driver and a man who thinks he turns into a "Werewolf" during the full moon. 

Autumn Frights On a Windy Day

Began the morning with breakfast and Jem. In "Trick or Techrat," Jem and the Holograms agree to hold a Halloween night concert in order to restore a beautiful old opera house and help its struggling magician owner. The Misfits aren't thrilled with the attention they're getting and opt to hold their own concert across the street. Meanwhile, the Holograms are trying to convince one of the orphan Starlight Girls that horror is part of the fun at Halloween, which isn't easy when accidents have been plaguing the backstage prep, and then the kid goes missing...

Spent the rest of the early afternoon working on Maplepunzel. Maple, Victor, and Mackie help the animals from Hope Springs clear the shards of glass from the mirrors she ran into off Pavla. Pavla refuses to let them see her or have Maple heal her...but Maple remembers that Pavla did raise her, even if she didn't do the best job, and attempts to heal her anyway. 

Pavla, however, means what she said. Her magic is too dark to be healed. Just as Victor and Mackie run over, Pavla looks in the last remaining shard of glass on the mirror that Walter the Bear nudged in front of her, so she could see that she was still pretty...and screams in horror at what she sees. Maple's gold light and the last light of the setting sun consumes her as the bird monsters surround her. When the light subsides, they're all normal crows...including Pavla, who has taken on her true form as a large red and black crow whose wings are covered in tattered black lace. She and her flock finally fly out the window.

Watched Hard Rock Nightmare on Tubi while I worked. I go further into this very late 80's heavy metal cheese-fest at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Hard Rock Nightmare

Hurried off to the Thomas Sharp School soon as I finished lunch. This time, we spent most of the afternoon in the library. The Tuesday music class was still in the cafeteria/gym when I arrived. Once again, the kids of all ages were annoyingly rowdy in the halls and outside. I had more fun chatting with three of the younger kids who joined me on a bench after I had to take one to the bathroom. The younger kids stayed in the library, where they colored fall and Halloween-related pages and a teacher read the tools book, The Dandelion Seed, and The Wheels On the Bus. Didn't help that it's gotten much colder and cloudier here, and the wind has picked up considerably. 

I went straight home, because Jessa and I were going out to eat at 6. I was feeling like Asian food after the heavy American steakhouse fare at the Pub last week. Jess suggested a new, unique sushi place at the Market Place shopping center in Cherry Hill she'd been wanting to try. Kura Revolving Sushi Bar allows you to order fried food, appetizers, and soups and ramen regularly...but the sushi (and cake desserts) come rolling by you on a conveyor belt. The plates are under a small covered pod. You flip open the pod and take the dishes you want. 

It was one of the most creative ways of serving food I'd ever seen. I just loved watching the food go by, whether I ate it or not, but it really was that good. I had udon noodles with tempura shrimp, California crab rolls, crab rolls wrapped in seaweed (shared those with Jessa, since they were big), shrimp sushi, shrimp fried wontons, and really good seared mackerel sushi. Jessa had vanilla ice cream and a red bean-filled fried fish pastry (which she shared with me) for dessert. I had a slice of thick, rich gooey butter cake. Our sodas came on two robot-like machines with shelves holding the drinks.

Finished the night at home listening to Halloween or horror-related records and CDs. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown isn't quite as well-known as A Charlie Brown Christmas, but it does have its share of good tracks. "The Great Pumpkin Waltz" is probably the best known, but there's also that spooky little "Graveyard Theme" from when the kids are running around in ghost costumes during the credits. 

Witchcraft...! is my only jazz Halloween record. It's an instrumental collection of songs related to witches, horror, night, moons, or the supernatural, like "The Witch" or "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered." I like some of the songs that were new to me when I found the album, like "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" or "Spellbound.'

Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits is from 1974, when Cooper was still fronting his own band. Songs like "I'm Eighteen" and "Teenage Lament '74" are more teen rebellion than goth spookiness. You get more of what made Cooper's shock jock reputation with the explosive "School's Out," "No More Mr. Nice Guy, and "Desperado." 

Monster Mayhem

Began the day with breakfast and Alice's Wonderland Bakery. It's "A Hare-Raising Halloween" when Fergie attempts to follow his friends into the maze near Hearts Castle on Halloween, despite being scared. He does make it out, but his friends still remind him that the bravest thing you can do is admit your fear and not feel you have to do something you're not comfortable with because your friends are doing it. Fergie's so delighted when his horn playing makes the oysters at the beach dance, he decides he wants them to dance for the Queen of Hearts at their upcoming dinner party. "Fergie Turns the Tide" when it turns out that not only are the oysters not used to being in a normal house or at a fancy party, but they're necessary to keep the boat belonging to JoJo and her father from sinking in a storm.

Switched briefly to To Tell the Truth on Buzzr while I got organized. They had the 1991 version hosted by Alex Trebek on as part of their week-long Halloween marathon. I came in just as the panelists were trying to figure out which of three women was part of a group trying to find life on other planets. We also had a lady who had to decide whether a man collected Chinese restaurant menus or invented a vibrating seat belt.

Hurried out to run errands after the cartoon ended...and because it was too gorgeous to stay inside all morning. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was sunny and bright blue and relatively warm, probably in the lower 60's, with no wind. Hit Dollar General first for lollipops to put in the trick-or-treat bags, two boxes of cheap strawberry-watermelon and "Arctic Water" hydration water mix, a birthday card for Keefe next month, a new baby card for Keefe and his family, and sympathy cards for Rose and Craig and their family and for the family of what was my next-door-neighbors in Oaklyn, whose mother just passed away of cancer. Grabbed more candy and a birthday card for Anny (whose birthday is also next month) at Family Dollar.

Went home and put everything away, then had lunch while watching The Raven. This 1963 retelling of the famous Edgar Allen Poe poem has sorcerer Dr. Erasmus Craven (Vincent Price) mourning his recently-deceased wife Leonore (Hazel Court) when a raven flies in his window. Turns out the raven is wizard Dr. Bedlo (Peter Lorre), who was sealed in that form by another wizard, Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff). After Erasmus restores Bedlo's human form, they head to the castle themselves, Bedlo for revenge, Erasmus to see if Bedlo is right and Lenore really is alive. They're joined by Erasmus' daughter Estelle (Olive Sturgess) and Bedlo's son Rexford (Jack Nicholson). Though Scarabus is a charming host at first, it becomes clear that his real reason for bedding Erasmus' wife and letting him stay is to take his magic. Bedlo has his own interests, which he seems to switch every two minutes as he alternately helps and hinders the group. It'll take a duel of magic to see which magician truly is stronger, and who really owns the heart of the fickle Leonore.

This wound up being a surprise. I wasn't expecting something with this cast to end up being...really cute. Price and Karloff keep things elegant, even when the script is at it's silliest. That combination of elegance and goofiness works very well, and Nicholson makes a charming romantic lead. If you're looking for an older horror film with a great cast that's more funny than scary (and can live with it not really having much to do with the poem), this was a lot of fun.

Hurried out to the Thomas Sharp School after the movie ended. The kids were rowdy all afternoon, both in the halls waiting for the bathrooms and outside. I had to argue with the boys to get them in and out of the bathroom, and I had to argue with the kids (especially some of the girls) to get them off the swings and convince them to share. This wasn't helped by there being more kids on the playground than usual. Some of the older kids who didn't want to play games on the black top joined us...which I don't think was the greatest idea. It was too much. There was such a long line for the swings, some kids still didn't get to ride before they went home.

After I got in, I put on Match Game '76. Most of the episodes featured the week with Tom Poston and Barbara Shawma. Gene was delighted in one episode to receive a sequined champagne-colored microphone from a fan. He called it his "Cher" microphone, after the show filming next-door to Match Game. The last show of the night switched to the week with original Price Is Right model Anitra Ford, along with Bill Cullen and Betty White.

Watched Mickey and the Roadster Racers during dinner. "The Haunted Hot Rod" is a legendary ghost rider who is known to turn up in races with those who dare to beat him. Mickey is determined to race him, if he can get around Pete's tricks to remove the competition and win that Jack o'lantern filled with candy! Minnie, Daisy, and Cukoo-Loca become spook removers when "Pete's Ghostly Gala" has three spooky visitors. They're ready to put them in the nearest containment unit, until they learn that the house where the party is really belongs to the ghosts and figure out a way to compromise.

Worked on Maplepunzel while I watched. Hilary is the one who stops the wedding this time. When Pavla attacks her, Betty, and Walter, Scott manages to take the shot, showing Hilary how much he truly loves her ward. Meanwhile, Maple hurries over to Victor. As in the original story, her tears are what heals his blindness and the scars around his eyes. He's thrilled to see and feel her again, and they promise to wed when they return to Wennaria.

Scott isn't as lucky. Maple leaves off kissing Victor just in time to see Pavla completely drain Scott of his youth and vitality. He collapses just as the duo rush over. Maple takes everyone's hands, paws, and hoofs and concentrates on sending their love and caring into Scott to heal him. While they help Scott, Hilary uses the mirror with Jeff to send Pavla's magic back at her, sending her crashing into her own mirrors.

Finished the night at YouTube with horror or Halloween-themed game shows. Horror icons go back a long way on game shows. Peter Lorre appeared on a rather chaotic episode of I've Got a Secret from 1960. Garry Moore discovered that working with children and pets was a lot scarier than Lorre's attempts to let the panel smell and feel various items when he had to wrangle a two-year-old boy, his goat, his lamb, his monkey and nine dogs and get them all onstage.

Hollywood Squares was slightly less insane in 1978. Their "Hollywood Party" had everyone dressing up in costume ala Storybook Squares. Tammy Wynette was Scarlett O'Hara, Elke Sommer was Catherine the Great, George Gobel was a sheik, Mel Brooks was his Native chief character from Blazing Saddles, and Paul Lynde was one of the most unlikely Musketeers in history. The contestants dressed up, too, with the lady making a terrific Phyllis Diller and the man a not-bad Clint Eastwood.

Later shows got into dressing the part, too. Everyone was in costume on the classic Halloween episode of Match Game '90. Charles Nelson Reilly was Superman, his favorite drinking buddy Brett Sommers was a little girl, Vicki Lawrence was Little Red Riding Hood in a very short dress, and host Ross Schafer was a handsome Dracula, but it's ventriloquist Ronn Lucas and his dragon puppet Scorch who come up with the scariest costume of all. 

All three contestants dressed up on Whammy! The All New Press Your Luck in 2002. The costumes were all pretty topical, too. The one who was the late Ozzy Osborne kept getting slammed with 3-D Whammies and went out pretty early in the second round. It was between the feisty woman dressed as Judge Judy and the very big guy in a bridal gown and a fright wig who claimed to be Dennis Rodman in a wedding dress. In the end, she hit a Whammy, letting the basketball bride earn enough for those season tickets he kept saying he wanted.

Not all Halloween game shows involved costumes. The short-lived Wipeout from 1987 was content with Peter Tomarken wearing a mask in the beginning of the episode and the contestants taking candy from a small Halloween pumpkin when they won. Halloween seemed to be lucky, considering how well the champion contestant did in that episode.

Show these spook-tacular Halloween games to the guests at your Halloween party and see which ghouls stop to play along!

I've Got a Secret (1960)

Hollywood Squares (1978)

Wipeout (1987)

Match Game (1990)

Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck (2002)

Matches and Lovely Ladies

Began the morning with breakfast and Halloween Songs and Sounds. The first half of this Disney collection is mildly spooky songs featuring either Goofy and Mickey or the chorus. Mickey's "They Don't Scare Me" and the hilarious "The Werewolf Song" are probably the best of the Disney character material. We also get two Winnie the Pooh songs, "Heffalumps and Woozels" from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day and Tigger's "I Want to Scare Myself" from the special Boo to You, Winnie the Pooh! The remaining tracks are all sounds...and as they're likely taken from the later version of Disney's Haunted Mansion sounds album, they're all really too spooky to go with the kiddie songs on the first half.

Hurried off to work the moment the CD ended. Work was a little busier when I arrived, likely due to the Eagles-Giants game just starting. It cleared out pretty quickly after that. Though it did pick up again around 4-4:30 as the game ended and I had some trouble gathering carts then, it never became overwhelmingly busy. Considering what the carts looked like when I arrived, everyone must have come in the morning, before the game. Nice weather may have been a factor, too. Though there were some clouds, it was mostly sunny, windless, and warmer than it has been, probably in the lower 60's. 

(Oh, and the Eagles got themselves together well enough this time at home to beat the Giants 38-28. Good thing they're off next week. There's a couple of important guys who need to heal from injuries, including Saquon Barkley. Not to mention, it'll be busy enough next weekend with people celebrating leftover Halloween parties without an Eagles game, too.)

Had dinner when I got home, then watched two Match Game marathons. The first one was another look at episodes that are rare in one way or another. Either they were damaged and only recently restored, like episode 7 from 1973 with Bob Barker, Richard Thomas, and Michael Lerned or the day after Christmas episode from 1978 with Joe Santos and Fannie Flagg, or they had humor that would be offensive today. The anything-goes syndicated episodes were particularly prone to this. Gene made a "mudball" comment at a contestant in a 1981 syndicated episode that would not only never fly today, but got that episode banned from the airwaves. There's also weeks that haven't been officially cleared by their celebrities but have episodes floating around on YouTube, including the Steve Kanaly week on syndication in 1979 and some of Jimmie Walker's syndicated episodes. 

Buzzr has restored at least twenty episodes or more to the rotation, including two long-lost nighttime episodes. Episode 11 ends with a contestant fully striking out and taking off afterwards. Richard does a comic recitation about a bricklayer who loses control of his wares instead. Episode 74 features Brett trying to be an elegant lady like Eva Gabor with her fan and pearls. It also has Gene making a mildly derogatory comment to a cheerful Asian contestant that may have been the reason this episode disappeared to begin with.

See some of the rarest Match Game episodes of all in this unusual marathon!

Match Game - Around the Years Special Episodes 

Match Game Productions also honored the late June Lockhart, who died on Thursday at the ripe old age of 100, with a marathon featuring her one week on the show. She appeared during Christmas week 1973, which also happened to mark the first of three appearances of suave character actor Jack Cassidy. She got to see Charles appear as Santa on Christmas Day, complete with curly beard and (for some odd reason) a southern accent. The show also made jokes about the show she's still most associated with, Lassie. Brett got censored for her rather pointed answer about what Lassie's least-favorite movie he ever made was in one infamous later episode.

Honor this lovely lady with a jolt of holiday hilarity - no censoring needed!

June Lockhart Tribute - Featuring Episodes with June and Lassie References

Finished the night working on Maplepunzel. Maple, Mackie, and Walter the Bear Cub make their way into the dungeon. Maple turns the bird-monsters guarding Scott into ordinary birds, while Walter gets the keys and Mackie frees Scott. Betty the deer is able to free herself, running away from the ladies of the court Pavla ordered to watch over her. Scott's tired and whispering and not in the best shape, and he still insists on helping the others stop the wedding. He's also delighted to learn that Maple's powers are not only back, but as Mackie tells her, they revolve around what's in her heart, not growing on her head. Maple and Betty lead them to the throne room to stop the wedding, following the depressing dirges Pavla is so fond of. 

Afternoon Delight

Started off the day with a quick breakfast and the classic Donald Duck and Chip and Dale short "Crazy Over Daisy." In the early 1900's, Donald rides a huge wheeled bike to woo Daisy with chocolates. Chip and Dale drive him crazy, but his way of dealing with them doesn't impress Daisy.

Hurried off to work after that. Work was, once again, no trouble whatsoever. It got a little busier later in the day, and I had a slightly harder time keeping up with the carts, but it still could have been worse. I was in and out quickly and with little fuss.

After I got home, I quickly changed and went right back out again. The weather was gorgeous, sunny, breezy, and just warm enough, probably in the lower 60's. It was too nice to hang out inside all day! I had lunch at the Legacy Diner. They were still fairly busy at quarter of 2, but I did get a good booth near the window. Oh, yum! The three enormous pumpkin pancakes were fat and fluffy, the best I ever tasted. Had some decent bacon, too.

Rode down to Haddon Heights next for their Fall Fest on Station Avenue after a quick stop at the Audubon WaWa for money. I parked next to the bounce houses and mini-scrambler ride, and I saw a mini merry-go-round that had already been shut down. The block where Anthony's and Market Links is featured craft booths, a table selling children's books for Halloween, and food trucks, while local services advertised on the other side of the tracks. They were still mobbed when I arrived, even though it started around 10. 

I ended up at the Haddon Heights Library, which advertised a book sale. They didn't have nearly as much there as Mt. Laurel or Cherry Hill does at theirs, but I did learn that their children's room is in the basement (and the stairwell area is brightened by a lovely mural). Ended up with two copies of a Peanuts book I have for Amanda and Lauren's Christmas bags and boxes.

Doc's Finds was also very busy. I didn't have a lot of room to check out their bins of records, especially the dollar bins under the main shelves, but I did make some decent finds. Most of my K-Tel collections are from the 70's, but I did manage to dig out two from 1983, Starlite and Hit Explosion. I also pulled two vintage children's albums from the dollar bins: 

Golden Records retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with Art Carney

Disney retelling of The Story of Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates 

Also found one 2-disc CD set:

Aerosmith - Gold 

I also got to chat with the owner a bit. He admired my Pikachu and Eevee backpack (apparently, he's a big Pokemon fan) and wondered where I'd been. I told him about the after-school program and how much fun I was having with the kids.

Returned to the Market Links Cafe next to get a smoothie. I went with "The Purity," which is apples, cinnamon, oats, milk (I went with almond), and honey. Oh, yum. Though it was a bit gritty, it did indeed taste like an apple pie in a cup. Sipped it outside as I watched the kids whirl around on the colorful Scrambler. 

Stopped at the Oaklyn WaWa on the way home. I was still thirsty, so I thought I'd try something different. I love that they have one of those Coke Freestyle machines. It's fun to make your own flavors! I ended up with Coke Zero Peaches and Cream (peach and cream). Not bad. I tasted peach and vanilla, so I knew it at least worked.

Put on Zombies 4 when I got home. I go further into the most recent entry in Disney's light-hearted horror musical parables at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Family Fun Saturday - Zombies 4: Rise of the Vampires

Had dinner and spent the next few hours watching tonight's Match Game marathon. With Gene and many of the panelists (including Brett and Charles) having starred on Broadway or done musicals, it was likely inevitable that dancing would turn up on the show. Indeed, two of the show's semi-regulars, Bobby Van and his wife Elaine Joyce, had danced on film and on Broadway. Bobby danced in several major MGM movies of the 50's, including Kiss Me Kate. Elaine was the lead in Sugar, the first Broadway musical version of Some Like It Hot, in 1972. 

There was the time in 1975 when Allen Ludden and Betty White were on the same panel. A lady insisted she'd belly dance if she won money. She did win $5,000...but the music department played "The Star Spangled Banner!" That didn't stop Brett and Betty from doing their own interpretations of belly dancing. Joyce Bullifant got to show off her own early dance training in 1979 when she did a terrific jitterbug with a contestant who was a champion performer, complete with the music department kicking in an instrumental swing tune.

Some of the contestants were darn good dancers, too. There was the jazz dancer Richard drooled over in 1976 who eventually showed off a few high kicks. A tap dance teacher taught Gene a few steps in a syndicated episode. Gene himself would occasionally break out a vaudeville soft shoe routine to cover a slow panelist or just when the pace was flagging.

Bring your dancing shoes along to this swinging marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Dance Party Marathon

Birth of Fall

Began the day with breakfast and The Muppet Show. Hard rock star Alice Cooper was the other guest associated with horror who appeared on the show, this time in the third season. The Muppets played on his ghoulish reputation with a story where he tries to sell the Muppets' souls, but Gonzo is the only taker. Meanwhile, teeth complain about a toothache, Pigs In Space are turned into ghostly outlines by a virus, and Robin sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Work was pretty much the same deal it had been on Wednesday. We were dead the entire morning. It got a little steady around 11:30, then went right back to being dead. Like I said, we're between holidays, the next major holiday isn't really food-oriented anyway, and the weather remains gorgeous. It was sunny and windy, but not quite as warm as it has been, likely in the lower 60's. 

Got my schedule here, too. In good news, I only work Sunday afternoon and Wednesday morning next week. I asked for Halloween off (we're never busy anyway), but I didn't expect to get Saturday! In bad news, that means a really bad paycheck the week after. 

Headed home after work, then changed and briefly went right back out. I bought a pepperoni-stuffed pretzel and two regular pretzels for lunch. Got them at the A&A Pretzel Shop, then rode home.

Had lunch while watching Paw Patrol. "Pups Save the Trick or Treaters" when Mayor Humdinger's giant spider costume steals all of the trick or treat candy. They make use of a marshmallow web Marshall inadvertently created to catch him. "Pups Save an Out of Control Mini Patrol" when Alex accidentally takes Daring Danny X's new rocket bike while delivering cow shampoo to Katie. Chase and Marshall keep him from ending up in the bay.

Rode to the Thomas Sharp School after the cartoon ended. Though the teacher did read a book about various kinds of tools and their uses after snack time, we were mainly outside. I had to settle a lot of arguments over the swings! They all really love them, but there's only two. I told them I'd choose who went next and would keep them from hitting each other. They love it when I push them! The girls say I push really high. We had a somewhat smaller group than usual that disappeared quicker than usual. The school was apparently holding a "trunk or treat" event on the blacktop in the back of the school later in the evening. It was just starting as I left.

At this point, I also got two big announcements. First of all, my fourth nephew was born this afternoon! Keefe's wife Julia had her son, Elijah Jackman, and mother and son are apparently doing just fine. Second, Jessa texted me to say Rose's husband Craig's father just passed away and asked me if I could come to his funeral tomorrow. (I can't. I'm working in the morning.) 

Made a quick stop at the Speedy Mart on Collings Street after I got out. They were really busy with teens from Collingswood High getting snacks and drinks. I just bought bagels and a Propel.

Watched Match Game '76 while eating dinner. Tom Poston and Laugh-In comedienne Barbara Sharma made their only appearances on the 1973-1982 run of the show this week. Neither played especially well, though Tom Poston at least had a sense of humor about it. 

Moved to YouTube after dinner for a rare Halloween special. Boo! is another attempt at a Halloween variety show, this one coming from Canada in 1982. It's even stranger than Paul Lynde's special. Monsters, including a rather adorable orange-haired Frankenstein, appear in a series of blackout sketches. The wolfman is hypnotized to not go crazy at the mention of the full moon, Dracula and his Countess sing "If Our Friends Could See Us Now," and truckers discuss the death of the variety show on regular TV. (Real variety shows had just gone out of fashion in the late 70's.) Dionne Warwick sings "Deja Vu" and "Just the Way You Are," the latter to Frankenstein's monster, and Rip Taylor appears as a prisoner with a few screws loose and sells his wares to aliens in a bar.

Jessica Fletcher recreates another Halloween favorite in Murder She Wrote. Dorian Beecher (Thom Bray), a nerdy young man who teaches poetry at a private school in Vermont, calls Jessica to act as his mother and impress the father (Doug McClure) of his sweetheart (Karlene Crockett). Dorian is at odds with bullying riding instructor Nate Findley (Barry Williams), until he's found dead with his head missing after witnessing "The Night of the Headless Horseman." Dorian is arrested for the crime, but Jessica doesn't think he's capable of murder. She realizes the obnoxious Findley had other enemies, including the town dentist (Charles Siebert) whose fiancee ran off with Findley. 

Winds of Fall

Began the morning with breakfast and The Scooby Doo Show. Mystery Inc ends up in Salem for Halloween when a friend invites them to the spooky house she just inherited. An old caretaker warns them away when they arrive, claiming the witch ancestor of the girl has returned from the grave...and worse yet, she looks like their friend. While Shaggy and Scooby prepare their trick-or-treating costumes, the others explore Salem's notorious witch-dunking past and try "To Switch a Witch" and find out what's really behind the spooky magic in Salem.

Switched to the second half of Supermarket Sweep while getting organized for grocery shopping. The episode I caught looked like a mid-90's tournament of contestants who had played before and lost. No wonder they all got far more time than usual for these groups. Only one team got anything resembling a good score, though. They did well on the first two questions in the Bonus Round, but the third one was a reference to Roman numerals you would probably only understand if you knew something about Latin.

Hurried out to run errands next. Hit Dollar Tree first to find rope for my cowgirl outfit. I was hoping to get a plastic sheriff's badge or plastic pistols too, but I didn't see them. I did get Moon Pies for the trick-or-treat bags. and cute Halloween cards for Mom, Keefe, and his family and Lauren and her parents. Hit Sprouts after a brief peek at Target. (Which is surprisingly still into Halloween. The Acmes are, too. Dollar Tree is half-Christmas.) Got coconut milk, dried apricots, soda, sparkling water, granola bars, and ginger molasses cookies from the bakery. (That's their seasonal cookie flavor.) 

Sprouts had been quiet. The Acme was even more so. I had no trouble picking up grapes, Cliff Bars were on a decent sale, and I had online coupons for yogurt. They actually had the Dannon Light Pumpkin Pie. I hadn't seen it for a while at the Audubon Acme. Grabbed a slice of white cake for a special dessert this weekend from the bakery clearance racks. Since they were out of Fresca, I grabbed two of the Diet Cokes With Lime. Grabbed a pack of two turkey and cheddar sandwiches on pretzel rolls for lunch.

Threw on The Muppet Show while I ate lunch and put everything away when I got home. Elegant horror icon Vincent Price became the first of two spooky guest stars to appear on the show in the late first season. He and Kermit discuss gourmet cooking with a distinguished panel (including a very hungry Muppet monster) and learn about the fine art of horror acting. Meanwhile, Gonzo and Fozzie are nervous when Price and Uncle Deadly turn up on the doorstep of their haunted mansion, one Muppet monster eats another (and sings about it), and the Muppet Newscaster reads a story about living furniture consuming its owners. 

Actually got off to the Thomas Sharp School a bit early. Good, because we had quite a few kids today. They were all excited because a fire truck and ambulance came by earlier in the day in honor of Fire Prevention Month. They taught them fire safety and gave them red plastic fire hats. That brought back a lot of memories. We also got red plastic fire hats in October, only instead of the fire fighters coming to us, we would walk to the Cape May Fire Hall and Museum on Washington Street to learn about fire safety and fighting fires in the past from them.

They were all still really wound up from the fire truck visit, which is likely why they were so crazy outside. There was a lot of arguing over the swings. I wish there were more than two of them! Some of the girls in particular would remain on the entire hour if allowed and will throw a fit if they have to get off. I admire their spunk, but they do have to take turns. The weather was still a bit blustery and cloudy, but a bit warmer than yesterday. It was so nice, all of the kids regardless of age once again remained outside until the session ended.

Hurried straight home after that. Jessa asked if she could bring a friend to dinner...but she didn't say it was a guy friend. He seemed nice enough, and he did pay for our meals at the Pub, but he mentioned a GED, spent a lot of time complaining about how the suburbs had spread, and had no idea that Shop-Rite and Marlton go a lot further back than the 80's and 90's. (I've seen houses in Marlton that date to the 1840's, and online research reveals that Shop-Rite began in 1946.) My salmon sandwich and crispy fries were delicious (if messy), but I just felt a little awkward.

Finished the night with Shock 'Em Dead, a heavy metal horror comedy from 1991, at Tubi. I go further into this B-pic take on the Faust legend at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Shock 'Em Dead

Night of the Great Pumpkin

Began the morning with breakfast and two quick Disney shorts. Chip and Dale think Donald's "Trailer Horn" is an amusement park ride and keep jumping on it. Don doesn't have much luck chasing them away. "Chip and Dale" is the first short where they're named. Donald chopped down their log for his fireplace. They have to keep it from getting burned.

As I hurried off to work, I didn't see a huge branch that had fallen over the metal railings on the ramp into Oaklyn and rode smack into it. Ouch! I broke it, but it slammed me hard in the side of my head before I did. It hurt when it happened, but seems to be all right other than a bruise and scraped spot now. 

Fortunately, that was the worst thing that happened all day. The Acme wasn't busy in the slightest this morning. It picked up a little bit around 11:30-12, then died out again. We're between holidays, and Halloween isn't a big food holiday anyway. More people will be buying candy, party trays, or ready-made food than actual dinners. I was in and out with no trouble.

Put on It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown as I ate lunch when I got home. While the rest of the Peanuts gear up for Halloween, Linus is more excited about waiting for the Great Pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. He claims that on Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin will bring toys to all the good little children. Against her better judgement, Sally joins him. Elsewhere, Charlie Brown has trouble trick or treating, and Snoopy prepares for Veteran's Day by fighting the Red Baron. 

Chuck's insistence that Snoopy learn to do something useful ends with him learning magic and putting on a show. It's Magic, Charlie Brown when Snoopy turns Chuck invisible and can't figure out how to change him back. Chuck's upset, until he realizes that Lucy can't pull the football away if she can't see him coming...

Headed off to the Thomas Sharp School even before the cartoon ended. We spent most of the time outside again. Though it's still windy and was a bit colder, it remains too nice to have them inside. I get so many requests to push them on the swings, even from the ones who are capable of pushing themselves! (Some of the girls in particular can really be "one with the air," as I told them.) We were out for so long, they were just moving the kids to the blacktop area in the back with the older ones as I left.

Watched Match Game '76 when I got home. Donald Ross, the long-time comedy and mystery writer husband of Patty Deusch (who could get just as strange as his wife), joined two wonderful sitcom comediennes this week, Betty White and the wonderful Isobel Sanford. Sanford in particular was a warm and grounding presence, and I wish she'd been on the show more often. 

Spent the rest of the night working on Maplepunzel. Hilary and Queen Gertie rally the troops. Hilary sends Foley the Rabbit and Eugenia the Bird to get the rest of the enchanted animals of Hope Springs to help. Queen Gertie sends Mackie, Maple, Hilary, and Jeff in the mirror on ahead to rescue Scott, Victor, and Betty and open the door to the castle before she and Mr. Eldridge show up with the army, since Maple knows her way around.

Mackie stays with Maple after the others leave. He realizes he's only seen power like hers in one other person...his late wife Penelope. Maple is Anna, the child Pavla took from them. Maple realizes it matches her story, and what Mackie says is true. Gertie comes in as they embrace and asks them both to join them for dinner. Mackie is happy to accompany the two loveliest ladies in the kingdom to dinner, even as Gertie snarks at him.

Switched to The Wild Wild West after dinner. "The Night of the Puppeteer" has James West looking for an assassin after a puppet show nearly kills a Supreme Court Justice. He's led to a room filled with life-sized marionettes, directed by a deformed man who was using his puppet crew to get back at the men who arrested him on false charges and disfigured him.

Finished the night at YouTube with The Paul Lynde Halloween Special. This is probably the most 1976 piece of programming in existence. Lynde, dodging the Osmonds trick-or-treating, ends up at a spooky manor owned by Billie "Witchiepoo" Hayes and his housekeeper Margaret Hamilton, aka the Wicked Witch of the West. They give him three wishes. The first has him as a glamorous trucker with Roz Kelly as his girl and Tim Conway as his rival for her affections. In the second, he's a sheikh, Florence Henderson is the beautiful British object of his affections, and Conway is a Foreign Legion officer. He gives the witches the third, creating the Halloween disco of their dreams. In between, Betty White as Miss Halloween is disgusted that Lynde is her date, and we have KISS playing three of their biggest songs, "Detroit Rock City," "Beth," and "King of the Night Time World." 

Autumn Blue and Gold

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and a spooky episode of the 2002 version of Strawberry Shortcake. After getting scared in the woods during a hike, the kids are convinced "The Blueberry Beast" lives in that spooky old house. Strawberry is determined to prove that their imaginations are running away with them, and just because the house is in bad shape doesn't mean the owner isn't nice.

Headed out to run errands next. I had donations to drop at Goodwill, then went around front. Found a brown cowboy hat that was better than the one I picked up a few years ago, a disc with the Lord Peter Wimsey episodes Clouds of Witness and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, the first season of Boardwalk Empire, and two CDs: 

Barenaked Ladies - Snack Time

The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Boogie Woogie Christmas

Had lunch at Antonio's Pizza on Market Street. They're a pretty typical hole-in-the wall in a small shopping center that likely hasn't been remodeled since 1972, if the blonde wood paneling and Formica booths are any indication. They do make great pizza, though. The tomato-basil-mozzarella and mushroom were excellent. Washed them down with a Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi. Stopped quickly at Desserts By Design a few blocks down and got a chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream icing and fall sprinkles. I said hi to the lady working there, but she was busy dealing with customers and didn't have time for talk.

Took the longer way home down Market Street and across the border of Audubon and Westmont. It was too nice to not be out and enjoy the weather! The sun was shining, and although it remains windy, it was also warmer, probably in the upper 60's-lower 70's. Couldn't have been a nicer day in October. The leaves are finally starting to change colors here, too, turning shades of burnished gold and russet that glowed in the mid-afternoon sun.

Put on spooky-themed episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at home while I got organized. Tigger convinces Piglet to tell a scary story of "The Monster Frankenpooh," but Piglet (and Pooh) get a little too caught up in it. "Things That Go Piglet In the Night" has Piglet running off when he hears scary noises in the night, and the rest of the Hundred Acre Woods residents chasing after him. It's a "Pooh Moon" when the group is camping and Pooh thinks the moon is made of honey. While he and Piglet try to find if this is true, the others think they were abducted by the Grab-Me-Gotcha.

Went to work even before the cartoon ended. The kids were really antsy today, not helped by the younger ones ending up having snacks in the library due to the school's music class running late. I had trouble taking five of the girls to the bathroom. The two smallest took forever to come out. The three older ones wouldn't stop running, laying on the floor, and yelling in the halls. They fooled around so much, they accidentally knocked down a banner hanging on the walls. I wasn't happy with any of them.

It's a good thing we ended up spending the rest of the session outside. The kids got to let out that pent-up energy and enjoy the gorgeous day. Frankly, it was too beautiful to have them play inside. I did have to argue over the swings with some of the kids, but I also had a nice chat with two of the younger girls later in the afternoon, and the one boy who needed to use the bathroom was a perfect gentleman. It was so gorgeous, we just turned the few remaining younger kids loose with the older kids playing ball games on the black top when I left.

It was too nice to go straight home after work. I rode around in West Collingswood for a little while instead. West Collingswood Heights is the neighborhood between Newton Creek, Route 70, and the two Pikes. Though there's a few newer houses and condo rental buildings, most of the houses date to between the late 1800's and the 1930's. Some of them are actually quite lovely, with their turrets and wide porches.

I watched Studio 666 when I got in. This was originally going to be my musical review for tonight, but...this spoof of slasher flicks featuring the Foo Fighters wasn't really a musical. Though it did have some amusing moments, it was mostly way too bloody for my taste. Doesn't help that I'm not that big of a fan of the Foo Fighters, either. The Foo Fighters rent a house where another hard rock band supposedly died in the 90's, only to be stalked by the same killer who eliminated the band. This is strictly for fans of the Foo Fighters, hard rock, or cheep, bloody horror.

My actual review ended up being Murder In the Blue Room. I go further into this equally cheap but far more palatable horror murder mystery at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Murder In the Blue Room

Kids and Games

Began the day with breakfast and the 2018 Muppet Babies. It's "Happy Hallowaca," but Fozzie's upset that his lederhosen costume is funny, not scary. He tries hard to scare his friends, until Animal turns into a ghost and really gets scary! Now Fozzie has to make him laugh to get him back to normal. Summer tells "The Teeth Chattering Tale of the Haunted Pancakes" when Kermit won't eat Miss Nanny's ghost-shaped pancakes. When Kermibod won't try them either, the Witch of Trying New Things (Summer) turns them into real ghosts until he admits that maybe something new isn't so scary after all.

Headed out to run errands first. I needed to drop off my write-in votes in the mail and grab Shout at Dollar General. Picked up the candy for the trick-or-treat bags there, too. Got to try Oreo Reeces Cups. Not bad. The top is white, and there's big crunchy bits inside the peanut butter that might be a little too big.

Spent the rest of the morning doing research on the local towns. I've lived in Camden County for almost 20 years now, and I don't know as much about them as I do Cape May or Wildwood. I looked up several local historical societies. I don't know if I really will ever write them, but it's interesting to see the historical photos in my Facebook feed.

Watched the original The Old Dark House from 1932 while I worked. Stranded at the title house during a huge storm, a group of people, including a chorus girl (Lillian Bond), her Scottish protector (Charles Laughton), a married couple (Gloria Stuart and Raymond Massey), and their urbane friend (Melvyn Douglas). The owners, Horace (Ernest Theisger) and Rebecca (Eva Moore) Femm, have secrets in locked rooms that they'd rather keep secret, including a 102-year-old father (Elspeth Dudgeon) and a very scary mute butler (Boris Karloff).

Yeah, this is the original old dark house movie. Though some of it does move rather slow, there's also some terrific spooky acting turns from Karloff, from Dudgeon (who is so good as the father, even the cast didn't realize she was a man), from Laughton, and Douglas as the unbelieving friend. Look around for this one if you want to see where a lot of haunted house cliches got started.

Switched to Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special while eating lunch. Bugs tries to outwit Witch Hazel, while Sylvester dodges a huge Tweety and tries to tell Porky the hotel they're stranded at isn't that friendly and Daffy and Speedy Gonzalez deal with one of Witch Hazel's spells. Not the strongest plot ever, but at least, unlike the Easter specials, they did choose cartoons that were horror-themed or set around Halloween to showcase.

Headed to the Thomas Sharp School after that ended. The kids were really antsy today. They could barely sit through Skippyjohn Jones before we took them outside, and they were really crazy in the halls around the bathroom. Good thing it was cloudy and still gale-force windy, but not raining like last night. I pushed the kids on the swings while their friends looked for the fire truck and dog-walkers going by. We listened to "You're Welcome" from Moana, "Let It Go" and "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" from Frozen, "Golden" and "Your Idol" from KPop Demon Hunters, "The Train Song," "Do the Garbage," and "Candy Cane Crush." 

Stopped at Crown Chicken and Gyro on the way home. Picked up a chicken cheese steak and fries. The fries are still good. The cheese steak was way too messy, with too much ketchup and mayo dripping all over. I think I'll stick to their fish sandwich next time.

Watched Match Game '76 as I ate. Saw the tail end of the week with Janice Pennington, then moved straight into the next week. Soap star Janice Lynde, one of the original stars of The Young and the Restless, made her only appearance on the show. She's joined by cranky Joey Bishop and eternally unique Patti Deusch. 

Spent the rest of the night working on Maplepunzel. Pavla goes down to her dungeon, where Scott is being held prisoner. She's keeping him heavily drugged with Valerian and held by magic chains that tighten the more he struggles. He remains defiant, sneering at her obsession with status and insisting that he loves Betty no matter what. Eventually, she pulls a tight black hood over his head and tells her crow monsters that they can do what they want with him before she flounces off.

Finished the night watching game shows from Nickelodeon you might not remember. After the success of Double Dare in 1986, they jumped into the game show market in a big way. Get the Picture and Think Fast were crosses between Double Dare, Classic Concentration, and Dotto. Picture had kids answering questions to figure out what a connect-the-dot picture was. Fast had more to do with memory, as they had to remember where certain pictures were. The end game had them trying to remember which goofy person or item stuffed in a locker matched a locker on the other side. 

Make the Grade was a little more imaginative, and though it did involve stunts, was closer to Nick's first pure quiz show. In this case, three kids answer questions arranged by subject (music, cats and dogs, science, history) and grade (kindergarten through 12th). "Fire Drills" lets them play a stunt. Winner takes the "Honors Round," answering 7 questions from three categories in 45 minutes. Fast-paced game play and difficult questions make this one of Nick's more interesting Double Dare imitations, and an old childhood favorite of mine. 

Nick got more into its pure stunt shows. Wild and Crazy Kids from 1990 was just what the title implied. Three hosts (including a young Cuba Gooding Jr.) watched as kids or kids and their parents completed in stunt relay races in a certain location, Raging Waters in LA in the episode I have here. Legends of the Hidden Temple crosses this with history and a Double Dare-style bonus round. Two teams of kids answer questions about a legend related by talking African mask Olmec in the beginning of the show, then compete in stunts related to the story. Winners get to run through the title temple and find the missing object.

Brainsurge from 2009 was another rare Nick foray into quizzes. Kids play a series of mini-games and videos. Two kids are eliminated after each round, pulled back into the rather terrifying huge head behind them or sent down the "river of slime." The last kid standing has to figure out a pattern on a board. The creepy head notwithstanding, this was honestly pretty exciting stuff. I can see why they briefly revived this on Nicktoons in 2014. It's genuinely fun, enough to be nominated for a best game show Emmy in 2009.

Nick Arcade debuted during the height of the "console wars" of the early 90's. Two teams of two kids answer questions and guide "Mikey" around a computer-generated background (space, in this episode). The stunts here have them playing video games (including at least one real-life one) to earn points. The bonus round has the winning team playing in a computer generated version of the games to win prizes. The cast of Clarrisa Explains It All pits parents against kids in the episode I have here. 

Get wild and crazy with some of the earliest forays into game shows at Nickelodeon!

Think Fast (1989)

Make the Grade (1989)

Wild and Crazy Kids (1990)

Get the Picture (1991)

Nick Arcade (1992)

Legends of the Hidden Temple (1993)

BrainSurge (2009)

The Town Picnic

Began the morning with breakfast and listening to the Sounds of Vancouver 2010 CD. This was the official release for the Winter Olympics that year, and it actually has some pretty decent material for something I picked up out of the cheap bin at FYE. (It was only $1.99!) "The Closing Ceremony Fanfare," "Olympic Fanfare and Theme," and Entrance of the Athletes" are appropriately stirring. "Let's Have a Party" with Eva Avila, Nikki Yanfosky, and Derek Miller is pure fun, while Neil Young and Nickelback go darker with "Long May You Run" and "Burn It to the Ground." "The Maple Leaf Forever" by Michael Buble is lovely...but the subsequent "Made In Canada" medley drags on forever. Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" is a lot more interesting.

I headed out around quarter of 1. Oaklyn finally had its Town Picnic this afternoon between 12 and 3. There were lots of tables filled with handicrafts from local artists, a DJ playing everything from "Golden" to "Magical Mystery Tour," and a few booths from various Oaklyn municipal facilities. I talked to the teacher at the Oaklyn Education Foundation table. Turns out she had been a pre-school teacher at the Oaklyn School for 8 years. She taught older grades before that, but she enjoyed working with the youngest kids the most. We talked a bit about how much we loved working with the youngest students.

Had lunch next. The Civic Association had tables with free hot dogs, meatball sandwiches, chips, cole slaw, and sodas in the very back of the parking lot between Tonewood Brewery and the school. (Apparently, the burgers weren't ready yet at that point, and the heavy wind knocked the pasta salad over and scattered it on the blacktop.) I had a hot dog, meatballs without the roll, cole slaw, and a Diet Pepsi. The meatballs and hot dogs were honestly pretty good, especially the huge meatballs! Grabbed a chocolate cupcake for dessert. They had tables that let you cover your cupcakes in Halloween sprinkles. There was also free water ice, but the line was so long, I didn't have the time for it.

The strong wind may have driven all of the vendors crazy, but it was useful for me. I helped two of the vendors gather their wares when they were blown over, a lady who made lovely coasters and key chains from yarn embroidery, and a sweet older woman in a wheelchair who sold flowers made from pipe cleaners. I chatted with the lady who sold the yarn items and learned a bit about yarn needlepoint. I've tried crocheting, but I always lose interest because I can never keep count, and my rows always end up uneven. Not to mention, I tend to lose interest before I've barely finished larger projects. I wonder if yarn needlepoint might be a tad easier and quicker to figure out. I bought a colorful yarn key chain for Lauren from the yarn seller and three pipe cleaner flowers for Lauren, Amanda, and me from the older lady.

Work was even less of a problem. We were dead the entire afternoon. It got mildly steady when the Eagles game ended around 4, then went right back to being dead. Everyone was either out enjoying the sunny, warm weather, or attending all the local events like the Town Picnic that were cancelled last week due to the nor'easter. I got in and out with no trouble whatsoever.

(The Eagles had a few more problems with the Minnesota Vikings, but apparently came back in the second half to win the game 28-22.)

Took a shower when I got home, then had dinner and went straight into tonight's Match Game marathon. Three Price Is Right models made appearances on the 1973-1982 run of the show. Janice Pennington and Anitra Ford appeared within a month of each other in 1976. Janice's episodes were just on Buzzr this week, in fact (which may be why the YouTube channel's owner ran this marathon). Sultry Anitra only just passed her episodes for re-runs in 2019...and I'm so glad she did. She had one of the funniest weeks of 1976. Richard Dawson spent the week flirting with a gorgeous blonde contestant who not only kept on winning, but became the biggest winner on the sho up to that point, with over $20,000.

The Barker's Beauty who appeared the most on - and got the most out of - the show was feisty Texan Holly Hallstrom. She was a semi-regular later in the run, starting in 1978 and appearing throughout the syndicated run, long after the show left CBS. Holly became known for either wearing tight tops and outfits like the red and white striped off-the-shoulder dress she sported in 1980, or honoring her Texan heritage with cowboy hats and vests. She was also an ardent feminist (as Bob Barker would discover to his chagrin later), complaining about the chauvinistic ideals of the Bo Derek movie 10 a question joked about. She also got to hear a young man admit that he wasn't too happy with his new marriage, a rarity for game shows, on a PM episode.

Come on down and match with three of the loveliest ladies to model prizes on The Price Is Right! 

Match Game Sunday Classics - Match Game With Barker's Beauties 

Oh, and happy birthday to my best friend Lauren! She made it a girl's day out and went to Crossroads with her former co-workers Heather and Sarena. After the mall, they took her to an Applebee's in the area. (She got a blue drink that admittedly looked pretty tasty.)

Get On Your Feet

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and two classic Disney cartoons. It's "Food for Feudin'" when Chip and Dale have to retrieve their nuts that accidentally ended up in Pluto's doghouse. Mickey enters Pluto in a "Society Dog Show," but Pluto is more interested in flirting with Fifi and is too clumsy for the snooty judges. He proves his worth when he rescues Fifi from a burning building.

Headed off to work shortly after "Society Dog Show" ended. Thankfully, unlike last week, my seven hour work day went just fine. We weren't even that busy. I had no trouble keeping up with the carts. The mess last week must have been a combination of nor'easter panic and a holiday weekend. The weather was pretty decent, too, warm and sunny. After work, I refilled my prescription for the high blood pressure medication and found boxes of the fall limited-edition maple leaf cookies on clearance for $1.99. 

When I got home, I watched the 1958 TV version of Hansel and Gretel. I go further into this retelling of the Grimm's Fairy Tale with Red Buttons and Barbara Cook as the title children and Hans Conried as the witch at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Musicals On TV - Hansel and Gretel (1958)

Finished the night with the Saturday Match Game marathon. There was an awful lot of talk about feet on this show, from questions about sentient shoes to Gene showing off a pair of wing tips he was especially proud of. There were also the golf shoes Gene removed the spikes from, and the red suede shoes he wore on a PM episode. That PM episode really got wild. It ended with Richard Paul, Brett Somers, and Charles Nelson Reilly singing a paen to Texas while the contestant ended up in Jamie Lee Curtis' lap.

Of course, not all shoes looked as nice as Gene's wing tips. Once, the zipper on his boot broke during an episode. He had to stop and get them off with help from the panelists. Charles Nelson Reilly would occasionally put his sock-less shoe-clad feet on the desk, to the annoyance of Brett who did not want to smell his feet! 

Poor Eva Gabor had her own trouble with her feet during a nighttime episode. She did get "__ and Proper" on the Head-to-Head, but the Air Force officer was so eager to greet her, he kicked her foot and took off her toenail! She did the remaining syndicated episode for that week with her foot on ice and would discuss the incident a few weeks later, saying he took her toenail off, but it did save on her pedicure!

Get on your feet and show your fancy shoes when you dance along to this hilarious marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - The Foot Blank Marathon

Swinging In the Fall Sunshine

Began the morning with breakfast and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Adora hires "Huntara" to guide her, Bow, and Glimmer across the Crimson Waste. Huntara initially traps them and steals Adora's sword, but when Adora admits she's She-Ra, Huntara tells them she's also a Horde deserter and agrees to join their group. Meanwhile, we learn more about Hordak when Entraptra creates better armor for him, and he tells her he's a clone of Horde Prime who fell into Etheria through a portal from another world.

Began the morning with a quick stop at WaWa for money. Their ATM machine was down, so I moved on to Westmont Party. Bought a bag of Halloween novelty toys, plastic vampire teeth, and temporary tattoos for the trick-or-treat bags I make. Chatted with the pleasant young woman at the counter about the bags I make every year. 

Samaritan Thrift was bustling when I arrived. Most of the women were working on displays and were too busy for talk. I had just enough money to buy Christmas presents for Lauren's parents and for Mom. 

Did even better across Haddon Avenue at Phildelity Records. I dug the original casts of Ballroom and Leader of the Pack and a studio recording of Lady In the Dark with Rise Stevens out of the $2 bin. Plucked the original cast of Merrily We Roll Along out of the New Arrivals bin. This one was $8, but that's the cheapest I've ever seen it. Even the recent cast recording with Daniel Ratcliffe tends to be expensive. And yes, I did talk to the owner about my purchases.

Did grocery shopping next. Acme was my first stop, since it's closer to Phidelity Records. I mostly needed grapes, apples, soda, and yogurt here. Grabbed granola on sale with an online coupon and granola bars. Treated myself to two slices of pumpkin cake roll for dessert tonight. Hurried down to Sprouts next. I restocked soda, golden raisins (the cheapest bulk dried fruit), coconut milk, and granola bars here. Found white chocolate-macadamia nut cookies on clearance and got to try samples of sea-salt potato chips and apple cider.

When I got home, I put everything away, then ate a turkey multi-grain sandwich I picked up from Sprouts for lunch while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "Mickey's Treat" is taking everyone in costume to Pete's party at Halloween Tower. They have to get through the giant candy corn, pass around the frogs jumping, and help Pete find a costume before the wall around the tower closes and they miss the party!

Checked my schedule at this point, too. In good news, only four hours next Saturday. Trouble is, I work next Friday, too. Just four hours, but still. I would give anything for two consistent schedules! At least I don't work until 2 on Sunday. I'll be able to attend the Town Picnic that was postponed from last week.

Headed to Thomas Sharp School next. The kids were so eager to go outside, they could barely sit through Llama Llama Loose Tooth Drama. Once we got out, I had to argue with several of them over how long they were on the swings. There's only two, and a couple of the kids would be on the entire hour if allowed. Plus, I don't want them twisting the swings around and twirling them. I'm afraid they're going to knock into each other. I don't mind them laying on the swings (it's probably good for their stomachs), just not going side to side.

The weather was too beautiful for anyone to be angry for long anyway. It couldn't have been a nicer fall day. The sun beamed down through the trees around the playground. It was warm but not hot, windy but not too cool. One of the teachers helped the kids find ladybugs on a tree in the playground area and reminded them that ladybugs are good luck. 

When I got home, I went straight into Match Game '76. We had a charming gentleman contestant here, a tall former teacher with a crush on Brett. He did some of the most amazing bell kicks I've ever seen in my life when he won! We also got long-time Price Is Right model Janice Pennington, along with Fannie Flagg and original Price Is Right host Bill Cullen.

Finished the night with The Love Boat. Gopher is eager to help "Cindy" snare the Prince of Pop (Frank Sinatra Jr.) and show him what a wonderful singer she is. He snitches a Cinderella costume so she can attend the Halloween costume ball under the nose of her obnoxious stepmother (Carolyn Jones). Male and female sportscasters learn the "Play By Play" isn't as important as their feelings about each other when they play each other in a series of contests to see who gets to keep their jobs. "What's a Brother For?" asks a devoted brother and his disabled sibling when one falls for a sweet girl, and the other gets resentful. 

Finding Community

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and PAW Patrol. "Ultimate Rescue: Pups Save a Movie Monster" has Marshall as the fire dog for a horror movie being filmed in Adventure Bay. Mayor Humdinger steals the mechanical Godzilla-like monster and tries to get it back to Foggy Bottom. The pups have to rescue it and stop its breath from burning down half the town when Humdinger breaks the remote and it goes out of control.

Hurried out after that. One of my major current projects is trying to build more of a community. I really want to get to know more people and make more connections, so I can have more help in finding a better home and second job. I chatted a bit with the shopkeepers at Clutter and Time Lapse. Didn't get anything at Clutter, but I did buy Christmas presents for Amanda and Lauren at Time Lapse. The owner of Collingswood Music was busy finding a used violin for a customer, but I did pick up music books for Christmas presents and two records here, the soundtrack from the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica and the rock collection The Now Generation. 

Had lunch at Kismet Bagels. Despite it being 1 PM when I was there, they were empty except for me and the owners. I bought "The Fish" - lox with tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and "schmear," or their cream cheese spread, for lunch along with a Dr. Brown diet cherry soda, plus two more rosemary-sea salt bagels for lunch later this weekend. I never had lox before, and this was quite delicious.

Took a brief peek at the Collingswood Library and grabbed two free books outside before moving to Innergroove. I did better here, both in talking to the owner and finding records. The owner and I talked about how hard it is to battle social anxiety and engage people in conversation at all. He mentioned he'd been to a cousin's wedding earlier in the week and had been nervous at first. Ended up with three records:

Rupert Holmes - Adventure and Full Circle

Lena Horne - Merry from Lena

Made one last, quick stop at Mario's Cookies before moving on. They're expensive, but I wanted to try their wares. I ended up with the black and white (brownie cookie with white chocolate chips), peanut butter, pumpkin snickerdoodle, and coconut-macadamia nut. They were all amazing, especially the coconut!

I raced down Collings to the Thomas Sharp School after that. Unfortunately, I forgot that the Collingswood High School was just getting off. I had to dodge all the kids getting out of school, not to mention the traffic on the White Horse Pike. All of that made me slightly late to the Thomas Sharp School.

Things mostly did go very well after I arrived. The kids weren't too bad in the bathrooms, even if they were wound up listening to Steam Train, Dream Train. One of the little girls got very upset during lunch and tried to hide most of the time. Poor kid! I figured she was just having a bad day, but then she cried when she thought one of the other girls had her jacket. We tried to point out that she just had a similar jacket and left hers at home. She kept crying for her mother during the first half of our outside session. She finally calmed down while swinging. She loves swinging and is great at it. She'd probably stay on the whole time if allowed!

No wonder the kid finally felt better. It was too nice of a day for anyone to be upset for long. Though it continues to be windy, it's also sunny and far cooler, in the lower 60's. It felt like the most perfect fall day. The other kids all happily ran around, dancing to "The Train Song," "The Floor Is Lava," "Do the Garbage," songs from KPop Demon Hunters, and the Elton John version of "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from The Lion King. 

Watched the 2019 movie version of Cats when I got home. I go further into this notorious flop version of the hit stage musical based on the poetry of T.S Elliot at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Cult Flops - Cats (2019)

Watched an episode of Match Game '76 during dinner. Orson Bean and soap star Pat Delaney joined in this week. Betty White was offended by an animal-abuse question to the point where she nearly walked off the set...but she was even more upset when Gene tried to swat a fly in the studio!

Finished the night with some of my recent record acquisitions. The Moody Blues album In Search of the Lost Chord is in honor of their long-time bass guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist John Lodge, who passed away last week. "Voices In the Sky" is probably the best-known hit from this 1968 meditation on self-discovery. I also like "Dr. Livingstone, I Presume" and "The Best Way to Travel."

I have fond memories of watching the original Battlestar Galactica in re-runs during my early childhood. Starbuck was one of my first crushes. (I had a thing for the roguish type even then.) One thing I forgot was how good its soundtrack is. Stu Phillips joined series creator Glen Larson for its rousing orchestra score, including the lovely "Cassiopea and Starbuck" and the one vocal number, the ultra-cheesy "It's Love, Love, Love."