This Blud's for You

 I couldn't find an exact year on these buttons, but they appear to be from the 90's, which I must continue to remind myself was 30 years ago.

Halloween's a Scream

When I first started decorating my house for Halloween in the 90's, it was pretty low-key.  I didn't have a lot of decorations, vintage or otherwise.  At some point, I picked up a screaming door mat from somewhere, probably one of the Halloween stores like Spirit Halloween, Halloween City or Halloween Express.  I would put it under the normal front door mat and watch people jump when they came to my front door.  That mat is long gone, but I found one still in the package a couple years ago.

Later, when my first son was about 4 or 5, he was petrified of the mat.  He would leap in or out of our door to avoid stepping on the mat.  He's 27 now. I think he's probably still a little leery of it. I imagine there are a lot of kids of the '90's that are traumatized by this scream.

Halloween -- It's My Bag, But It's Lookin' Mighty Empty

Greetings, greetings fellow Halloweeners!

How can it be that time of year has rolled around once again?

This is my 13th (*gasp*) year with The Countdown.  Will it be unlucky? Well...

If this past year's finds were Halloween treats, I got a rock.

I'm not saying I didn't find some gems among the rocks, not a to mention a grail I've been on the hunt for for years, but they were few and far between.

As lamented in the past, it's getting harder and harder to find vintage Halloween at garage and estate sales. Most people are privy to the collector's market now and for those that aren't, Google reverse imaging has made it a no-brainer when identifying collectability and value.

But let's not let that spoil our bag of joy this year.

As is tradition, my first post will be some Trick or Treat bags I've found over the past year, starting with this 1970's bag by Austin Art, a subsidiary of Hazelle, Inc Kansas City, Missouri.

Bloodweiser

This is going to be a quick one.  It's after 10 on Saturday night and I have to get up early to go work all day on the family farmhouse.

I know I and most of my readers have a sense that the 90's were just 10 years ago, but this 1991 Budweiser "I Want to Drink Your Bud" bumper sticker is 32(!) years old.

I couldn't find out much about this campaign.  I'm sure it had commercials to go with it with vampires "vanting" to drink your Bud.  The early 90's were heavy into the monster-themed advertising.  I recall Pepsi/Frito-Lay having a similar campaign as well.

As of late, I've noticed an increasing nostalgia for the 90's, due mainly the children of the 90's hitting their 40's, but even in myself. It was inevitable.

Child World/Children's Palace Video Toy Chest

I don't normally pick up VHS tapes at garage or estate sales unless the content is unusual or unavailable in other formats.  This tape meets both qualifications.

Hang for Freat

This was actually a thrift store find.  I knew it wasn't terribly old, but it's getting harder and  harder to come by blow mold pieces these days and its hair plus pink eyes sold it to me.

 

Schnoz

I believe we're all familiar with the "Groucho Nose" glasses gag. They've been around for years, in fact since the 1940's. But did you know their proper name is "Beaglepuss"?  The Topstone company marketed them simply as "Schnoz".

Halloween is Hallowed

As this is the last week leading up to Halloween, I thought I'd throw some additional random content out here for things that didn't warrant a lot of commentary or discussion or are just odd or weird one-offs.

At first I thought this pamphlet was going to be a religious tyrade against Halloween. 

Bucketful of Boos

There's been a lot of buzz in the Halloween community for the past few weeks about the re-release of the McDonald's Halloween Boo Buckets, particularly among millelenials who remember these from their childhood.

I previously posted about the earlier 1980's version of these buckets.  Since then, I've acquired some of the later series from the late 80's, early 90's and even up to the early 2000's.  Again, these don't do much for me as they were past my Halloween prime, but the kids like them.  "The Kids" being in their late 30's and early 40's now.

Empire Pails

Empire Plastics produced Halloween blow molds including Trick or Treat pails from the 1960's through 2001.  Most of their pails were the common Jack O' Lantern pails like those I've previously posted.  They later produced non-Jack O' Lantern pails like these I found.  These came late in the company's existence, but I like them, particularly this monster pail which was produced from 1989 to 1994.

 

The Tears (and Blood) of a Clown

Bridging off of yesterday's post, I present this Collegville/Imagineering Vampire Blood from 1995.  This also answers the question, whatever happened to Imagineering.

Imagineering Fake Skin

I've previously written about Imagineering and their glorious products and how they impacted my childhood.  What I didn't know was how long they lasted.

I found this Imagineering "Fake Skin" at an estate sale late in the season last year.  It dates from 1990.

Book Me

I've written before about my penchant for children's literature.  Reading children's books is a small investment of time and thought and brings back memories of the books of my youth.

I went to a garage sale about a month ago that had boxes and boxes of library books for sale.  After talking with the seller, he explained he and his wife were at an auction and thought they were bidding on 1 box of children's books only to discover after they won it was actually 17 boxes.  They picked out the books they wanted for their children and were selling the rest.

I dug through and grabbed every haunted house and ghost story I could find.

While these books are considerably after my time, I thought I'd give them a chance.

Here's where you come in.  View the cover and read the synopsis of the books below and tell me which book I should read first.  By the way, it wasn't until I scanned these books that I discovered 3 were written by the same author, Betty Ren Wright who specialized in ghost stories.

I'll read the winning book and write a review of it, hopefully by Halloween.

"A Ghost in the House" Betty Ren Wright 1991

Blinky Skull

This Blinky Glow Lite blow mold skull was a find from last year.  Apparently, I never got around to posting it, so good news, now I can.

 

Marvel(ous) Treats Trading Cards

I found these Halloween trading cards, based on popular (as of 1991) Marvel Comics characters, some years back.  I forgot I had them until I started going through some old boxes recently. These were intended to be handed out in lieu of sweets.

Merry Christmas and Cowabunga, Dudes!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were a little after my time, but I can appreciate their place in pop culture.  These Christmas cards from 1990 were a garage sale find this past summer.

What was on TV October 18th through 24th, 1997

When it comes to the word "vintage", I'll admit I'm a bit of a snob.  To me, vintage is 1980's and prior.  So when I found this TV Guide from 1997 mixed among my other "classics", I snubbed it. Heck, I even sneered at it.  1997?  Why, I'd already been married 5 years when you came out!  You're nothing but a punk! But then I realized, it's been almost 20 years since this issue came out.  In fact, babies born when this issue came out are graduating high school this year.  My own son was born mere months after this issue debuted.  How did that happen?  I can't even remember what I did in the past 20 years. It almost makes you nostalgic for those years.  When did the '90's go all "misty-water-colored-memories" on us?  I guess it was inevitable.  So October 18th through the 24th TV Guide, go ahead, show your stuff.  You deserve it.