Ben Cooper Masks and Memories

I did pretty well with finding vintage Ben Cooper Halloween masks this past year.  I found this Frankenstein's Monster and the Skull below it at estate sale, untouched by everyone that had passed through the room prior.  They are made in Hong Kong and date from the 1970's.

Halloween Revisited -- The Wonder Fears

Today's post, like yesterday's, dates back to 2015.  When I repost these, I can't believe how long it's been. It seems like I just wrote them.  Enjoy one of my favorite posts.

When I saw these cards in a shoebox at a sale a while ago, I was immediately taken back to a particular summer of my youth in the 1970's.  For more than one reason, you might refer to it as my "Wonder Year".

Halloween Revisited -- Hoostradoos and You

 Today's post comes from 2015 as we revisit the Wyandotte legend of the Hoo' Stra Doo'.

Scratch Cat Fever

While today's die cut isn't as vintage as some I've posted here this season, it is, to me, definitive Halloween.  This classic Beistle Scratch Cat is the one I remember hanging on our classroom wall in Elementary School in the 1970's.  I love its vibrant green outline, its wild eyes, and its polished(?) nails.  Its hackles are raised, its tail in full bushy mode, its teeth ready to bite.

As soon as the teacher brought out this die cut and hung it up, it was "go time" in my mind.  Halloween was almost here and it was hard concentrating on anything in the classroom. Staring at this die cut occupied the time I should have been focusing on the lesson at hand on the chalk board.  I'm not sure if the teacher ever figured that out, but she left the die cut up throughout the season.

Misty Water (Oil?) Colored Memories

Today's post again has potential to raise the objection that it's not Halloween related.  And I acknowledge there's nothing directly Halloween-y here, but there are some nice Autumnal scenes and a couple of those feature pumpkins, so there's that.  I do expect, however, that some readers will have flashbacks to their own childhood home walls when they see this.  It seems to be a trigger object for many, including myself.

Haunting Memories and Our Own Mortality

The older I get, the more reflective I tend to be at estate sales.  I begin to wonder what my estate sale will be like, if you get my picture.  You try to brush it off as some distant future event, yet the clock continues to tick and the face in the mirror continues to age.

I was at an estate sale over the summer, casually looking through someone's lifetime accumulation, and I came across this mask.  I didn't think too much about it other than it was another vacuform mask to add to my collection.

Pirates of the Harried Being

You may have noticed a slight deluge of posts lately.  Okay, maybe "deluge" is a bit strong.  Let's say a slight swelling of posts.  The reason is, I've been going through my blog drafts; those posts I began writing and abandoned for one reason or another, usually because after I began writing them, I deemed them not interesting enough to post.  And hey, here's one of them!  By the way, I have no idea what that title means.  I wrote it way back in 2020 and probably just liked the way it sounded and the wordplay on "Pirates of the Caribbean". I'm not changing it.

I had a next door neighbor who was a few years younger than me when I was a kid.  He was probably only 4 years younger, but when you're 12 and he's 8, that's a lot. But he had a lot of cool toys, so I did spend some time visiting him just to get the chance to play with toys I didn't have. I've previously written about the Weebles Haunted House he had.

One day, I noticed he had a small pirate bank in his bedroom.

 

Pockets of Fun

Pardon me if my age shows while I switch into "kids these days" mode. 

It seems the sole source of entertainment for kids these days (see, I told you) are video games.  Sure, they come in a variety of platforms, but they're still video games.  Pre-Atari, I didn't have much exposure to video games.  But there were variety of options for game play I could choose; board games, cards, outdoor physical *gasp* games, and early electronic games.  And for a brief time in the late 1970's mixed among those other choices was a line of mechanical pocket games made by Tomy and other companies.

I remember going through bins of these at a local store as a kid, trying to decide which held the most fun and game play.

I found a couple of these this past summer. I had this Jackpot game in yellow.  Pull the lever, let it spin, push to button to stop the reels on a dime.  Of course, nothing ever dispensed for hitting the jackpot, but it felt great just the same.

Scholastic Memories

 I've written before of my fond memories of Scholastic Books and the two magical days in school: when the Scholastic Book Club order form would arrive and the day the books you ordered arrived.

I recently found a few more of these flyers.

Arrow Book Clubs was a division of Scholastic Books. These books were aimed at 4th through 6th graders.  There was also the T.A.B. Book Club (Teen-age Books) that were aimed at older students.

Trolling the Scholastic Flyer

Guess what...

First Day Blues (and Reds and Yellows and Greens and Purples and ...)

 I'm still reminiscing about school days and every year when school starts up, I always reflect upon my own "dear old golden rule days" back in the 1970's.  Throw in this recent find, and I'm instantly transported back to my first day of school at Point Elementary in South St. Louis County, Missouri.

School Bus Memories

It's school time once again, and actually has been for the last few weeks.  I'm running a little behind on posts.

Anyway, it's school time once again, and school buses are on the streets.  This isn't one of those PSAs to advise you to watch for kids.  It's just a lead-in for one of my latest finds.

I went to at an estate sale of a former bus driver for a local elementary school last weekend.  There were lots of items that had clearly been given to him by his passengers through the years.  One that caught my eye was this Toy Bus Animal Crackers box.

Saturday Night Popcorn

 When I was a kid, treats and snacks were limited, but I could usually talk my mom into making popcorn at least once a month, usually on a Saturday night.  It was made on the stovetop in a big cooking pot with regular vegetable oil and the cheapest popcorn kernels we could buy.  It was seasoned with table salt and served in a large tin cake pan.  Then I'd settle down in front of our RCA console color TV for a double-header of  "Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" or maybe the CBS Saturday Night Movie.

Sometimes my mom would spring for a more expensive popcorn brand like Jolly Time that came with it's own packet of yellow-colored seasoning. I loved that powdery salt. I told myself it tasted like butter (it didn't).

In my teen years, my desire for popcorn as a weekly snack got to the point that my mom finally bought a popcorn popper.  It was a simple Mirro brand model; just an electric pot with a lid similar to this one, although ours had a clear plastic lid (this, by the way, was not my find).

I once scalded the inside of my nostril sniffing the popcorn immediately after lifting the lid (I told you, I really loved popcorn); lesson learned.

It made adequate popcorn, but I sometimes burned the bottom. There is no worse smell than burnt popcorn.  I longed for one of these (this IS my find):

ICEE with my Little Eye

I know, it's "I Spy,", but that doesn't work for today's blog title. Work with me here, people!

I drove past an unassuming little garage sale a few weeks ago.  I almost didn't stop as it looked like mostly new items, but I figured, "Hey, I'm here."

The host was probably in his 40's, so I was surprised to find a vintage 1968 Icee Bear gym(?) bag for sale for $1.

Haunting Memories

Happy Halloween all!  The big day is here.

I've always had a fascination with the classic haunted house.  When I was in Second Grade, our school carnival featured one built on the frame of a semi trailer.  I bought my ticket and bravely strode forward through the entrance.  I laughed as I tried to navigate over the rollers on the floor.  A barred window (like an animal cage) allowed people to watch you as you tripped and stumbled through it.  I saw my mom watching and smiling and it gave me additional bravery to continue on.  Once I passed through the second set of doors, everything went dark.  I felt my way along the walls until I saw a light up ahead.  I walked toward the light which soon became a room.  A room with a coffin in it.  Inside the coffin was a vampire.  Just as I was looking at it, someone jumped out of the darkness and screamed at me.  That was it. I ran back the opposite way, back over the rollers which with the pace of my running, just mercilessly spun as fast as my feet could make them.  I fell several times before making my way back out the entrance. Sorry, kid, no refunds.  I later learned it was my older brother's friend who had been hiding inside, not as any part of cast, but rather to specifically scare little kids like me.

A couple years later while on a vacation to Lake of the Ozarks, we came across another haunted house that was on "the strip".  My sister and I went inside, nervously holding hands.  At one point, I felt something brush my leg.  I told my sister to stop, that she'd dropped her purse.  I reached down and grabbed what felt like a rubber strap and gave it a yank.  It didn't budge.  I let out a scream which made my sister scream.  We both ran ahead.  We did manage to finish it though.

What do you imagine when you hear "haunted house"?  Odds are, it's a gothic Victorian mansion, windows broken or boarded up, shingles and siding falling from it. Something like this.

Spirit Ball Memories

I'm not usually into modern Halloween items or props (although granted this is 17 years old), but this piece was pretty cool, the price was right and it reminded me of something from my childhood (more on that later).

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. 

Day 13 of the Countdown, Ah Ha Haaaaaaaa

It must have been Christmas of 1976 when I received 3 Sesame Street puppets as a gift.  It was Bert, Ernie and Cookie Monster. I don't recall asking for them, but it's possible.  I was 9 years old (just turned), so it sounds a little old for Sesame Street, but I may have just been interested in the idea of puppets.  At any rate, I accepted them and played with them on occasion.  Cookie Monster was the most fun because his throat actually opened in back and you could force feed him cookies. I recall trying to make this a feature on Ernie as well (using a screwdriver) and just ended up tearing his neck open.  If I'd known "Count von Count" was an option, I'm sure I would have asked for him.

Get Your Hands on These

Ben Cooper was the "goto" for Halloween costumes from the 1930's through the 1980's.  Most people remember them for their cartoon and comic character costumes made of vinyl and sharp plastic masks held to your face with rubber bands so thin they would snap if you merely flexed your cheeks (and not necessarily the ones on your face).

Ben Cooper also marketed latex and rubber masks that could be found hung on racks or piled unceremoniously in cardboard bins at stores such as Woolworth's and Ben Franklin's.  It was at my local Ben Franklin's around Halloween every year that would find me digging through the masks, trying each one on, the smell of latex filling my nose, and dreaming of buying one so I could REALLY scare some people while Trick or Treating that year.  And if the masks weren't enough, you could buy matching rubber gloves to complete your look.  Oh, who could possibly afford such luxuries? Not me.  So back in the bins they went.

I found these Ben Cooper rubber gloves this past year.  They date from the late 1970's to early 1980's.

Halloween 2022 - It's My Bag, Baby, But I'm Running Out of Them

Yes, it's Halloween season once again and that means it's time for those things I've found in the past year that lean toward Halloween or the weird; it's time for "Garage Sale Finds" to transform into "Stranger Finds".

As always, I'll begin this year's offerings with a Trick-or-Treat bag.  Let me tell you, I'm running out of ones I haven't already posted.  I've had this one for a while, but I've yet to post it.

This bag dates from 1988 (which is 34 years ago, people!) and was given out at Michael's (which I didn't even know what a thing in 1988, but apparently has been around since 1973).  It features a scraggly, if not "scratch", cat astride a hollowed-out pumpkin.  Frankly, he looks a little strung out.