Halloween Revisited -- Strangely Enough

I'm reaching back into the past once more today, this time to 2013.  Again, I didn't participate in the Countdown to Halloween until 2014, so hopefully this is something new for you.  And let me apologize for the numerous changes in font and text size.  Blogger doesn't have an easy way to repost past posts without copying and pasting which doesn't work well.

There's no shortage of television programs profiling weird happenings and ghostly occurrences these days, particularly this time of year.  Shows like Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum,  Syfy's Destination Truth, Biography's My Ghost Story, History Channel's Monster Quest  and countless others satisfy even the most rabid paranormal fan's appetite.  I have to admit I'm a sucker for those kind of shows.  I've been drawn to them since I was a child watching Leonard Nimoy's "In Search Of "and Jack Palance's "Believe it...OR NOT!"  Prior to those shows, similar tales were often compiled in books such as  the one I found at an estate sale some time ago.

Monster Rally

I found this book over the summer. The "Chas Addams" name was enough to catch my attention, even if it didn't already have me at "Monster".

Trolling the Scholastic Flyer

Guess what...

Games for Hallowe'en

I was fairly gob-smacked, or perhaps even "goblin-smacked" given the season, when I found this 1912 edition of "Games for Hallowe'en" sitting on a bookshelf at an estate sale.  It was laying flat, so clearly someone had already seen it and passed it over.  We're coming down the wire to the big day.  Maybe this book will help with your plans.

When Horror Pops Up

When I was a kids, my grandparents bought me a Western pop up book. Full of pull-tab gun fights and pop up ghost towns, the mechanics of it fascinated me.

This "Classic Tales of Horror" Pop-up book published in 1988 was after my time, but I would have been all over it as a kid.

Phantom Phind

At the same sale where I found the paranormal fiction (or are they) books a couple years ago, I found this 1911 first edition of "The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux.

Mystical Mazes

For a while when I was in high school, I was obsessed with mazes.  Not life-sized ones like those corn mazes that are all the rage this time of year; the smaller ones on paper.  I even created my own during Social Studies class (when I should have been paying attention).

This book published by Xerox in 1977 offers a ghoulish assortment of mazes just right for this time of year.  Have fun...and don't get lost!

Scholastic Horrors

When I was a kid, we had a couple books laying around in our "book box" (we didn't have any book cases) that both intrigued and frightened me.  They were both Scolastic/Arrow books of ghost stories.  It wasn't the content of the books that scared me, it was the covers themselves.  Those books were lost over the years, but I was able to find them at various sales.

Between the Covers -- The House on the Cliff or A Boy on the Edge

I pick up a lot of old books at sales and occasionally I find something of interest inside, whether it be money, a 4-leaf clover, business card or even a written note. This 1940's edition of The Hardy Boys "The House on the Cliff" contained such a note.

Paranormal Reading

Though it's a huge time consumer, I always review the shelves and boxes of books at estate and garage sales.  You can usually get a pretty good sense of what you'll find by looking through a row of them.  If you see a lot of religious, self-help or psychiatry books, you're probably not going to find any treasures (unless you need those books, of course).

I hit a gold mine of paranormal books at one particular sale this summer.  They were all from the first year of printing, however, they were the less desirable Book Club versions, though they still sell for more than the $1 each I paid.

First up is William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist".  The movie version of this freaked me out when I was a kid, and I didn't even go see it.  The descriptions I heard were more than enough to make me start wearing the Popsicle stick and soda straw rosary I made in PSR*.

*PSR is Catholic Parish School of Religion, although we just called it "Instructions".

I Want My MTV 1912

The 1912 Mt. Vernon, Illinois High School Band.  Taken from an interior photo of the Jefferson County, Illinois "Facts & Folks" book published in 1978.  This morning's find for seventy-five cents.

Movie Monster Memories

In the Second Grade, I stole a book.  Yes, my life of crime has been well documented.  I stole it from the classroom library.  I was the only person that ever checked it out and I couldn't find it anywhere else. At least, so I justified. So around the last day of school, I just swiped it.  I'm not proud of it.  But as karma will be, a few years later, another kid stole it from me. And I've been looking for it ever since.

So I was ecstatic when I found this beat up copy at a garage sale over the summer.

The Sketch Book

Knowing I'm the fan of Halloween that I am, it should come as no surprise I'm also a fan of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".  Growing up, I only knew the story through the Disney short (which is still a favorite of mine) and the various television adaptions such as the 1980 version starring Jeff Goldblum.  It wasn't until I was an adult that I read the actual story.  This recent-years collection features the headless horseman on its cover.

Between the Covers

I recently wrote about judging a book by its cover. But I've learned over the years, you can't always trust the cover to reveal the true contents of a book.  And I'm not talking about the story inside.

Over the years, I've found many things hidden among the pages of books I've bought, from cash to four-leaf clovers to store receipts to hidden school tardy slips.  On rarer occasions, you might even find a story within the story.

Sometimes I Do Judge a Book by Its Cover...

...and this one looks awesome.  Frankly, I think reading it would ruin it.

Today's Garage Sale Finds

I'm going to do something I haven't done in a while (since 2014 as it turns out!) and return to the roots of this blog which is, after all, garage saling.

Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the kickoff to Summer and with it the garage sale season, although I've already been out looking several weeks now.

It was a beautiful start to the day with temperatures in the low 70's and a blue sky overhead.  My wife and I didn't get an early start, but we were out before 9.  There weren't any spectacular finds today, but a couple of cool items were purchased (along with a few I had to pass up).  Here's a sampling of what we found.

First up was this 15-volume set of the Time-Life "Old West" series of books from the 1970's. My brother always wanted this set, but they were out of our economic reach.  They originally sold for $12.95 each (plus shipping and handling).  These days, $5 takes all.

The Scarecrow

I picked this book up at an estate sale Friday for two reasons.

Witchcraft Primer

Though technically not Halloween, this "Eclectic Primary History of The United States" published in 1884 covers (if very briefly) the Salem Witch Trials.

 

TV Time '79

If I couldn't be watching TV when I was a kid, the next best thing was reading about it.  I used to buy these books from Scholastic Publications which detailed new and continuing shows as well as interviewed the stars from them.  Kind of like their version of the TV Guide Fall Preview issue.

Wayward Angel

Despite being an American author, Verne Chute doesn't rank an English Wikipedia entry, but scores with the French.  From the translated French wiki page (which translates his last name to "Fall"): 

"He tries to seduce the strengths of the mystery while cleverly playing with the tricks of the thriller."