I thought it would be fun to go through the years of Halloweens that I have in my photo file. There’s not as much as you would expect, and some of the photos are…not good. I was going to do this all in one go, but I was boring myself, so I thought I’d better break it up.

20th Century

I don’t have much from this time. I tried to throw a party once, and I thought I took pictures, but nobody came, so it was sad anyway. It wasn’t that I didn’t have friends. I just didn’t know how to get them to come to a party. No worries, I threw great parties later.

This is 1978. I just turned 15, and I have an 18-year-old boyfriend (not pictured) who doesn’t know it. To his credit, he dumped me immediately when he found out. On the left is my friend Cheryl as a cat, and I am a witch, holding my chihuahua-dachshund familiar. Cheryl introduced me to Anne Rice, bless her.

I don’t know why I’ve posed so I have a double-chin. I did not know my angles.

This is me one of the few times I had glorious hair. 1982 and I’m a witch again, holding my new familiar, Geddy.

Look at that hair!

2003

There’s a whole lot of nothing until the 2000s. I was pretty unstable, living in tiny places. Also, I was trying to be an “adult” and loving Halloween was “for kids.” In other words, I had a very long stupid phase.

In 2003, I finally decide I don’t care if I have a yard or not. I cobbled together some kind of stand out of broomsticks, through a vintage wedding dress (I still have it!) on, and behold: Deadalina.

I love a ghost bride

2006

2006 was a turning point. We’d bought our first house, and I had a yard! Not only that, I did the decor for a party where I used to work as well.

House! Yard! Yay!
The headstones are dead federal judges. Yes, the first federal judge in Portland was Judge Deady.

2007-8

In 2007, my personal blog, frykitty.com, says: “I canโ€™t believe I didnโ€™t decorate for Halloween. Just tooooo busy. But I have candy! Come take it!”

In 2008 we were struggling like everyone else, and soon to lose the house. Like everyone else. I probably decorated at home, but most of my energies went into an Egyptian-themed party where I used to work. Yes, they asked me back again, but this was the last time I agreed to it.

Some of it was good, and some of it was…well.

An army of beetles to go on the walls

A sarcophagus I mostly hated. Eh, it wasn’t *that* bad.
I loved my crafty headdress.

2009

In 2009, we were living in a tiny, crappy apartment, but we had some leftover from cleaning out my retirement to survive, and I decided to do something I’d never done: a solo road trip. Not like we could do much for Halloween. B looked after the critters while I headed for Sedona, AZ. I decided the camera on my phone was good enough, so I didn’t take a separate camera. Regret of a lifetime.

Here’s a sorta spooky pic of Elmer Long’s Bottle Tree Forest. Elmer was still around at the time, and I had tea with him and the missus.

God what an awful camera

Tune in next time for creepy dolls, mausoleums, and giant cats!

We had 53 trick-or-treaters this year, down from about 85 last year. I hear there is a new neighborhood behind Target that was fire, so I’m guessing that’s what sucked away our kids. Gonna drive down there later. I just want to talk.

I was going to do a retrospective on past Halloween displays, but I was missing some stuff. Then I found it on Flickr, of all places, so I’m waiting to get a link to download my archive. Short version: a couple days.

Here was last night’s setup, showing off the blowmolds.

Daytime
View from the driveway, with 12-foot cat
Nighttime

I feel obligated to share this every few years. It became semi-viral in 2011, and suddenly there was even a kit for putting rhinestones on a pumpkin.

Blingkin is long gone, as it got pretty ratty over the years. I think if I did it again, I’d have to do a whole bunch of them and light them well for a display. That would be pretty cool.

A black pumpkin with a silver stem, covered in large, cascading rhinestones.
Blingkin forever!

About nine years ago, I posted the story of Madame Violet of the Edinburgh Vampire Hive. It had legs. I had to write a newspaper or two explaining that it wasn’t real. It got a Reddit thread, and made it to Snopes, though more as an adjunct to stories about the original image.

I made a video narrating the story. I took it down for a while, because I’m always re-purposing my YouTube channels, but I’ve put it back up again.

Boy, after listening, I really need to redo the audio on this.

Aiden Taylor loves Halloween. He specifically loves vintage Halloween. And he has the chops to realize his vision. Right now, he’s working on a Halloween costume ball, but I want to show you something from last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjb5OKxAOsk

I absolutely love his vintage-inspired moon head costume. Also, Aiden himself is a lot of fun. You can follow him on YouTube and Instagram.