In Memoriams

     Let’s check the horror shelf in memory of Tim Curry.

    I found Mr. Curry’s LP, Read my Lips (1978), in a thrift store in Victoria, Canada. I think the autograph looks legit. I almost didn’t buy the record because I didn’t want to worry about how to get it home...

    But then I remembered he portrayed Pennywise in 1990’s TV miniseries It. Talk about nightmare fuel. 

    People paid to see Tom Cruise in 1985’s Legend, but they went home talking about Tim Curry’s Darkness (and his horns). Legend, indeed.

    Speaking of horns, Curry voiced the Goblin King in Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King in 2008, and that might be the only Scooby-Doo movie that scared Char. 

    Curry also voiced the Mastermind in the Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights video game in 2002.

    Speaking of Scooby-Doo, I'm displaying this poster in honor of Curry’s performance as Ben Ravencroft in Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost (1999). This poster hung in Charlotte’s room for a couple of years.

    Tim, thanks for the music, the laughs, and the frights.

    I don’t have anything scary to refer to when I write about the loss of Dolly Parton, but I do have a cherished memory. It is also proof that Parton’s music has the ability to reach anyone at any age.

    I posted this in 2017 when Charlotte was six years old:

"Char discovered this Dolly Parton song while watching World of Dance. 

Even her cats like it!"

    I think Char replayed that YouTube video over and over for about 40 minutes, and I couldn't stop smiling the whole time. 

    

    Dolly, thanks for the music, the laughs and the love.

Halloween is Just Around the Corner!

    Our local Spirit store opened its doors last Saturday.

    Our local hardware store rolled out their Halloween decorations.

    And our local grocery store is stocked the shelves with Halloween candy. 

    I even bought a couple of Halloween candy tins that I emptied and am now using as refrigerator magnets.

    Yay! x 3!

    

    I really enjoy this time slot in the calendar. Fall, my favorite season, is almost here, and the stores aren't focused on Christmas, yet. I have a brief time to walk around and enjoy a preview of October and not just December. 

    So, let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf!

    Okay, let me explain. DVDs were pretty expensive in the late 90s and early 2000s. The average price of a new release was around $24.90. That's $53.85 in today's money. Going to Best Buy to look at DVDs back then was luxury shopping for a teacher on one income... I couldn't afford anything there.

But, BUT!, but, I could afford to shop at Kmart or Walmart. AND! They sold cult and horror movies on budget DVDs from a company called GoodTimes Entertainment. 

    I found both Halloween II, and Halloween III: Season of the Witch at the Urbandale Kmart (that has now been demolished). I was so excited. They only cost 6 bucks each... SOLD!

     I grew up seeing this message on VHS rental tapes and movies airing on cable. So, watching a movie I loved in "WIDESCREEN" was incredible.

    None of this information meant anything to me decades ago. I didn't know "non-anamorphic" was a thing. These DVDs looked great on my 27 inch tube TV, and I couldn't have been happier. (BTW, no one called them CRTs, and no one could have predicted they would become collectible.)

    I was disappointed when I played my old GoodTimes DVDs on my new HD TV years later. I was used to the black stripes above and below the film, but the smaller image, imprisoned by black bars, threw me off. I could "zoom" in the image, but that made the film look even more pixelated. 

    I donated my GoodTimes DVDs when I upgraded to DVDs that were "Enhanced for Widescreen TVs" or in "16:9 Widescreen." I was totally pumped. The new movies looked so good!

    But then something weird happened. I  began to miss my old Halloween GoodTimes (don't we all?) when I started the Holiday Horror Shelf displays. That prompted a thrift store search that has proven to be more difficult than I thought. These budget DVDs are now 25 years old, and I guess most have probably been tossed away. 

    

    So, I was surprised to find H-III at a local Goodwill last week. The H-III DVD is in perfect shape, and I upgraded the case with a nicer one from a DVD that I bought from our local library for a buck. 

    Rather than hoping lightning would strike twice, I went ahead and bought H-II from a seller on eBay. That DVD arrived today. Its case didn't need a library upgrade.

    The total price of both DVDs is less than the original $12 that I spent back in 2001, and I'm totally pumped. They look so good next to each other with their "WIDESCREEN" banners. It was also satisfying to slide them next to their anamorphic Halloween brethren on the media shelf.

    

    I don't care if people think nostalgia for inferior DVDs is strange. I have always told my students, and my daughter, to not be embarrassed by what they like, "What you collect is a reflection of who you are and how you represent yourself. It doesn't matter how many people don't agree with your style. Those people aren't coming over to your place to hang out. But your friends are coming over, and they like you no matter what is in your room."

    I like how the GoodTimes VHS logo is dunked into electrified waters and emerges with a steaming new DVD logo... so modern.

    PS. I also enjoy that a '66 Dodge Sportsman Van was used for a crash scene in Halloween II. 

     I had a '66 Sportsman that I drove to college in 1987. Here we are together. I had a lot of fun in that van. Glad I didn't crash it.

Shark Week 2026: Group Photo #7

 We've made it to the end of Shark Week! Let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf.

    2003's Open Water is an indie film based on true events that happened in 1998. Roger Ebert (a hero) wrote that he wanted to walk around in the sunshine to cheer himself up after seeing this in the theater.

   2004's 12 Days of Terror is a made-for-TV movie about true events that happened on the nothern New Jersey shore in 1916. The DVD's tagline said these events inspired the movie Jaws, but I don't know if that really true. I suppose it could be.

    Search for the Great Sharks is short documentary from 1995. The most exciting thing about this release is the DVD's cover photo of a great white shark apparently swallowing another shark whole.

    2004's Frakenfish was inspired by the actual discovery of northern snakehead fish in a pond in Maryland in 2002. These fish breathe air, can survive on land,  can "walk" to other bodies of water, and they can spawn several times a year. Oh yeah, they're also aggressive and have long rows of sharp teeth in their snakehead mouths. Their discovery also inspired the films Snakehead (2004), and Swarm of the Snakehead (2006).

    If you haven't noticed, today's theme is "based on true events." But I bet you did.

    Parting shots and thoughts:

    Gotta go back to the original Jaws for today's tee shirt. 

    

    A few years ago Daphne surprised me with tickets for a special screening of Jaws at Flix Brewhouse. Here are the souvenir  glasses we brought home.

    Okay, Monstro is a whale, not a shark, but here's a pic of his jaws that we sailed into when we visited Disneyland on our first trip to Oceanside in 2015.

    

Me, in Oceanside 2026, wearing my "Snorkel Bob Cares shirt" (Man, I love that shirt). I'm yelling, "Hope everyone had a great Shark Week!"

Shark Week 2026: Group Photo #6

    MEG: a Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Altin came out in 1997. I had a first edition hard cover, but I kept it in my classroom when I exclusively taught language arts, and it got really beat up by the guys who would fight over it during my required reading time. 

    The MEG movie came out in 2018, and I was disappointed the filmmakers didn't use the same opening as the book. In the book's prologue, a herd of Shantungosauruses are on a beach feeding on a smaller group of dinosaurs when a T-Rex breaks up the party and flips the script by making the herd his prey. But when he stumbles into the nearby ocean, a Megalodon emerges from the depths and kills the T-Rex with it's superior size and jaws. Or something like that... I think The MEG 2: The Trench used this idea for its prologue. Both films used Jason Statham, and that's always a good thing.

    Great White's LP Once Bitten came out in the summer of '87. I was working 60 to 80 hours weeks on a road crew so I could pay for my freshman year of college. I had my tuition covered by the end of June. I had enough cash for my dorm room, books, and food by late July. In August I bought a few records to bring with me, and Once Bitten was in that lot. I'm not gonna lie. Working the road crew was zero fun. It's probably also the reason why my dermatologist keeps coming at me with a scalpel. 

    The Black Demon movie came out in 2023, and the novel Extinct by Charles Wilson was published in 1997. Both also have a Megalodon as the antagonist. I like how the covers echo each other. Extinct's cover says a it was coming to NBC-TV presumably as a made-for-TV movie, but that - spoiler alert!- didn't happen.

    When I bought Shark Night from Goodwill, I didn't know the original title for the film was Shark Night 3D. Of the four Jaws movies, Jaws III, or Jaws 3D, is my least favorite. I also didn't know that during the credits the cast was going to be in a music video performing the song, "Shark Night Cast: Shark Bite."     

Here's Char hamming it up at Flix when she was about to turn eight

Shark Week 2026: Group Photo #5

    The plot to 1981's The Last Shark is so similar to Jaws that Universal sued, and the film was removed from theaters after two weeks. I like how the AI generated summary on IMDB states that the "shark" in this film resembles a pool float. 

    At least the filmmakers of The Last Shark tried to use their own special effects. In 1976's made for-TV movie Shark Kill, they used previously shot stock footage and wrote their boring screenplay around that.

    I'm using the soundtrack to West Side Story because the rival gangs in the film were The Jets and The Sharks. Even I'll admit that's a bit of a reach.

    What can I say about 2003's Shark Zone? It's the third sequel to 1999's Shark Attack, and a bunch of scenes were taken directly from Shark Attack: Megalodon and the unrelated Dog Watch. At least the cover looks good. This DVD is going back to Goodwill because...

     I now I own the four film collection the Shark Attack movies. I haven't even torn the plastic off of this set yet, but Casper Van Dien stars in the first Shark Attack film, and any movie with Johnny Rico can't be all bad.

    Today's vintage t-shirt is in honor of The Last Shark's inordinate amount of windsurfing.

Shark Week 2026: Group Photo #4

 

    Like the movie Jaws, The Deep also stars Robert Shaw. 

    Like the novel Jaws, the novel The Deep was also written by Peter Benchley.

    Like the novels Jaws and The Deep, the novel the The Beast two-part TV series is based on was also written by Peter Benchley.    

    Today's LP is Deceptive Bends by 10cc. I chose the album based on the cover art work by Hipgnosis. The LP's title was inspired by a warning road sign in Surrey, England. I assume the art work was inspired by the word "bends" being associated with the decompression sickness some sea divers can experience.

    I999's Deep Blue Sea is the only proper shark movie on the shelf today. I saw this film in the theater, and at the time I thought it was the greatest shark film ever after Jaws. I probably still think that.

    Here's the back of today's shirt. Charlotte found it for me when we were thrifting in Oceanside, CA. Good eye, kid!

Shark Week 2026: Group Photo #2

    The Sharknado soundtrack is by a band named Quint. They are named after Robert Shaw's character in Jaws. The band is fronted by Robbie Rist who is an actor who played Oliver, a new and young character added to The Brady Bunch TV show's sixth season. It was an attempt to revive their dwindling viewership. That didn't work. The show really jumped the shark when Oliver showed up, but that's not his fault.

    The Holiday Horror Shelf is also displaying Sharknado, Sharknado 2, Sharknado 3, and a souvenir magnet from our vacation at Oceanside.

  Anymore, the only souvenirs I want to bring home when I travel are pictures, magnets, and thrifted t-shirts.

Summer 2026, Cruisin' for a Bruisin': Group Photo #1

     Some people think that summer is over once the 4th of July has passed, but I'm throwing a BS flag on the field.

   Time to climb into your car and cruise the loop! Let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf!

    

    For 1983's Christine, Scott Baio and Brooke Shields were considered for the film's leads. Brooke would have been an easy fit for the role of Leigh Cabot, but it might have been strange to see Scott, as Arnie Cunningham, slowly become crazy and evil. I bet he could have pulled it off, though.

    Here's what I learned from 2011's Super Hybrid: if you are walking along a dark alley, and you come across a 1969 Chevy K-20 Pickup, or a 1069 Lincoln Continental, or a 1971 Dodge Charger, or a 1973 Mercury Colony Park, or a 1976 Chevy Nova, or a 1985 Chevy C-10 pickup, or a 2004 Chevy Corvette C5 and the vehicle is unlocked and the keys are in the ignition... run away as fast as you can. 

    1977's The Car is now touted as being inspired by Duel (which I will bring up later), but I remember when the first DVD of The Car came out (second from the right). The film was advertised as, "It's Jaws, but on dry land!" The original three cars used in filming The Car were Lincoln Continental Mark IIIs ('69 -'71 chassis) that were modified by Chuck Barris (a hero). The fourth car was loosely attached onto a Ford Thunderbird chassis and was shot out of a car cannon (that's a thing?) for the final shot.

    2019's surprise sequel, The Car: Road to Revenge, really has more in common with Christine, than The Car. "The Car" in question is a Chrysler 300 SRT8. Later in the movie, this "Car" is given parts from the original "Car", and in the end the vehicle looks kinda cheesy. Kinda like the artwork on the Blu-ray that's in the middle of this picture. Cartoon drawings... really?

    FYI: The Holiday Horror Shelf theme for today is, "Dude, that car is killer."

    Drive safe!

First Week of Summer 2026: Group Photo

 

    Happy end to the first week of summer! Let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf!

    I'll let most of this shelf speak for itself. It's summer, and I'm feeling lazy.

    Slasher Summer came in the mail earlier this week, and I believe this will be my "vacation book." So, I can't say much about it, yet.

    Last week I found the DVD of I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer at Goodwill. I've decided that I won't say much about that movie, at all.

    Yes, I know the I Know What You Did Last Summer remake came out in 2025, but I haven't found a copy "in the wild," yet. 

    I fell confident that I will find one... hope your summer's going well.

Mother's Day 2026: Group Photo

    Happy Mother's Day! Let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf!

     

     1980's Mother's Day is a low-budget Troma film, so you know exactly what you're in for: a lot of gore, violence, and satire. Probably a lot of nudity, too.

    2010's Mother's Day is a loose remake of the Troma film. "Mother" is played by Rebecca De Mornay. She gives off the same evil vibe as she did in The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

    2008's Baby Blues has a young son pitted against his postpartum mom bent on killing him and his siblings. Yikes.

     Man, it took me so long to locate my 1993's Mutha's Day Out CD. My Soul is Wet is a one-and-done grunge album that's still popular in Paris, France. Seriously. 

    2021's You Are Not My Mother is set in Dublin, Ireland, so it could have gone on the St. Patrick's Day shelf, but come on, this title fits in here too well. This is a slow-burn flick with no gore. Hazel Doupe plays the lead character Charlotte, but everyone calls her Char. Hmmm. Sounds familiar.   

    Don't forget to call your mom today.  

Halfway to Halloween 2026: Group Photo

"Six more months 'til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. Six more months 'til Halloween. 

Silver Shamrock."

    We're already halfway there! Let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf!

    I'm going with a camping theme since summer is almost here. I've already did a Friday the 13th shelf (with more to come), so here are two other summer camp movies. 

    1983's Sleepaway Camp is a bit of a Friday the 13th knockoff, but the movie is famous for the twist ending. Back in the day, the shocking denouement could have given the ending to Psycho a run for its money. I bought this used Blu-ray online and apparently Travis took this to a horror convention and had it signed by actress Felissa Rose. It reads, "To Travis - Meet me at the waterfront after the social."

    1981's The Burning can brag that it launched the acting careers of Holly Hunter, Jason Alexander, and current documentary director Fisher Sevens. This film is mostly remembered for Tom Savini's gory special effects. Apparently the film had to be heavily edited just to get an R rating. The uncut version wasn't released until 2007.

     1963's Camp Favorites by The Campers is exactly what you think it is except it features an uncredited Phil Ochs. Since the LP is on the horror shelf, I'll choose the track "Cannibal King." That song ends with, "Match in the gas tank. Boom, boom."

April Fools' Day 2026: Group Photo

    Happy April Fools' Day! Let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf!

    I just realized that April Fool's Day, released in late March of 1986, is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The film is a horror-comedy, but it was marketed as a straight up slasher, and horror fans didn't like the surprise ending. I think the film's title should have tipped the audience off. That, and the fact that all of the "kills" happen offscreen. 

    The Jeff Rovin's novelization of the film was based on the original screenplay that ends on a darker note. Some copies of this book have movie stills on the back cover that aren't in the movie, but they match what is in the book's plot. 

    So, what's up with The Sound of Music Blu-ray and The Pacifier DVD? Those aren't horror movies. 

    I thought you'd never ask.

    Our family tradition at the theater is to give each movie trailer either a thumbs up or a thumbs down when it's over. That helps us plan what family movie we could all see next. We also did this with the trailers on the DVDs I'd bring home from the library. We watched a trailer for The Pacifier when Charlotte was in 4th grade. Char really laughed at Gary the duck and the dirty diaper jokes. Daphne did not. At the end, Char and I gave the movie trailer a thumbs up, and Daphne was decidedly at thumbs down, "That movie looks terrible," she said. I secretly gave Charlotte a wink, and she nodded at me. 

    Later, when I went into Char's bedroom to say goodnight, we hatched our plan for April Fools' Day.

    The next day I found a copy of The Pacifier at Urbandale's public library and hid it at home in my backpack. At dinner that night Charlotte casually asked her mom if she could watch any movie at home, what would she pick? Daphne responded, "Oh, I haven't seen The Sound of Music for a long time. That would be a fun one." 

    Char replied, "Okay, let's watch that tomorrow night." Char secretly winked at me while her mom was clearing the dishes. I was impressed. She had a pretty good game face for a ten-year-old. 

    That was March 31.

    I found our Blu-ray of The Sound of Music the next day after school. I loaded The Pacifier DVD into our player, clicked past the previews and the menu, and set it so the movie would begin right after the Walt Disney Productions logo. Since the Blu-ray player has place memory, I ejected The Pacifier DVD and put it in the case for The Sound of Music. I was fairly confident the movie would start right where I hit "Stop". I put The Sound of Music case on the kitchen counter, and waited for Daphne to come home. 

    Our trap was set.

    We gathered in the living room after dinner. I made a production of pulling the disc from the case, and placing it in the player while the girls were watching me. I hit "Play" on the remote, and the movie started where I had hoped it would.  Daphne knew she had been had about 30 seconds in. She yelled, "Oh nooooo! Not this movie!" when Vin Diesel appeared on the screen.

    Char and I yelled, "April Fools!" and Char laughed and laughed and laughed. I did, too. Daphne took it in stride (her yell was mostly fake) and agreed to watch the movie with us. 

    I probably wouldn't even be writing this story if that was all. But our movie-switch wasn't the only surprise. In The Pacifier, one of the teenage characters that Vin Diesel is supposed to be protecting has secretly joined an amateur production of The Sound of Music, and when the director quits, Vin takes over. At the end of the movie, we get to see the cast perform a scene from the musical. None of us saw that one coming. Turns out Char and I weren't really lying. 

    Secondly, Daphne was surprised that she enjoyed the movie as much as she did. She asked me when it was over, "Is Vin Diesel in any other movies like that? If he is, then I would watch them with you guys for sure." Unfortunately, this is his only family-friendly comedy.

    This afternoon I asked Char if she remembered pranking Mom with this movie six years ago. She nodded her head, "That's the movie where mom got to see The Sound of Music anyway."

    So, yeah, The Pacifier might not be an April Fools' Day movie at your house, but it sure is at ours.

St. Patrick's Day 2026: Group Photo

    Happy St. Patrick's Day! Let's see what's on the Holiday Horror Shelf!

    From left to right: This is the seven movie set of the Leprechaun films. 

    If you haven't seen any of these horror comedies, skip number one and jump to Leprechaun 3 or Leprechaun 4: In Space. 

   2024's indie horror film Oddity starts with a serious you-don't-know-who-is-in-the-house-with-you scare and then morphs into a fun twist on the Golem monster.

    Here's how the imdb.com describes 2012's Grabbers:

    This Irish horror comedy can be fairly compared to Tremors (Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward were great in that). I liked the redemptive storyline for one of the leading Garda characters. 

    Musically, I'm going with The Pogues' LP If I Should Fall from Grace with God because it includes "Turkish Song of the Damned." Bandleader Shane MacGowan explained its lyrics as being a mixture of pirate and ghost story '...about a guy on a Turkish island who deserted a sinking ship with all the money and all his mates went down… then his best mate comes back, and all the crew, to drag him back down to hell or wherever they are.’" - Wikipedia

        It felt pretty timely when I found this Leprechaun Returns Blu-ray at Goodwill last week. I didn't even know there was an eighth film in the series. Apparently this one ranks pretty high with the fans. Some websites put this 2018 movie at the top of their lists. I haven't watched it, yet, but it was cool to find it in time for this post.

    Great Irish Tales of Horror: A Treasury of Fear was first published in 1995 and is divided into three sections: Lurking Shadows, Wake Not the Dead, and To Make the Flesh Creep. AI says 1861's "The Child Who Loved a Grave" by Fitz-James O' Brien is the most famous story in the book, and he's known as the Celtic Poe.  I'll rate that story as "meh" since a child dies at the end.

    Don't forget to wear your green. You don't want to get pinched!

Friday the 13th 2026: Group Photo

    Happy Friday the 13th! Last month had a Friday the 13th, but I was too focused on Valentine's Day to notice. Luckily, March has one, too.

    From left to right: I picked up this two DVD set from Half Priced Books not realizing that it contained FT13th Part 2, not Part V. That's okay. Part 2 is better than Part V anyway. The real star of the show is FT13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Director Tom McLoughlin shot Part VI like an old Universal horror movie (by1986, Jason, Freddy, and Michael had basically become the new Dracula, Frankenstein, and Mummy), and he has stated that, "... if you turn the color off, this movie would look great in black-in-white." I've watched the opening in black-in-white, and I agree.

    FT13th was released for the NES system in 1988. I wouldn't call this a good game, but I think it looks good on the Horror Holiday Shelf. I just came up with that name. I like it.

    FT13th Part 3 in 3D! came out in 1982. They cranked out eight of these films in the 80s. That's almost one a year. There's gonna be diminishing results at that pace, and Part 3 shows some of that. Still, I like the scenes that are set up exclusively for a 3D effect; like when a guy holds up a red hot fire poker to the camera for no apparent reason. My friend Tim gave me this Blu-ray.

    FT13th: The Final Chapter does really end with the death of Jason (at the hands of Corey Feldman), but like this VHS tape, Jason experiences a comeback. Just call this movie Part 4. 

   Up next is Ghoulish: The Art of Gary Pullin.  From Amazon: "[Pullin is] a go-to artist for official film artwork, concert merchandise, LP packaging, and endless other pieces of pop culture ephemera, Pullin has put pencil to paper for film posters such as Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Big Lebowski, Vertigo, and The Babadook, soundtracks including Creepshow, Scream, Christine, and Tales from the Crypt, and concert merch for the likes of Jack White, Alice Cooper, and the Misfits."

    I got Ghoulish in a bundle deal on eBay. This isn't the book that I initially wanted, but currently it's the only book from that bundle that I have read. Funny how that works sometimes.

    I'll admit that I bought this can of hard cider from Angry Orchard just for the shelf. I don't even like hard cider. I'll probably punch a couple holes in the bottom and make it a Halloween decoration. 

    

    Stay safe out there!

Valentine's Day 2026: Group Photo

 

    Hey, not everybody loves Valentine's Day.

    1981's Canadian slasher My Bloody Valentine is good time, and I think I'll give that Blu-Ray in the middle a spin tonight since I'll have the house to myself.

    I probably wouldn't have bought the soundtrack on LP, but Waxwork Records slashed the price in half last Feb. 14, for a one-day-only sale. I thought that was pretty funny.

    For a long time the DVD on the left was the only way to see the uncut version of the film. Wow, this newer edit goes a lot harder than what I watched on HBO back in the day.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #31

 October 31: Halloween's back, baby!

    From left to right: Betamax tape, VCR tape, Criterion Collection LaserDisc, DVD, novelization paperback. 

    Yay! I made it. 31 displays in 31 days. I haven't blogged in awhile, and I was feeling rusty. It's been nice to brush off the cobwebs. 

    That was fun, but not as much fun as this: 

    I moved here in August of 1992, and for the past 33 years my favorite holiday has been anticlimactic. The calendar would flip to October 31, but trick-or-treating was already over. Boo. That's not a scary Boo, but a sad one.

    Last year severe storms were predicted for Oct 30, so many towns in the area pushed "Beggars' Night" to the 31st, and guess what? Nothing bad happened. At least that what I was told. We had parent-teacher conferences that night, and I didn't get to hand out candy on Halloween night, again. I had my Flix Brewhouse employee costume all ready to go, and I didn't even get to wear it.

    That's another sad Boo. 

    But this year is different! After a survey was taken by Des Moines city residents, the Des Moines City Council voted last March to permanently move trick-or-treating to the 31st of October. Many local cities, like ours, made that move, too.

    I actually stopped my car and got out to take this picture. Yay!

    I'm not gonna lie. The name "Beggars' Night" has always rubbed me wrong. I'm so glad that tradition has been retired. 

    Our tradition, since 2018, is to project a Halloween family film on the garage door and hand out bags of popcorn and packages of M&M's. That combo is our favorite movie snack.

    I'm leaning towards showing Happy Halloween Scooby-Doo, but I know for sure what I'm wearing tonight.

    As the kids say, "Rate the fit."

Happy Halloween!