Category: General Hobby Related

A Thousand Words

“I remember exactly where I was when…” It starts conversation and provokes recollection. Some are personal situations – when my mom died, or when I learned I was going to be a father. Those are the first two I thought of, which refer to unique events in my life that can still be relatable universally. Not everyone experienced either of these moments when I did, but most people can empathize with the situation, because it either already did happen to them, or they can imagine their own version of it.

Now think of an event that had more wide-reaching historical significance; one that people often remember vividly and personally. In psychology, that moment is called a flashbulb moment. Earlier generations likely remember when the stock market crashed in October of 1929, plunging the country into the Great Depression. Older friends and relatives talk about remembering the John F. Kennedy assassination.

People closer to my age may remember things like the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding in January of 1986. (If anyone is curious, I was eating lunch between classes at the University Union, watching the event occur in real time. The friend sitting next to me quietly muttered an understated, “Oh, that’s not good.”) The 9/11 Attacks are one of the biggest ones for us Gen-Xers. In fact, that one goes for Boomers and Millennials, too, come to think of it. And seeing the Apollo 11 Moon Landing is my earliest childhood memory.

A flashbulb moment examines an aspect of such an event, but because it’s a personal connection, it only applies to situations that were experienced personally. I have no flashbulb moment of, say, the Cuban Missile Crisis. I wasn’t alive to remember it.

But there is a flip side to that coin. Certain iconic photographs capture an event or era. They instantly summon that situation. In some cases, the photo or video serves as the defining image. The image encapsulates the piece of history – especially for those who did not experience it personally.

It doesn’t even matter that some photos may have been staged, misattributed or edited from their original form. The impact doesn’t go away. They still serve as a kind of visual shorthand for those moments.

Anniversaries are triggers of their own. The 84th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack is later this week, and the final 2 survivors of the USS Arizona died in late April of 2024. Both were 102 years old. This instantly came to mind.

-Toph

A Little Spooky

Fall is in the air. Football season is underway, and all the kids are back in school. And for me, that means something extra special. We’re gearing up for Halloween.

“It’s the MOST WONDERFUL TIME…of the year!”

-Andy Williams

(though I may be quoting him out of context.)

You can’t drive 2 blocks without passing at least one Spirit Halloween store. Home Depot’s main isle is built up with impressive animatronic scenes, ready to assemble for slightly less than a first home down-payment. And my internet feed is blowing up with ads for costumes, candy, and all things scary.

I got to thinking about the good old days (funny how my stories follow this pattern, right?)  My first few costumes were mostly homemade. I was a clown, a hobo, and a couple other “cute” things before I had my first fully store-bought costume.  From the 1950s through the 1970s there were 2 companies that dominated the kids’ Halloween market – Ben Cooper Inc. and Collegeville Costumes. They had a very iconic look; a vinyl smock, a painted, vacuum-formed plastic mask that was held in place with a thin, white rubber band, and a cardboard box with a clear window, proudly displaying the face of the character. Lifting the lid, you were greeted by that unique plastic smell. They were the ones most kids had back then.

The similarities are scary…

 

 

 

 

My first of those was Collegeville Costumes’ The Bat.’ It was “Batman inspired” (nudge nudge, wink wink.)  I can only imagine how quickly the “cease and desist” letter would arrive in these current times.  After a brief online search, I found an image. I can get one on Ebay in the original box, starting at about $80 (but it’s probably too small for me now.)

 

A few years later, I recall highly realistic (for the time) full head latex masks that were advertised in Warren magazines like Creepy and Famous Monsters of Filmland. They were really expensive; most could be found in the $50 range, but some were close to $100. They had realistic hair and were a lot like movie masks. They were also way out of my price range. And more importantly, they were WAY beyond what my parents were willing to spend. But that’s OK. Their target audience wasn’t little kids. It was adolescent boys.

From a 1970s issue of Creepy magazine

Around the time I was moving into an adolescence of my own, there was a shift in horror movies as well. The black and white Universal monster movies were gone, and even the Hammer horror stories (known for more blood and gore than its predecessors,) were taking a back seat. Slasher films that were originally low budget grindhouse-type productions were stepping up into the mainstream. Jump scares, by no means a new idea, became the dominate feature of these movies.

John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) was the first I remember from this new genre. It was followed by the likes of Friday the 13th (1980), and Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). These three films were the basis of what would become a sort of ‘unholy trinity’ of horror franchises; each went on to spawn multiple sequels and a huge assortment of non-movie merchandising.

It is precisely that merchandise that brings me back around to this article (See? Pay attention. I’m circling around to my point.)  All of these movies carried an R rating; “R”, as in “Restricted Audiences.” But the accessories were not just marketed to adults. Around this time, Halloween decorations in general were becoming darker, more violent, and, in my opinion, increasingly inappropriate. They weren’t aimed at adults or teenagers. They were in the toy isles.

Today, if we walk through the neighborhood on Halloween, the spooky but ‘cheerful’ decorations have been largely replaced by brutally horrifying murder scenes or direct portals to Hell.

As much as I can appreciate some of the scarier stuff, I don’t think it should be the norm for an activity that, going back years, has been a magical part of growing up. It inspired spooky imagination. It didn’t terrify little kids and expose them to torture porn or demonic possession; There is no good reason for grade-school children to expect SAW or Sinister at their neighbor’s house.

So, this October, consider moving the adult stuff indoors, for the adults to enjoy. Let’s try to make the front yard a place for spooky mischief and whimsy. For old time’s sake.

“Spooky Scary Skeletons,” written and performed by Andrew Gold (1996,) from the album Halloween Howls: Fun & Scary Music.

 

https://youtu.be/sVjk5nrb_lI?si=aYtTHTkRQ3beupWL

 

-Toph