A Very 70s Halloween

I had a bit of a Halloween disaster today. To be honest I’m full of cold and not really up to it all. I had planned on making some great ‘Ginger-dead’ men and triumphantly showing them off on this post as just a last minute Halloween idea. But like King Alfred, they were a bit singed. A bit hard. Not really up to standard. And it got me thinking. Back when I was Elizabeth’s age, Halloween wasn’t this much a faff. I doubt that my mum thought about rustling up some gingerbread men and a cute little outfit for each of us. Yes, it would be interesting to go back to a very 70s Halloween…

A Very 70s Halloween

Outfit

Consisted of a sheet. And a plastic mask. You always wanted a monkey mask from the planet of the apes like the one Susan in the next street had. Instead you got Frankenstein if you were lucky. A cheap thin plastic mask with elastic stapled at each ear. But boy, did you wear it until that elastic came out of one of the staples. Which was about a day after you got it, to be fair.

Pumpkin

Er, pumpkins weren’t around in Leeds in the 70s. We had turnips. Yes, they were as hard as rock to carve. And they stank when you put the candle stub in (none of these fancy tea lights back then, they were proper candles). They were far scarier than pumpkins. Just google ‘turnip lanterns‘ and you will see what I mean.

Trick or Treating

I don’t remember actually going trick or treating. For one thing, your sheet with a plastic mask costume was just too lame to be seen outside. Plus nobody in the neighbourhood where I lived could afford to be giving out sweets to all and sundry.

Instead, we saved all our money to spend on eggs to put on car windows on ‘Mischief Night’. Which was October the 30th or November the 4th, depending on where you lived.

(Actually, I never did this. I was such a goody-goody)

Ghost Train Rides

Were about the scariest thing that you saw in the 70s. The smell was horrible. And there was always an idiot that hit you on the back just before the end when the car careered through the exit with a whooping siren noise.

Mary Whitehouse was pretty much stopping the TV from showing anything too horrible. Well…. unless you count the scary Public Information films that pretty much scared me witless of water, electricity or running on sand. And the word SPLINK.

We were obviously all living much more dangerously back then.

She says, as she breaks a tooth on the incredibly overbaked gingerbread.

What are your memories of a very 70s Halloween? I’d love to hear them. Comment below, or find me on social media.

Happy Halloween!

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