Friday, October 13, 2017
Pumpkin Planet
We've been looking at Halloween highlights from the spooktacular October 1969 issue of Jack and Jill magazine all this month so far, and now it's time to pose the question: What would our favorite holiday be without pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns, and all things gloriously orange? Well, not ALL things (insert political rant here) --but here are a few appropriately themed bits o'fun, (highlighted by super cute artwork as usual) to get you excited about picking up that razor sharp blade and carving, hacking, slashing, and stabbing a frightening face into that wacky, weird ass fruit. (FYI: Grows on a vine, has seeds = fruit)
Pumpkin Planet, maybe that is where Halloween Town really exists.
ReplyDeleteA bit off topic, just a bit-
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy seeing all these Halloween stories from decades past, but there is one Halloween story that seems to either be eluding me or has become obscure over time.
I read this tale as a youngster about Forty years ago (how the heck did I get this old so soon?)
The title was I think “Trick or…Trick?”
The story as best I can recall went something like this-
Two kids, possibly brother and sister or maybe two brothers, were really excited about going out for Halloween. The grand finale of the trick or treating was to go to the old lady whose house was on a hill on the far side of town. The two kids’ father is anything but pleased about going all the way to that particular house, it being 14 blocks away, but since it is only once a year, he reluctantly agrees to go with them.
While the kids prepare for trick or treating, three young troublemakers are hanging out and are grumbling how there was nothing to do and how babyish Halloween was for them. One of the troublemakers tells the other two that they can still go out trick or treating, but only to the houses of elderly owners, and tell the homeowners that they don’t want candy, they want bread (cash) and if they don’t get their treat they would have to play a nasty trick on them. The three try their scheme and soon have a good bit of money. They eventually arrive at the house on the hill and find the old lady at home. They do the trick or treat bit with emphasis on cash, she agrees but asks the three to come inside her house so she can get her purse. The door slams shut on the three, and then weird sounds and faint cries of terror are heard coming from the house, if anyone was around to hear them.
Later on the two kids and their father arrive at the house on the hill, the old lady asks if the kids would like to come in, but say they are not allowed to and point to their father standing outside saying he would get mad if they disobeyed him. The lady gives the kids chocolate bars and friendly wishes them a good night.
On the way home one kid says to the other that the chocolates look identical to the three older boys they had seen earlier on in the evening.
……Anyway, that is the tale I read in school many years ago. After so many years I might have muddled some of the details but I never forgot the title ‘Trick or Trick?’ My search on the web has turned up nothing concerning this story, I remember reading it on two separate times when it was published (Weekly Reader or Scholastic) perhaps it is a bit of Halloween ephemera now lost to time.
Maybe someone on “And Everything Else Too” or THOIA might remember it? If not, then let this muddled half remembered version serve as the basis for a new version for Halloween storytellers.
Retro Halloweeny fun! Love the art.
ReplyDeleteI really like McDougal's cat, Mariah. The final illustration of his pumpkin farm--and especially his pumpkin farmhouse--is really great. But nothing is more terrifying than that clown puppet* in the last scan. Who the heck would give that thing a knife?
ReplyDelete*I mean, evil clowns are fine, but evil puppets? Shudder.
I sort of want to print out the crossword and do it!
ReplyDeleteI painstakingly image manipulated the puzzle using the "text" function in Photoshop. My answers are a CGI special effect!
ReplyDelete(And my printer's in a box somewhere.)
Oh man this is so cute!!! I love the kids in the Pumpkin Planet illustration and the October Magic jack-o-lanterns.
ReplyDeleteWow, this takes me back! Love it :)
ReplyDelete