HAPPY HALLOWEEN

October 31st finally showed up on the calendar! Of course here in Neato Coolville it’s been Halloween everyday! On this special last day of Halloween and as a last ditch witch effort I’ve added a string of posts just for tonight. So scroll down and check out all the treats!

1954 TRICK OR TREATERS AT THE DOOR SNAPSHOT

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I like the kid’s homemade Superman costume and during the Superman TV craze!

ORIGINAL SCAN

1977 HALLOWEEN PARADE WITH ROOM 6 SNAPSHOT

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Check out this menagerie of costumed kids! Frankenstein’s Monster leads the pack followed by Statue of Liberty?, Darth Vader, Raggedy Ann, Donny Osmond, Bugs Bunny, a Jawa, a rubber monster masked kid, and a different Frankenstein’s Monster.

THE ORIGINAL SCAN

1977 HALLOWEEN GIFT CERTIFICATES BOOKLET

I’m afraid these have expired!

OLD WITCH IS A CEREAL BOX

What the...?

This funny page is out of a kid’s puppet book from 1971 illustrated by Margaret Hartelius.

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1970'S GAME & PUZZLE OUT OF A KID’S MAG

These are from Children’s Playmate magazine from Oct. 1972.

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This Hidden Picture puzzle was illustrated by LeRoy Hinton.

The object is to find 13 hidden objects. Look for a candle, a bat, a Halloween mask, a glass, a moon, a skull, a snake, an apple, an owl, a ghost, a cat, a party horn, and a witch’s hat.

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Have fun!

UNIVERSAL MONSTER TRADING CARD TREATS

I ended up with about a thousand packs of these monster cards back around 1994. So we handed them out to the kids for a couple of years until we ran out. They were a big hit! We usually get between 250 and 300 trick or treaters each Halloween.

HAVE A NEATO COOL HALLOWEEN

Thanks to everyone who has been haunting around this month. Have a ghoulish good time tonight!

LAST TWO FUNNY PAPER HALLOWEEN ADS

Did you know back in 1953 that October was Motorola Fun Month? Well, according to this old funny paper ad printed on Oct. 18, 1953 it sure was. While Mom and Dad were spending a couple of months’ wages on a 21" tube console with the Double-Power Picture, junior could pick out his very one comic costume, mask and comic book. Wow! Now that was a swell deal!

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This next ad from October 23, 1949 stars Betty Blu-White, the ad mascot for Blu White Flakes, as she saves a Mom from a possible Halloween disaster.

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VINTAGE HAPPY HOLIDAYS KIDS BOOKS

The first Happy Holidays book is a magic paint book. Just put water to brush then brush to paper and then presto, instant painting. I love the Halloween cover for this one and check out the neato space-kid!

HEADLESS HORSEMAN SKETCH

I picked this up at Epcot back in 2000. The artist Steen Lauridsen would draw any Disney character that you wanted and of course I picked the Headless Horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He did a bang up job!


For a fun post on the Headless Horseman check out John Rozum's 31 Days of Halloween-Day 7

CASPER'S GHOSTLAND SIGN

Part of a store display from the early 1970's.

FURRY MONSTER HALLOWEEN CARDS

I mailed off some Halloween stuff to our two nephews today. We sent them a homemade cd full of fun kooky Halloween music, Pez, some monster finger puppets, activity books, and candy. The coolest thing (I think) are these two fuzzy monster Halloween cards we found at Target and I think they’ll be a hit with the kids. They’re made to stand up and everything! Zowie!

OCTOBER KIDS CARVE PUMPKIN

I never really noticed or looked at old personal snapshot photos when going through antique stores until I accidentally came across this old photo from the late ‘teens. After buying this one and pondering who these boys were and what happened to them, I came under the notion of how important old photos are as they trap a moment in time and become a window into the past. I’ve owned this one for many years and now I can finally share these "October Kids" with everyone.

Original scan

Cleaned-up

I thought it would be fun to add a little color.

FLEER’S MR. BONES CANDY

“Hey kids, meet Mr. Bones! You'll find just a pile of bones in a coffin until you put the pieces together and wha-la, instant little friend. If you get that sweet tooth you can always gnaw away on one of his many fruit flavored parts. Mr. Bones can be such a swell and sweet pal!”


Mr. Bones was a fun candy, but I remember how frustrating it was when the coffin didn’t have all the pieces, because half the fun was putting him together before you ate him. You would open that plastic coffin with the real little hinges and often times the skull was missing. “Bring me the head of Mr. Bones!”

Somehow I managed to save a complete Mr. Bones and many years have past since he’s been out of his coffin. “So how about saying hello to all the fine folks out there?” “Hello to all the fine folks out there.” “Ok wiseguy get back into your coffin before someone eats you.”

For kicks, I’ve included two modern and fun coffin candy containers. Both of these came from Target and the purple one came out last year and the red one is from this year. With the purple one you get to dig the skeleton out of candy dirt and the red one vibrates when you pull on the skeleton’s leg. Hopefully Target will keep adding to this series every Halloween.

MORE TRICK OR TREAT BAGS

SINISTER MAN AT THE HALLOWEEN PARADE 1930's SNAPSHOT

Who is this mysterious man that stands next to a float from a Halloween parade? If you ask me, he looks kind of deviant, like he’s up to something. Did this strange ring leader and his horde of weird parade people travel all over visiting small towns to razzle dazzle the simple folk with charms, bells and of course a few whistles. They probably did their dastardly deeds as the town watched the parade. The next morning the town probably noticed they’d been ripped off and the parade people vanished onto the next innocent town.

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He kind of reminds me of the Mr. Dark character from Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Since this photo is not identified we’ll never know the true story behind it. It’s one of the weirdest snapshots in my collection!

1970's HALLOWEEN CARDS

Some more 70's Halloween fun with these Halloween cards saved from childhood!

The inside inscription of the ghost card reads, “Ghosts and goblins, and black cats, too, will be on the prowl and haunting you... But don’t be scared, don’t shout or run... Just have a night that’s lots of fun!”

The answer to the question on the scarecrow kid card is, “You! Happy Halloween.”

WELCOME TO THE SPOOK SHOW

This is your ticket!

If you are brave of heart press the play button to view these dreadfully fun previews and watch as spooks from yesteryear play on your monitor. Words of warning - you might not want to watch this alone! BREWHA-HA-HA!


(Uploaded by wangho1975)

HANNA-BARBERA CHEAP TRICK OR TREAT BAG

If you were a trick or treater from the late 60's into the 80's you probably carried a cheap plastic trick or treat bag on a few or more outings. This Hanna-Barbera bag is from 1975 and made by Ben Cooper, the costume king. It’s nice that on one side Fred, Scooby and Yogi got to tag along with you on your candy quest and on the other side is more of a 70's style generic design.


I remember every year at school our local bank would give each kid one of these cheap bags that had their logo and Halloween graphics plastered all over it. Of course they had a few goodies tucked inside to get us started before the big night. I never used buckets, pillow cases or pumpkin heads for my treats, just these cheap plastic bags. They did hold a lot of loot and I liked how the little handle would snap back and forth. You did need to be careful with these bags since they would rip really easy and you’d leave a trail of Pixie Stix and mini Krackel candy bars behind.

LITTLE LULU + BOX OF KLEENEX + ARTHUR GODFREY = HALLOWEEN

Arthur Godfrey is shouting, “It’s Kleenex Tissue Time let Halloween fun remind you.”, in this vintage ad out of an October 18, 1953 newspaper comics section. Little Lulu is doing her job as the Kleenex spokes girl along with her gang of regulars. Little Lulu Moppet was the ad mascot for Kleenex from 1944 until 1960 and was created by Marjorie H. Buell in 1935.

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Funny thing about this post is that this ad was published on October 18, 1953 and now it’s resurfaced to be shown again on the same day just 53 years later. I assure you that posting this today on the same day was unintentional since I pretty much just grab items out of my tub of Halloween stuff every morning. Actually I was trying to decide between this ad or some Scooby-Doo items and as usual I wasn’t aware of today’s date until just a few minutes ago. Do-doo-do-doo, kind of Twilight Zoney if you ask me!

"Oh man, Tubby just sneezed in the apple tub!"

PUMPKIN DELIGHTS

That Little Debbie sure can cook up a swell snack cookie and she sure did with these Pumpkin Delights! I’m addicted to these ginger pumpkin flavored little devils. They even look up at you all mischievous like as you bite into their little noggins.

As I write this I just thought about how they might be here to take over the world, so we must do our part and eat ‘em up. Yeah, that’s it, these little things aren’t cookies but some malicious aliens disguised as tiny treats. They might be here to enslave us or worse yet package us up and shove us into boxes and sell each box for a $1.39 at some discount store on a far away planet to giant monstrous fang face aliens for their dessert! Yikes!

So go out and buy a truck load of boxes and start eating away! I’m doing my part to save the Earth and now it’s your turn. Go chomp a Pumpkin Delight today or end up as a snack cookie in cellophane!

(Oops sorry about that! I think this Halloween countdown is taking it’s toll!)

THE MAD SCIENTIST & THE MIME

The title for this post sounds like a title from an old 60's Batman episode!


Both of these photos were taken at a Halloween party back in the mid-90's and yes that’s me as the mad scientist and the first lady of Neato Coolville is the mime.

THE DOO FUNNY FAMILY

For today’s post we’re going way back with this 1920's snapshot of a family dressed in their Halloween best. Someone added the caption, “The Doo Funny Family”in the top boarder. I think that’s appropriate since they do look funny!

Check out the creative costume of the person dressed as a little baby sitting on a corn flakes box. I think that witch must’ve zapped that person into a little baby!


Notice the corn flakes box is Armour’s brand, which I thought looked familiar to me. I finally realized I had an Armour’s Oats Box for sale in my booth at an antique store. I’ve included a photo of this oats box, so you’ll have a better idea of what the corn flakes box looks like.