Which Witch Halloween Party Are You Attending?

Put on your scariest or silliest costume and pick one of these Halloween parties to attend.  The newspaper ad will be your ticket to travel back in time.  Have fun and remember to be a good monster!

1985 Owensboro, KY

1991 Worcester, MA

1972 Brunswick, MO

1960 Oakland, CA

1985 Sioux Falls, SD

1985 Chapel Hill, NC

1988 Pueblo, CO

1976 Washington, MO

1974 Oshkosh, WI

1992 Missoula, MT

1967 Beaumont, TX

1959 Pensacola, FL

1985 Owensboro, KY

1977 Centerville, MO

1987 Yuma, AZ

1984 Lewiston, ME

1978 Springfield, MO

1984 Myrtle Beach, SC

1980 Ava, MO

1993 Lemont, IL

Halloween Countdown Returns In Glorious Black & White

Good evening and welcome to the 2026 Neato Coolville Halloween Countdown!

This year I've been working on genealogy and digging into the vast archives of Newspapers.com. Sometimes I get sidetracked and enjoy looking at the old ads and articles. Of course this led me down a Halloween path. I started looking up store ads featuring costumes and candy. Then I moved onto fast food restaurant ads. I did the same thing for supermarkets and movie theaters and...well...things got out of hand and I ended up saving a bunch of Halloween clippings. So there's no better place than here, the Halloween Countdown, to feature old random newspaper clippings. I hope you enjoy these inky black and white Halloween treats all month. I'll be posting each day which will hopefully make The Great Pumpkin appear.   

Here's a sampling of the type of clippings to expect during our favorite month of the year.
 

1976 Columbia, MO

Black, White, and Bloody Read All Over

The countdown begins October 1st. Sorry if your hands get inky.

Halloween Packaging Day 31 -- Casper Popping Candy

Happy Halloween!  Time to end this countdown with one last treat and it's a throwback that seemed a bit out-of-time when I found it at a dollar store back in 2012.  It's a bag of Casper Popping Candy!  Do kids even know who Casper is? Regardless it was fun seeing an old friend show up on a bag of Halloween candy. 

Okay, that's it...I made it to the end and it was fun!  I didn't realize how much I missed blogging and especially the Halloween countdown.  Have a keen Halloween everyone and thanks for stopping by!! 

 

Halloween Packaging Day 30 -- Mountain Dew VooDew

Mountain Dew's mystery flavor soda known as VooDew has been a Halloween tradition since 2019 and I've had fun tasting and admiring the creative campaign from the beginning.  Sadly there's a rumor that this year 2024 will be the last year for VooDew. 

Of course it was the artwork on the cans and boxes that caught my interest.  The style reminds of old pre-code horror comic books from the 1950's.  Just like Tales from the Crypt this soda has a mascot and his name is VooDEWgrim and each year he beckons unsuspected consumers to buy his product and guess the candy flavor of the clear soda.  Check out all the boxes from 2019 to 2024.  Supposedly there's little clues and easter eggs in the artwork hinting at the flavor.

A few years ago they re-released the first three flavors in a "Ghosts of VooDew Past" box online.  This was great because I held on to a few cans so I could taste test all five flavors and rank them.  As I type this out I'm enjoying a can VooDew 6 so I can add to my ranking from best to worst.  The mystery flavors are announced every Halloween. 

My ranking -- 

2023 - Cherry Airheads

2024 - ? Taste like Strawberry Pixy Stix to me

2019 - Candy Corn

2021 - Fruit Candy Chews

2020 - Fruit Candy Explosion 

2022 - Sour Candy

  

And yes, if you're wondering, I did mix all of the first five flavors and it was very very sweet.  Thankfully I survived!  

The marketing on VooDew was fun especially on social media but I was surprised by the lack of in-store displays.  At least I never saw anything at my local supermarkets.  Oh well...to close out today's post, here are some photos of the product in the wild.

My shopping cart full of Halloween goodness!

Halloween Packaging Day 29 -- The Reaper Hot Sauce

I'm bending the rules for today's post because this awesome bottle is not really intended for Halloween and is/was available year-round.  But it's just too cool not to post!  I'm not into hot sauces but when I spotted this at World Market a few years ago I had to add it to the collection.  Just look at it with it's cheap plastic skull lid wrapped in a black felt cloak and an illustrated skinny skeleton body on the label.  It's pure perfection! 

Such a nice big toothy grin on Grim!

Here's a pic of it in the wild.  You'll notice they spiced up the label a bit from the time I bought mine to the time I snapped this pic.  The back of the label says it's a product of Colombia so I guess this would be the perfect sauce for your Day of the Dead celebration.

Halloween Packaging Day 28 -- Crunch 'n Munch

This boo-tifully designed Halloween themed Crunch 'n Munch box was on store shelves during the spooky season of 2006.  It has everything going for it to grab the attention of a potential buyer.  The name of the product is large and eye catching.  The skeleton barker peeks out from the top basically telling you to buy a box.  Another skeleton gets the attention of all ages that it has a free a glow-in-the-dark light switch cover on the back.  A subtle and mysterious haunted house beckons any hesitant buyer.  Finally, the food product itself is wrapped in a swirling triangle of tasty goodness.    

The front of the box alone should make you buy it!  But even if you pick it up and are not sure if you should spend the few dollars, you then see the side panel.  You're hypnotized by the spooky Goblin Party Favors recipe and it's now in your shopping cart.  

Of course you're now a hero to your kids because of that nifty glow-in-the-dark light switch cover and you owe whoever designed this box a big thanks of gratitude!!  Hopefully in a house somewhere one of these light switch covers is still hanging up after almost 20yrs.