It’s time! Costumes are on, props are in place, and we all have our ‘creep’ on. It’s time to head to town and see if we can’t spook, slink, scrape, screech, and boo everyone we encounter into quaking in their boots. It’s Halloween! Destination; Fort Edmonton’s Spooktacular. And let me tell you this. It.Is.Fun!
The drive to Fort Edmonton is usually over an hour, but on Halloween it seems much shorter.
It could be that all the whooping and screeching and howling at passing vehicles played a hand in that.With the windows down and all the shenanigans going on, the time did spin by a little faster. At least for those making the roar from within. At one point I worried that it may rattle our driver, Frankenstein. It didn’t, luckily Frankie’s a bit slow on the uptake so none of the chaos seemed to affect his ability to keep us between the ditches.
We had a car full of screaming, creepy, classic monsters!
You’d think werewolves, mummies, Frankenstein and his betrothed would be quite frightening for other drivers. Especially with the windows down and all sorts of mayhem pouring out! I had expected our fellow drivers to be startled or gasp in surprise, maybe squeak out an “Oh My!” Nope, not so. As it turns out, this tends to generate uncontrollable laughter. Probably not a good idea while driving. But I don’t get it. I mean, we were pretty creepy! There really ought to have been brakes screeching, cars swerving, cursing, confusion, havoc…all of that. Nothing. I wonder, has the entire world become spook proof?
For those that are curious, the Spooktacular at Fort Edmonton comes to us in many different colours.
At one end of the spectrum things are completely family friendly. At the other end, even steely minded adults would find it on the edge of disturbing. You simply need to pick the path that best suits your group. This was the first year that our entire group was over 18, so of course we chose the scariest ‘avenue’ of entertainment available. And we were not disappointed.
As we strolled through the darkened midway guided by zombie lantern light, we experienced true horror tales from the local past; train derailments, serial killers, hangings, Spanish flu victims, circus elephant rampage. Each tale a little more sinister than the last, and each expertly told.
During one such tale, as has become tradition, Twyla tossed herself into one of the acts by stealing some lines. She was at the front of the group so only those closest to her heard her say them. The lines were predictable and most of us kept quiet. She did not. Once she had said them before the minstrel could they were immediately followed with him growling, “Hey pal, stop stepping on my lines!”, and then he continued with his monologue. This created a little misplaced laughter…most of it by me!
But the night was not only filled with stories…
In addition to the tales we strolled through haunted houses, grotesque butcher shops, in and out of coffins, met ‘Stretch’ and generally mingled with those trying to find their way past our world and into the next. I would recommend the stroll to anyone.
Along the edges of this blog you will find pictures of all of our costumes from that evening. Even though Meaghan, Kenny, Brenna and Surya could not be with us, they had fantastic costumes and they sent us pictures of them. I wanted to share them with you here as well. We’ve put their names in the pictures, can you guess their characters? The only one you probably won’t get is Kenny, and that’s because I think she’s being herself.
There are no rules when it comes to Halloween costumes.
In fact they’re not even a prerequisite. When we arrive at our ghoulish haunt there are many around us wearing the very same clothes they could wear any other day of the year, and that’s fine. However, between you and me, dig around in your personal tickle-trunk to see what you can unearth. Buy, build or borrow that spooky ensemble. It can be anything, it doesn’t really matter. It has been true for us that any costume you wear will bring a smile to your face, when not growling, gasping or creeping. And here’s the best part, you’ll bring a smile to another’s. Be they friends, or new friends. For us that really is what it’s all about.
Now we’ve been to Halloween celebrations without ‘costuming up’, I admit. But never do we have as much fun as we do when we put on a little makeup, take some scissors to an old bedsheet, raid the racks at Value Village and blacken out a tooth or two. There is no comparison to the level of enjoyment. Now if this year didn’t work for you, do yourself a favour and give it a think for next year. I know you’ll have a lot of fun with it all! You’ve got 364 days. Let your imagination take you by the hand and see what it can dream up.
(I should make a note here, that it is important to remember whose hat is whose when getting ready. As you can see, Seamus got a little confused. Now, I’m not going say it didn’t look real nice…but perhaps the wrong venue?)
We’re just passive race bettors and that’s how we approach the Derby. We generally place the simplest of bets: “Race 1, Horse 6 to win, for $2 Please”. It doesn’t get much more stress-free than that. Watching the horse race is incredibly exciting on it’s own, but by placing that $2 bet it ensures we have some skin in the game. It’s what gets you on your feet as they round the clubhouse turn heading down the home stretch. “Go 6! Go! Get the lead out boy!!! Come On!” Oh yeah, that’s fun stuff!
Well, at one time we used to walk down to the outside tarmac and look over each horse carefully; size, musculature, walk, spirit, etc. We would even gauge the track conditions. Oh, and don’t forget the jockey! Does he have a winning record? The list goes on. It’s too much. And wouldn’t you know it? It did not change the outcome one lick as far as our betting was concerned! We don’t do that any more.