What’s in the bag?

 

As Storm Boelo keeps hammering us, and we've had two power cuts already today, here's another quick post to get today done in case we're without electricity later!

I thought I'd show you just what's in the treat bag for any Guisers/Trick or Treaters who darken our door on Hallowe'en !

My mum didn't go too crazy this year, as last year we had the grand total of one vampire visitor!

As you can see, they get a Halloween Party Horn, a transfer tattoo, a sticky Monster Jelly sweet, a keyring, a small chocolate pumpkin, and some other random sweetie/candy!

Here's a look at a different bag, for comparison...the same except for a few differences in keyring, jelly, random candy, etc.

They also get a £1 coin chucked in that they can spend at a later date, and a bag of Monster Munch, which I've mentioned before on the blog...

So there you go, if you find yourself in Scotland on Halloween and manage to find us, all this could be yours provided you turn up fully costumed and prepared to perform a traditional party trick or tell a joke,or just look suitably terrified by everything going on!

(oh and in case you're wondering what the Love Hearts sweets are in the top picture, here's a little video piece about them..not very Halloweeny, but thought you might want to watch it anyway if you want to know more about the sweets!)

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Right, hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with that spook post, but in the meantime why not go check out what the other Cryptkeepers are up to by clicking the badge below..or you could head on over to Maple Grove Cemetery, who have been visiting Macomb Center Cemetery!

The Storm!

 A part of Halloween that we get to experience in the UK just to add extra spookiness, is really windy, stormy weather. October usually sees the start of the storm season, and yesterday we got our first named storm of the season Storm Austen, which affected the south of the UK, and today it's our turn up North and we're getting battered by the second storm, Boelo...

While this does help clear the trees of their leaves, and set the right mood with the clouds billowing past the full moon, it also throws up a few annoyances! We've had a yellow alert warning all day for wind and rain, and just within the last hour and a half that yellow warning has become an orange or amber alert, which means severe and dangerous to life, and also, that power cuts are more likely... 

Because of this, I've changed my planned Spook Sighting post for today, because those always require a lot of writing and checking and I don't want to be stuck halfway through and then lose power, so instead I thought I'd fling a quick tale up from my comic scan collection that seems appropriate for the situation!

Here then, is The Storm from Adventures Into Terror 44 (Issue 2) by Atlas Comics, dated February 1951...

An odd little story, I'm sure you'll agree! Not really sure what that ending was about though?? If they're old, why are they back out a day before they even went in?? Weird!!??!!

Oh, and if you notice, I decided to leave the ads in this time as well, because I reckoned that everybody always leaves them out, but they're fun to look at too!! 

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Right, that wind is really starting to pick up now, and I can see the lights flickering a bit,so I better get this posted just in case we get power cut No.2 of the day soon! We do have this warning until 9pm tomorrow night, but hopefully things will have quietened down before then and I can get that other post put up. I've just realised I've probably wrote more here than in a lot of other posts too, which kinda negates this as a rush post too, but it felt quicker to put together! 😂

Right go check out the other Cryptkeepers at the Countdown Hub by clicking the badge below, and I'll hopefully see you back here tomorrow!!

Halloween School Book Club (Part 5) - A Dictionary of Monsters and Mysterious Beasts (Carey Miller, 1974)

Okay, so this technically isn't a School Book Club book..but I thought I'd just stick it along with the others anyway...instead, this book has been around in my house for as long as I can remember, and probably helped fuel my love for monsters, spooks, vampires, werewolves and Halloween!

My copy is a bit worse for wear, but I managed to find scans of a copy at a certain archive, so that's where these are from...

I love how it manages to take monsters from all over and throughout history and give nice detailed descriptions of them!

The Berbalangs are a personal favourite, and that is what the creature on the cover is I believe....and it both freaked me out and delighted me in equal measure as a kid!

As did the bizzareness of the Catoblepas....it's such a pointless creature that it just HAS to exist, right??

And going from Frankenstein to Ganesha just shows the variety of the creatures on offer in these pages... I love this book!

It also started my love of Yokai, along with my favourite The Kappa!

That image of the Squonk has made it one of my favourite monsters, and I really feel for the poor creature and wish it was more widely known...and accepted!  And why would you want to capture a poor Squonk anyway!?

The other thing I love about the book is that not only does it give you a long list of how to avoid becoming a vampire, but also a long list on how to defeat a vampire!

I'm sure you'll agree it's a great book! Apparently there are a few updated versions, which remove some monsters and add others, but this is the version I have and so its the version I will always love! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed looking at it, and good luck if you go out seeking a copy for yourselves!

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Be sure to go check out what the other Cryptkeepers have been up to by clicking the badge below, or head straight on over to see Jack O at The Horrors of Halloween who is taking a look at Joe Bob's Halloween House Party 2026!

 

British Halloweens

Me (Skeleton) Brother (Fire Demon), my neighbours and friends Emma (Witch) and Edward (little Goblin type thingy!)

 I found this video on Youtube that talks about how Halloween has changed in Britain in recent years...it gets a couple of things a bit wrong...we had shop bought masks over here way before John Carpenter and ET were a thing for instance, but it's mostly quite an accurate depiction of how things went over here, so I thought I'd share it..along with a few pictures I could find of Halloween's past!

Me (Skeleton) Brother (Vampire) my neice, Kerry (Tiny Child)

Evidence of cheap costumes! My older brother Malcolm and I dressed as vampires!

My brother dressed as Adam Ant...and me in tights and a fluffy cat hat dressed as Puss in Boots!

A trio of Dead Acrobats from a party I was at, proving that cheap costumes were still a thing way into the 2000s!

My cousin Steve (Mummy/Clown) and Me (Werewolf) at the same party!

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Hope you enjoyed the video and a look at some old Halloween pics!

Be sure to head on over to the Countdown hub for more Halloween-filled happiness! Or head straight on over to Haunted Eve's Halloween Blog, where you can check out some pics of the recent RMSC After Dark Halloween event!