Jack O' Lanterns Aglow

You may have seen some of these, maybe even all of these, over the years, but I decided to display a selection of my Jack O' Lantern pails I've collected over the years all together.  Every one of these came from a garage or an estate sale.  They're harder to find these days, particularly anything pre-1980.  These all date from the 1960's through the 1980's.

I tried to chose one of each with differing expressions which is one of my favorite things about hunting for them; finding a new expression.

Children's Play Mate October 1949

 It's been 10 years since I last posted a Children's Play Mate magazine, so I guess it's due.  This one dates from October of 1949.  I didn't scan it completely, but hit the highlights. The cover features an illustration by Fern Bisel Peat whom I profiled in the 2016 post.

I Want My Mummy (Mask)

 This 1995 Mummy mask by Cesar was a find from over the summer. It dates from 1995 which doesn't sound that long ago, but is 31 years old now.  The rubber has held up well, despite somebody cutting up the back to make the opening wider.

Spooky Portraits

There's something about old portraits, particularly in period frames, that gives me spooky vibes.  It's probably related to old movies and television shows where human eyes peered through the portraits:

The Andy Griffith Show "The Haunted House", season 4, episode 2

Or portraits of ladies that had gardening sheers stuck in their throat. IN THE THROAT!:

"The Ghost and Mr. Chicken"

AI is On to Me

 Last week, I made a post as an experiment to demonstrate AI's tendency to propagate inaccurate or completely false information by indiscriminately scraping whatever is posted on the internet.  Like the "Hog Waller Hollerer", it took the bait, but called me out.

This morning, I decided to follow up on my post by Googling: "The Hog Waller Hollerer Cryptid" and was presented with this:

Uncanny Finds -- Beich Brittle Brilliants

This is a fresh find from this past weekend. It's not exactly Halloween, but it's orange and black and it once contained candy, so fair game.

Halloween Revisited -- Don't Lose Your Head

Today we revisit 2016 again and this heady find.

When I saw this shrunken head hanging from a bar at an estate sale, I immediately grabbed it.  Well, first I made sure it wasn't real.