Sprint Magazine

I thought I'd make an appearance before the upcoming "Countdown to Halloween" begins (if it still begins this year).  I assure you, despite my absence, the garage saling force is still strong in this one.  I'm still out there every weekend, rain, shine or snow, attending garage and estate sales, though the volume of product I'm buying has decreased significantly. I quit selling on eBay over a year ago, so I don't have a good outlet to offload excess product or a reason to buy something simply to flip it.  But I still pick up things that interest me, including this Scholastic Magazine from September of 1977, Sprint. I found it among the rubble of a basement at an estate sale home which I can only describe as an explosion of the 1970's.

Lucy's a Real @#$%&!, Charlie Brown

Originally posted in 2014. I thought it was time to revisit some oldies but goodies.

For several years, I’ve followed Chris Sims and his Funkywatch blog which details the endless cycle of misery endured by the cast of Tom Batiuk’s “Funky Winkerbean” comic strip.  What began as a lighthearted strip featuring high school students in humorous and sometimes improbable fantasy situations devolved into a spectacle of death, misfortune and schadenfreude firmly grounded in hell on earth.  While many believe Batiuk invented this comic form, Charles Schulz mastered the art of morale-crushing criticism and shaming with Lucy Van Pelt.  Existing solely for the purpose of antagonism, Lucy’s constant berating and belittling left an indelible and incurable swath of emotional duress, angst and disempowerment.

Let’s take a look at the atmosphere of menace and hostility imposed by Lucy and its effects on the well-being of her family and “friends” through the pages of these coloring books from the 1970's I recently purchased. And I swear I didn't modify the captions on any of these.

Lucy begins her devious mission.  Who will she choose to pick on?

And To All, A Good Fright!

And it is with a touch of melancholy that I leave you with this last post of Halloween 2025 and The Countdown to Halloween.

As promised, here are photos of my own home haunt.  It's mostly the same as previous years (hey, I know what I like), but there are a few additions.

Haunted Homes

Well, once again the day is here.  It seems to go faster and faster every year.  I can't believe October is over.

The last few years, I've started taking photos of decorated homes I see while out garage and estate saling  Here is this year's offering.  I actually went back to a few after dark to get the full effect.  The great thing is, in my experience, people are always welcoming of you to walk on their property and taking photos of their decorations. Enjoy!

Die Cut Blow Out

Well, once again we find ourselves at the day before THE day.  Traditionally on this blog, today is the end of garage sale content with tomorrow reserved for photos of my home haunt.  Believe it or not, our outside still isn't decorated (as of writing this).  We had a new roof put on a little over a week ago (tornado damage last March) and I didn't want the decorations damaged by flying shingles.  Then it began raining (after a 3 month drought). And raining. And raining.  Today (10/30) is supposed to be cloudy but dry, so I'm going to go into overdrive and get the outside decorated.  Hopefully photos tomorrow will prove I was successful.

But for today, I thought I'd do a photo dump of all the diecuts I have heretofore not shown on this blog.  Some of these are from this past season, others I've found in prior years, but never posted (to my knowledge. Honestly, I didn't go through the blog and look).

Up first is a find from this year.  It's a giant version of the classic Beistle skeleton, measuring in at 54" tall.  I picked him up for $10 which I thought was a good deal.

Wax Scarecrows

 At the sale where I found one of my grails (heretofore known as the "grail sale"), I also picked up these 2 fellows.

First up is a classic Gurley candle dating from the 1970's.  Technically, it's a Suni candle, but W&F Mfg. owned both companies and used the same forms.

Ben Cooper Masks and Memories

I did pretty well with finding vintage Ben Cooper Halloween masks this past year.  I found this Frankenstein's Monster and the Skull below it at estate sale, untouched by everyone that had passed through the room prior.  They are made in Hong Kong and date from the 1970's.

Halloween Jigglers

 What's Halloween without some rubber bats and spiders? Boring, that's what!  These jigglers (technically, the bat doesn't jiggle, but he falls in the same class) were made in Hong Kong and date to the 1970's.  First up is this green bat which is one I hadn't seen before finding this one.  Image Googling him didn't provide any matches.

Halloween Revisited -- The Wonder Fears

Today's post, like yesterday's, dates back to 2015.  When I repost these, I can't believe how long it's been. It seems like I just wrote them.  Enjoy one of my favorite posts.

When I saw these cards in a shoebox at a sale a while ago, I was immediately taken back to a particular summer of my youth in the 1970's.  For more than one reason, you might refer to it as my "Wonder Year".

Halloween Revisited -- Hoostradoos and You

 Today's post comes from 2015 as we revisit the Wyandotte legend of the Hoo' Stra Doo'.

Rosbro Scarecrow

Back in my first post of the season, I mentioned I'd found a grail this year that I'd been on the hunt for for years.  I went to a sale last spring that promised vintage Halloween.  I showed up maybe an hour after the sale had opened and found the Halloween in the basement.  It had already been gone through, but there were still a few good items I picked up including some Gurley candles (stay tuned for a later post). My daughter and I were both at the sale and thought we had looked through everything before finally checking out and leaving.

I went back the next day thinking I might pick up a few other remaining items at 50% off.  I went back down in the basement where the Halloween items had been and found this guy sitting on the shelf, plain as day.

Halloween Greetings

Over the summer, I picked up a couple of scrap books from a garage sale.  They appeared to have belonged to a young girl through her teenage years and probably date from the late 1960's to the mid to late 1970's.  Within the pages, she saved greeting cards and other memorabilia you would expect.  She had a fairly good collection of Halloween cards, so I extracted those.  The cards were well glued down, so extraction was more successful on some than others.

Being of this era, most of the cards are of the "cutesy" kind.  A number of the cards were of the "insult" variety which was common with cards of this era as well.  Some I only scanned the front of, others that involved a punchline, I also scanned the interior.  Enjoy!

A Halloween Ink-Link

I found this company newsletter for American-Associated Insurance Companies.  It's called the "Ink-Link" and is dated October 1952.

Beistle Nite-Glo Ghost Diecuts

This trio of glow-in-the-dark ghosts comes from Beistle in the 1980's and were known as Nite-Glo Ghosts.

This Blud's for You

 I couldn't find an exact year on these buttons, but they appear to be from the 90's, which I must continue to remind myself was 30 years ago.

Halloween Revisited -- Dynamite Monster Bash

 

Enjoy a relaxing Sunday with Count Morbida and this re-post from 2016.

Dynamite was one of my staple orders from Scholastic Books when I was a kid.  And one of my favorite parts of the magazine was always Count Morbida.  This issue from 1975 dates a little prior to when I started reading it, but I was fortunate to come across it along with several other issues at an estate sale this summer.  It's issue number twelve and it devotes a large section to planning a Monster Bash.  Maybe you can use some of these for your Halloween party this year.

Halloween Revisited -- A Monster Mask Mystery

I originally posted this October 5th, 2015.  When I repost these, I just copy and paste from the original post as I don't want to actually repost the original  because that changes the post date and puts it out of the original sequence of posts.  And to recreate a post with this many photos defeats the reason behind "Halloween Revisited" which is "I'm lazy".  So I apologize if this shows up with weird format/font/etc.  I'll fix if I see that it does.

Sometimes when I start writing a post, it begins as one thing and ends as another.  Initially, this post was about trying to identify a mask, but it turned into a tangential examination of Halloween masks used in classic television shows and movies I recall fondly from my childhood.  In other words, I'm easily distracted.

Last spring, I drove a fair distance to attend what appeared to be an enormous estate sale chock full of retro goodies.  What particularly caught my eye in the ads for the sale were numerous Ben Cooper/Collegeville plastic Halloween masks. Once inside and after fighting my way through the crowd, I finally found the room with the masks, just in time to see a lady grabbing every plastic mask there. I pushed toward her to see if she'd left any, but she hadn't.  However, she had passed on a rubber mask which I grabbed.

Halloween's a Scream

When I first started decorating my house for Halloween in the 90's, it was pretty low-key.  I didn't have a lot of decorations, vintage or otherwise.  At some point, I picked up a screaming door mat from somewhere, probably one of the Halloween stores like Spirit Halloween, Halloween City or Halloween Express.  I would put it under the normal front door mat and watch people jump when they came to my front door.  That mat is long gone, but I found one still in the package a couple years ago.

Later, when my first son was about 4 or 5, he was petrified of the mat.  He would leap in or out of our door to avoid stepping on the mat.  He's 27 now. I think he's probably still a little leery of it. I imagine there are a lot of kids of the '90's that are traumatized by this scream.

Come to the Party

I apologize for the lapse yesterday. It's been a busy week at work.

This poor little invite never got a chance to invite someone to a Halloween party.  He looks out the window waiting for guests to arrive that never will.

It was made by Hallmark and looks to date from the 1950's to '60's.

Won't you come to his party?

Spearhead Industries Mummy Make-Up Disguise Kit

My first Halloween was the only year I got a store-bought costume. It was a Ben Cooper Spider-man in all its red, blue and yellow shame (I won't go into how disappointed I was with the off-model coloring).  Every year after that, I was on my own to make myself up with whatever resources I had. I've written previously how I used my mom's makeup and Imagineering vampire blood and teeth to transform myself into a wannabe Wolfman (everyone thought I was a tramp).  I never had any actual Halloween makeup like this.

This Mummy Make-Up Disguise Kit comes from a little-known company called Spearhead Industries.  It dates from 1981.  While it's hard to see, it comes with a "mirror" on the front of the packaging so you can check yourself out.  It's actually just a thin strip of reflective foil.