Hallowe'en Memory-Chris Baker of Hauntcast

We're getting towards the end of what has turned out to be a really delightful series, and I guilted my "boss," Chris Baker of Hauntcast fame (although he is very certainly not the boss of me!) into sharing his favorite Halloween memory with us. I think this is wonderful! Enjoy...

The year was 1976 and I was 8 years old. Unfortunately Halloween was just another day to my family, but for my neighbors the Bonfiglios Halloween was much much more.

I hung around with Brian Bonfiglio and spent most of me childhood hanging out with him and him family. His mom Mary Ellen was fanatical about Halloween. She decorated her entire apartment and the front porch. She convinced us that the Ben Cooper Inc costumes were crap (she was right) and encouraged us to make our own costumes from scratch. One Saturday before Halloween she got all the kids together and taught us how to make our own paper-mache masks by covering a wig head. My brother made a wolfman mask and I made a mummy. A few days later the father Bob asked me if I wanted to go with them to a Haunted House (attraction) and having never been to one before I was bursting out of my skin with excitement. It was absolutely amazing and from that point on, I was a complete Halloween junky. We went Trick or Treating with the Boniglios that Halloween although the Mary Ellen stayed home to greet the ToTs in a witch costume and makeup with the Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House playing through a speaker out their front window. They were the first home haunters I new. I went ToTing with the Bonfiglios for 2 more years and I even haunted their front porch in 1979.

This year I decided to pay homage to Mary Ellen and created a tombstone for my cemetery to honor her Halloween Spirit and of course, for inspiring me to become a haunter.

Thanks for a great memory, Chris. See, everyone? He really does have a heart!