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Five New Entries on the Halloween Countdown!

Wow, Halloween is really creeping up on us now. I've got at least five articles specific to the holiday that kinda need to get done before the holiday hits, so looks like I'm gonna have to lock myself in here for even longer than usual to get it all done. My friends and I took a trip to Salem, Massachusssettesss this past weekend, and wow, it's a great town. Seriously, had I visited there in my teens, I probably would've made a bid to go to college there. I'm sure many would be a little disappointed in the touristy commercialism that's more than abundant, but hey, I like having four hundred different witchcraft and Halloween souvenir shops to choose from. People searching for something more "real" won't be disappointed though -- between the museums and the fact that you can pretty much stage a puppet show in the cemetery without anyone giving much of a shit, it's a cool place to get down with your inner ghoul. Askldksaeowewi. I've got a few pics of our adventures there, and s'more from a trip a few weeks back, so hopefully I'll have time to add 'em tomorrow. As for Salem, I'd have to say that the highlight of the trip was seeing a guy with a monster mask, scarf, and live parrot walk by without anyone batting an eye. The Countdown's been brought up to date with five count 'em five new entries...

Burger King's Universal Monsters Figures
The Horror of Dracula, Revealed
"Pet Tarantula" Gummy Candies
The "Bloody Blade" Halloween Accessory
Minty Mouth Blood -- my new favorite thing.

Posted by Matt on 10/22/2003. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 47 comments

What’s this about you not going to Wildwood this year? What about Fat Daddy? Huh? WHAT ABOUT FAT DADDY’S FEELINGS!?!
BTW the Golden Girls where Rose’s pill addiction is discovered was on last night. She said "hell".

Chestnuts roasted by Applesauce @ 10/22/2003 7:41 PM

What’s this about you not going to Wildwood this year? What about Fat Daddy? Huh? WHAT ABOUT FAT DADDY’S FEELINGS!?!
BTW the Golden Girls where Rose’s pill addiction is discovered was on last night. She said "hell".

Chestnuts roasted by Applesauce @ 10/22/2003 7:42 PM

Rose: "GET OFF MY DAMN BACK!"

We didn’t go to Wildwood this past summer, and yes, it sucks. My friends are mostly bored with the place, which is understandable since it’s basically turned into a place for high schoolers who can’t afford big vacations or for families full of small children; in either case, not the best scenario for a buncha twenty-somethings. I still love the fuck out of WW, though, and will def go back next year.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 10/22/2003 7:43 PM

Salem Mass.
So your an East Coast-er Matt…
Hmmm, makes sense.
Did you stay in one of those lil’ bed n’ breakfasts there? Two Halloweens ago me & my girl stayed at one in this really old house.(supposedly haunted.) The lady who ran it had all these horribly shitty lookin’ cats! I like cats, but these were some ugly shits! (not like yours… really ugly!)
Even spookier than the house.

Chestnuts roasted by TheCleaner420 @ 10/22/2003 7:47 PM

Matt, you’re just plain neat :)

Chestnuts roasted by Applesauce @ 10/22/2003 7:52 PM

Matt, you’re just plain neat :)

Chestnuts roasted by Applesauce @ 10/22/2003 7:53 PM

I remember Pet Tarantulas. I loved them. But what I’ll never forget is something else that my grandparents brought back for me after returning from a vacation.

First of all, let me explain that I had a pet rat that I loved very much. His name was Sonic (named after the famous hedgehog), and he was the coolest little dude ever. Well anyway, my grandparents return from their vacation (I think it was a cruise or something), and presented me with a large cherry-flavored gummy rodent entitled "Pet Rat." I kept it alive for awhile, but eventually the rat just got too tempting. So I sucked its guts out (I’ll let you believe what you want to believe as to which rat it was that I had eaten).

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 10/22/2003 7:54 PM

Wildwood NJ?…
Matt you must live on the East coast!

Chestnuts roasted by TheCleaner420 @ 10/22/2003 8:02 PM

As do I. Yes, I reside in Wildwood, NJ, year-round, and spent more time than I care to admit this summer hoping to encouter a spiky-reddish-haired 20-something guy wearing sunglasses indoors, schmoozing with Fat Daddy (who is, indeed, still around, though on a different part of the boardwalk), and making fun of the 99 cent stores.

I don’t blame your buddies for not wanting to come here. If Salem is "commercial," Wildwood is the definative tourist trap. This doesn’t bother me. I grew up in the slightly classier "historic" tourist trap to the south, Cape May, so I’m no stranger to gift shops every two blocks. Matt’s complaints about it only being popular with families and high schoolers during the summer is all too true. Some of those "high schoolers who couldn’t afford big vacations" stayed in the apartment two doors down from me and were a total pain. The families who stayed in the hotel next door were more fun; I used to listen to them splash and play in the hotel’s pool (which my kitchen window overlooks).

The "lil’ bed and breakfasts" are mostly in Cape May. There are a few in North Wildwood, but I don’t believe there are any in Wildwood City.

Don’t come here now, BTW. The season is most definately over. There are some hotels still open, but everything on the boardwalk except for one of the arcades (the one with the 25 cent cranes) is closed, as are most everything else in town but a few necessary stores and a couple of local restaurants popular enough to survive the winter. If you wanna come down during the off season, you might want to try February (if we don’t get a blizzard again) or March.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 10/22/2003 9:42 PM

My elementary school took us to Salem a few times for field trips. The wax museum with the recreations of the witch trials freaked the hell out of me as kid.

The main guy is Godsmack is Wiccan and had that "official" witch lady of Salem in one of their videos

Chestnuts roasted by Michael @ 10/22/2003 10:22 PM

I meant in the band Godsmack.

Chestnuts roasted by Michael @ 10/22/2003 10:24 PM

The tooth baring image in the Minty Mouth Blood, article reminds me of Fight Club. Just need a board room meeting.

Chestnuts roasted by Aconite @ 10/22/2003 11:45 PM

Salem is scary, yes. And even Lowell, MA (my birthplace) is scary, with all them crazy Asians everywhere. But nothing can prepare you for the horrors that exist in WV. I’m dead serious, folks. Don’t believe me, come and see for yourself. Mwahahahahahaha

Chestnuts roasted by SHANE! @ 10/23/2003 12:06 PM

The Minty Mouth Blood actually reminds me of the time I got my impacted wisdom teeth taken out September last year. I just kept on bleeding for a couple of hours and had to chew down hard on gauze and Kleenex, but, ya know, sometimes I had to open my mouth, especially with my nose congested from hay fever, and the teeth photo is pretty much exactly what I looked like when I looked in the car mirror. I’m glad the cops didn’t pull us over since I looked like something right out of Lifeforce. (Actually, no, the Lifeforce "zombies" were technically energy vampires from space and sucked the blue lightning-like life energy from people; I just like plugging Lifeforce here.)

Bottom line, kids: don’t do like I did and wait until you’re 28; save yourself a lot of pain and get your wisdom teeth extracted when you’re still in your teens.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 10/23/2003 4:04 AM

Wow, I remember loving those BK Universal Monsters figures, I might have to look for some on eBay. You mentioned not knowing what Taco Bell’s Halloween toys were; interestingly enough, they are figures almost exactly like the BK ones, except they’re generic instead of Universal. I think they have a vampire, werewolf, frankenstein, mummy, and zombie. They each come with a crypt that they rise out of like the BK Dracula did.

Chestnuts roasted by Bandini @ 10/23/2003 4:07 AM

Is there anyone here with old commercials on tape from the Boston area? I keep thinking of the ultimate 80′s robot store from Waltham, Mr. Big’s Toyland. This would be one of the stops for a X-E trip if it still existed, so if you have a commercial please send it to Matt. I dreamt of going to this hallowed place as a kid, but never made it to Waltham.

Here is what I could find:
Scroll down to the second use of red font on the left and there is a still from a commercial
http://darkstar_013310.tripod.com/
This collector guy never went to the store either
http://www.collectiondx.com/collection.asp?ID=20

Chestnuts roasted by Michael @ 10/23/2003 9:36 AM

I want to make out with you, Matt. Especially if your mouth is full of Bloody Mouth Minty Mouth Blood. Mmmmm. . . tasty.

Chestnuts roasted by megan @ 10/23/2003 2:01 PM

How could anyone here not be aware that Jack In The Box had the toys from Burger King plus a couple more last month?

Chestnuts roasted by Chemosh @ 10/24/2003 11:17 PM

Matt, you said mine… are you from Southern Pennsylvania? Because from what I understand, that’s Southern PA dialect.

Chestnuts roasted by Sheep @ 10/31/2003 1:25 AM

Is that Mr. Big’s Toyland place still there? I haven’t been the in ages. Sorry no commercials tho…

Chestnuts roasted by Flashboy @ 03/19/2004 6:59 PM

i live in waltham mass, and no mr.big toyland is all gone. it went out like 15 years ago.

Chestnuts roasted by my little radio @ 10/22/2004 5:24 PM

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2003 at 6:02 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.