WVC Halloween Memories

In honor of Halloween, this blog features fun stories and pictures of Weber Vision Care staff. When asked about their favorite Halloween costumes and memories, this is what they had to say…

Jena: One of my favorite things back in the day when I trick-or-treated (we called it Halloweening) was the fact that we only went to people’s homes we knew (if they had their porch light on, of course) and the people guessed who we were. One time, my parents took us to a house and the people had no idea who we were. Once we revealed ourselves, I mentioned who our parents were, and they still didn’t know us! How embarrassing!

Christine: I enjoyed going to the Fall Festival at my church. We had lots of good food, activities, and costumes. The Halloween parades at school were always fun too. Halloween eventually became one of my favorite holidays through adulthood. My favorite costume was when I was Little Bo Peep in 2nd grade. My grandmother got a dress for me from Dollywood. It was baby blue with ruffles and lace. I even carried a shepherd’s staff and a stuffed animal sheep!

Deb: We celebrated Trunk or Treat at South Mountain Raceway last weekend. I won a trophy for best decorations – we had a skeleton grilling! Of course, I made lots of festive Halloween-themed food. I also won a trophy for scariest costume. The contacts were creepy! (Shameless plug – Most Halloween contact lenses online are illegal and harmful to the eyes. Weber Vision Care has safe, custom, theatrical contact lenses available for ordering after a proper contact lens fitting.)

Dr. Bloom: My childhood trick or treating costumes always came from the extensive collection of old things in our attic or my grandmother’s attic (Going to a store to buy a costume was not a thing at our house.). I had three of those plastic masks with the elastic that went behind your head – an old man with a large nose, a beautiful woman, and an old lady with a wart on her nose. 

The pieces of clothing from the attic ranged from a Colts football uniform (back when the Colts were in Baltimore), and a Beatles suit that had been one of my brothers (think skinny legs and no lapel on the jacket) to peasant skirts and ponchos from the 1950s or earlier. Every year it would be a different combo of these items – Johnny Unitas with a big nose, Beatle with a big nose, peasant woman with a warty nose, peasant woman with a pretty nose. You get the idea. 

One of the strangest things to me now is the approach that we took to trick or treating. Our objective was to get lots of candy, of course, but we would not leave someone’s house until they guessed who we were. I grew up in a small town and knew most folks, but there were times that we probably stayed at one house for ten minutes or so making the poor homeowner try to guess our identity behind those old plastic masks. Our logic for getting the maximum amount of candy was severely flawed! 

Nowadays, our favorite trick or treater is our dog, Daisy. She’s not crazy about putting on a costume, but she was pretty happy with herself when we made her into a Beanie Baby.

Tim: I was in Boy Scouts, and we walked as a group in the Grantville Parade each year. Two of the most memorable costumes were when we dressed up as pirates one year and “50’s-themed” another year. I think we even won best costumes one time.

Mandy:  When I was about 8 years old, my family had a combined Halloween and birthday party for my brother, whose birthday is on October 28th. There was a dim room set up with spooky lights and decorations. We were blindfolded and had to put our hand in a bowl to guess what it was filled with. The bowls were full of things like grapes to seem like eyeballs and spaghetti noodles to be like brains. I also remember my dad painting my siblings’ and my face to go trick-or-treating as the Kiss band. Raggedy Ann was another classic Halloween costume I remember.

Tina: My oldest daughter and I had on our bucket list to go to New Orleans for Halloween and crossed it off about 4 years ago. We visited the cemeteries and did graveyard tours. We went to parades, haunted places, and a few Voodoo shops. The picture is my daughter and I sitting in a haunted room at Muriel’s in Jackson Square. It was spooktacular!

Dr. Williams: For several years, my friends and I would visit Shenandoah on trick-or-treat night. My friend’s sister lives up there and would usually get upwards of 200+ kids and their parents. The first year we dressed as witches complete with a “bubbling” cauldron and a pair of Wicked Witch legs sticking out from under it. Years later, we went dressed in everything from 101 Dalmatians to Pirates of the Caribbean to monsters to Toy Story (Unfortunately, that year I was Mr. Potato Head and sweated to death). People began making an extra effort to visit just to see what we had cooked up each year. My favorite costume was the year we went as skeletons; I wore a Grim Reaper robe complete with a hood that had fabric secured to the front of the hood. I could see out but no one could see in. I walked up and down the sidewalk saying nothing but putting my hand on peoples’ shoulders with my glow-in-the-dark skeleton gloves. I was probably the world’s shortest Grim Reaper ever, but I had a BLAST scaring people!

Ellie: My mom made all of the costumes for my family. We would usually be in the Northumberland and Selinsgrove Halloween Parades, and we won first place several times. When I was 4½ years old, I was a ghost on a parade float. Another year, my family went as Goldilocks and the Three Bears (I was Goldilocks)! Once I was older, I was able to wear one of the bear outfits.

Danielle: One year my Mom made costumes for my brother and I. We were M&M’s… I was a red one, and he was a green one. I also remember dressing up in a white gown and gold sash as Miss America. Another time, my entire Brownie troop were Dalmatians, and we made our own costumes for the Lions Club Halloween Parade. My favorite costume was when I was a black cat. I just loved having my face painted like a cat, and wearing the ears and tail and the whole nine yards!  

Dr. O’Neal: My sister and I would trick-or-treat in the development across the street from our little cul-de-sac. Before that neighborhood existed, there was just an open field, so we didn’t go to many houses. The development was a dream come true for trick-or-treaters in the area; There were finally lots of houses within a safe walking distance. We also visited our grandparents to show them our costumes and collect our goodie bags full of candy, chocolate, cans of Chef Boyardee, boxes of mac & cheese, etc. (Grandma knew how to make the best Halloween bags and Easter baskets!). We went to the Grantville Halloween Parade and won the year my sister, neighbor, and I were Lower Dauphin Falcon cheerleaders and a football player. I’ve never had a single cheerleading bone in my body, but I managed to pull off the look long enough to fool the parade judges.

Happy Halloween!

(Enjoy some Weber Vision Care throwback pics)