Halloween

Halloween Is Getting Close

That means it is time for another Wintercroft paper mask. All the photos below are from the Wintercroft website, so they are copyrighted, but they probably won’t complain as this is sort of a free ad for them. 🙂

In the past I have made 5 of these. The skull was the first in 2014 with the pumpkin following in 2015. After a year off I did the fox in 2017. I didn’t do anything in 2018 because I had retired and back in Aiken we typically only had a handful of Trick or Treaters so it wasn’t worth a costume. In 2019 we were in Oregon, but living in an AirBnb while looking for a house.

In 2020 I absolutely had to go back to doing something because our new house is the epicenter of Halloween festivities in southeastern Oregon. They close our street down from 5:00 pm until around 10:00, and hordes of trick-or-treaters are given free range of about 8 blocks. So that year I made the Devil mask. Last year I went with the gas mask and it turned out fantastic. But, the only problem was it didn’t breathe very well and after 2 hours of wearing it, the paper was getting soft from my exhalations. And two hours was all it took, to give away about 1200 pieces of candy.

I’m not sure which one I’m going to make for this year, but I’ve narrowed it down to the following five. The first three below are half masks, meaning they have no backs, and are easier to make and a bit more comfortable to wear. So I’m kind of leaning towards those, but the enhanced skull mask, which fit around your whole head, are just so awesome looking.

What a problem to have…

Trick or Treating on Steroids


There is a subdivision back in Aiken that is famous for two things, Christmas lights and Halloween. They actually have to have police directing traffic at the two entrances in. As it turns out, the street we plan on buying on, Pacific Terrace, is similar in spirit, at least for Halloween (don’t know about Christmas yet.) The folks along the street really go all out decoration-wise and are known for giving out full-size candy bars.

So to get a flavor of might be in our future, we decided to drive over around 6:30 and park on a parallel street, El Dorado Ave. Pacific Terrace has a wide grass median with one way traffic on either side. They shut traffic off to the street for 8 blocks. Wow, tons of families filling the sidewalks and streets dressed in costumes. The houses that were decorated were from tame to Yikes! There even a few just dark and not participating, but they were a minority.

The photo above is the house right next door to our proposed new home. Both times we visited during the day the two white girl ghosts, who must be motion sensing animatronic, would start to turn their heads back and forth while cackling, much to the delight of our realtor and ourselves. One of the dark houses that night was the one we are trying to buy, so for now, we don’t have big shoes to fill. We might start out going small school like some of the other homes. They just had some lights and dressed up in costume to hand out candy while sitting in their driveway around a small fire pit.

Fox, Ed Fox

After last year’s living embodiment of the company’s safety mascot for the ASCO Halloween Costume Contest, I decided to return to a Wintercroft paper mask. Previously I’ve been a large skull head and a pumpkin head, but this time I wanted to make one of his animal masks. I chose the fox because that is ASCO’s Director of Operations actual last name.

Ed is a pretty chill guy, but sometimes you never know how someone might take something and there was a tiny part of me that was worried he was thinking I was making fun of him, but he was fine with it, actually told me it was the best costume ever.

Because I bike road into work today there would have been no way to carry the mask in this morning, so I brought it in yesterday in one of those large reusable grocery bags. A few years ago they added an extra step in the front entrance security process. Now the guard has to look inside your lunch box (or any bag other you are carrying) to look for weapons. When I got to the door on Monday I unzipped the lunch box and said, “Here’s my lunch.” Then I spread the handles of the grocery bag and said, “Severed animal head.”

The guard took a beat…and…then…he smiled.

Afternoon Update:
They take a photo of everyone in costume in the cafeteria in the morning and then when that’s done, the costumed parade through the plant, zig-zagging around the aisles in all the department and office areas so the non-participants can see everyone who has dressed up. Even though I put my company name badge mid chest and had changed it to read Edd Foxx, I had a few people afterwards asked me who I was supposed to be. One wondered if I was supposed to be the Carfax fox and another wondered if I was Star Fox from the old Nintendo video game. You have to admit, the mask would have worked for either one.

Thursday Update:

Here is the group picture. Everyone’s individual picture is posted on the bulletin board and all employees get to one vote for their favorite. I have no idea how many votes I got, but I bet is was zero as I didn’t even vote for myself. First place went to Ike & Tina Turner, second place went to One Night Stand and third was Scary Clown. For the record the clown is not standing on anything, unlike the fellow in the middle, he is about 6’6″ tall and weighs in around 300 pounds and has a naturally gravely voice.

Happy Halloween

 

 

me-as-asco-al
Or: Will The Real ASCO Al Stand Up.

Several years ago our company nurse commissioned the son of an employee who is an artist to create a series of twelve safety posters, one for each month depicting different monthly safety subjects, featuring a fictional person called ASCO Al.

Every year the company has a Halloween “Spirit” Week which include guessing how many candy corn are in a jar, a pumpkin carving contest and a costume contest. Over the years I’ve thought that maybe I would join the fun and come in costume. I’m almost perfect to come as Obi-Wan Kenobi (from a New Hope), I even have the plastic lightsaber handle. But every year I did nothing.

Until 2014 when I discovered Steve Wintercroft’s beautiful paper low-poly masks. The first time I scared people with a giant skull. The next year I tried a two for one, I made a jack-o-lantern mask and entered it in the carving contest and then wore it as a costume (winning neither.)

Sometime early this year I decided to put up or shut up and come in a “real” costume. And I knew just what it would be, the real life representation of ASCO’s Safety Guy, Al. I already had the ear plugs and safety shields that fit over glasses. The white gloves are stocked in our tool crib and blue jeans were no problem either, I just needed a red beret and a white polo shirt. The beret we found in a costume shop in Charleston when we got stripes put on the CTBNL and polo shirt came from the local Goodwill store. I was going to use a green Sharpie to put the ASCO logo on the shirt, but in the end I had one of Donna’s fellow MRP Planners create them in iron-on vinyl because she does that sort of thing as a side line. I’ve got a real white mustache already, but because of the beard it needed enhancing, so we bought a 99¢ stick-on ‘satche at Party City that I shaped to fit.

Friday was dress up day and voting began today. I’m fairly sure I’ll get at least three votes, me, Donna and the company nurse, but after that who knows. ASCO AL appears on at least a dozen posters scattered all around the plant in different scenarios every month and is also featured in the company’s monthly newsletter which is posted on every table in the cafeteria and in every bathroom stall, yet still at least half the people I talked to on Friday had no idea who I was.

Tell me who you would have voted for in the comments below:
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Sneak Peek

Costume Sneak Peek

And for once in a couple years I don’t mean it in the context of the Moss Motoring Challenge. Like last year I’m going to make a paper mask and then just don regular attire for work on Halloween. This is a small piece of the mask I’ll be wearing, a costume sneak peek if you will.

Made This For Friday

The Skull

Get your own skull pattern (and many others) from here: Wintercroft

(I may try and put some screening in the holes to darken them all up)

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