This Nostalgic Life #19
Halloween at School
After a week’s hiatus, we’re back with an abbreviated nostalgia post. This week we’re talking about spooky season TV and nostalgia. Let’s get into it…
Home Improvement Halloween
by Eric Vardeman
Home Improvement was one of my favorite shows of the 90’s. It’s available for streaming on Disney+ and earlier this year I watched through all eight seasons again. What made Home Improvement one of my favorite shows was it’s yearly Halloween episode (along with Rosanne and The Simpsons). Home Improvement had a Halloween episode seven out of it’s eight seasons and, while they weren’t all drop dead funny, they had several great ones. Since spooky season has started, and because they’re all somewhat fresh in my mind, I thought I’d rank my top three episodes:
#1 Crazy for You (1993) -Tim is led to believe that he’s being stalked by a fan, thanks to a joint prank by Jill, Al and every one of Tim’s friends. As always this is the result of a prank contest between Tim and Jill, which I think Tim wins thanks to the detached arm gag in the final scene. Another highlight is the boys dressing up as Moe from the Three Stooges.
#2 Haunting of Taylor House (1992)
This is the first Halloween episode. The Taylors are big fans of Halloween, and they have a good time terrorizing each other and you can tell much of their interactions is improvised and is the first appearance the popular Taylors haunted basement which always entertained me.
#3 I Was a Teenage Taylor (1996) - This battle of pranks between the Taylor family is good for some laugh out loud material. Brad and Randy are old enough to scare their parents, and they have a good time doing it. Tim eggs on Jill and Wilson in pulls off an elaborate prank involving a man that used to live in their house and a fake murder. There are some really good moments here, including the big accident involving the attic in the final scene.
The Yearly Harvest Festival at School
by Mick Lee
With fall most certainly in the air these days, and Halloween not too far away now, this is a good time to talk about what used to be one of the highlights of my year…the annual Harvest Festival at my elementary school!
I’m using the term fall festival so more of you will know what I’m referring to. But when I was in elementary school, ours was called the Harvest Festival. Living in a farming community in the heart of the Appalachians, harvest time has always been a big deal to the people around here. A good harvest was always a reason to celebrate, as the livelihood of most in this area depended on it. The way nature works, the end of the harvest season lines up nicely with the Halloween season. Thus, we had a Harvest Festival at school instead of calling it a Fall Festival, a Monster Mash, or other names I’ve heard these events referred to.
So you’ve probably been to one of these things. The kids dress up, there are games and events, the parents wander around and congregate, and a good time is usually had by all. Ours was always held at our elementary school and was the biggest event on the school calendar with the exception of the end-of-year banquet and graduation ceremonies.
The gymnasium was filled with cheesy carnival-type games where you could win prizes. You know the kinds of games I’m talking about. Like the kiddie pool filled with plastic ducks, and on the bottoms of a few of the ducks was some kind of indicator of a better prize than normal. Everyone got something like a piece of candy or a spider ring just for playing, but if you pulled one of the special ducks, you may win something like a stuffed animal or the like. So games like this littered the entire gym floor. You had to buy tickets on your way in to use to play the games, and the money made from the sale of tickets was used for things around the school.
Our gym was connected to the lunchroom by a set of double doors, so it was easy to bounce back and forth between the two places. The cafeteria was where the parents generally stayed. There were concessions like hot dogs and pizza, and there was bingo all night. And the bingo prizes were top-notch. A lot of the businesses in town would donate really nice stuff to be given away, and this was another opportunity for the school to raise money. I can’t even begin to remember what the bingo cost, but it wasn’t cheap. But the price was small in comparison to how you would be helping the school, and the prizes you had a shot at winning. I’m talking about stuff like brand new televisions, rocking chairs, a date night package with dinner at the restaurant and tickets to the theater….stuff like that.
We also had a haunted house as part of the event. The 7th-grade class was always responsible for putting it on, and they would spend all week setting it up, and then they would dress up and be a part of the haunted house. It was never too scary of an affair, but they tried. We also had a dance room that some years was called The Disco, and other years was known as The Batcave. But you could go there, the lights were turned out and black lights were in use, and there was a DJ spinning the hottest tunes of the time. You and your friends…or your boyfriend/girlfriend could kill time together.
The whole event was great, and it was so much fun getting to run free and hang out with my friends in that environment for several hours on a Saturday night. It was also cool that since it was usually the week before Halloween, everyone would dress up in their costumes to come.
When I find myself drifting back to memories of elementary school, the yearly harvest festival is almost always the first thing that comes to mind.
In 1984: It’s Prince’s world and we’re just living in it. His current single, “Let’s Go Crazy” is spending it’s second week in the top spot while his next single, “Purple Rain”, debuts on the Hot 100 this week at #28. Also, his newest protégé, Sheena Easton, and her song “Sugar Walls” debuts on the chart and will take a slow walk into the top 10 by years end. Another of his protégés, Sheila E. is peaking at #7 this week with “The Glamorous Life”.
In 1990: In October of 1990, I was in my second year of college at a small little junior college in Oklahoma. One of my best friends lived next door to me in the door and because he had a stereo with enormous cabinet speakers and I had an enormous CD and tape collection, it was not uncommon for us to DJ dorm/campus parties that year. So many of the songs on the countdown this week are songs we played incessantly that fall: “Do Me!'“ by Bell Biv Devoe, “Black Cat” from Janet Jackson, “Can’t Stop” by After 7, Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” and this week’s #1 song, “Close To You” from Maxi Priest.
Playlist: This Week In 1984
Playlist: This Week In 1990
In every edition of This Nostalgic Life, we like to share a curated list of nostalgia-themed articles, stories, and posts that we’ve come across recently. It gives you a chance to discover great content and remember things from your past that you may have forgotten. With that in mind, here are some things we wanted to share with you this week. (All links will open in a new tab.)
Halloween In The 90’s: The Last Great Decade That Got It Right (Nightmare Nostalgia)
Ten Fond Halloween Memories (When It Was Cool)
Remembering 1970’s Halloween (JP Loves Life)
Ten Classic Halloween Commercials That Still Haunt Our Memories (Geekster)
History of the Satanic Panic (The Retro Network)
Trick or Treat: A Nostalgic Journey Into ‘80s and ‘90s Halloween (Nightmare Nostalgia)
Thanks for joining us for this issue of This Nostalgic Life. We hope you’ve found something that you connect with. If so, drop us a comment below and we can talk about it!