Since childhood, I have absolutely loved Halloween. My parents have always loved it too, and it’s actually my dad’s favorite holiday. It’s always been a big to-do in our house, with us going all out with decorating, making themed foods, and going trick-or-treating for all the best candy in the neighborhood. When my sister and I were old enough to truly appreciate the holiday, around ages 6 and 9, my parents started throwing big Halloween parties and we became known as the best Halloween party throwers. We moved almost every 4 years, so our friends from each place would be sad to see us go, and would miss our future parties. Even though we would move, we still would pick up right where we left off and threw parties in each place we lived for all of our friends and those were some of the best times. When we moved to Germany however, our house wasn’t very Halloween party permitting, so we sadly had to end our fantastic and fun party streak. I’ll always miss those parties and the friends we had come to them because we haven’t seen them in quite some time now since moving.
The parties were obviously quite a big highlight of my childhood Halloweens, but we did other things as well to celebrate the spooky month of October. When we lived in Virginia Beach, we went to Zombie Paintball two years in a row, and that was an absolute blast. How it worked was we would sit in a huge triple-decker trailer that was fully open and we would get driven through a course of apocalyptic looking scenes, and with us sitting behind the mounted paintball guns on the trailer, we would shoot any zombies that popped out of the scenes. One instance that was kind of terrifying but also funny at the same time was when a zombie was walking fast behind the trailer, with us in the back of it and a zombie grabbed my dad’s foot, yelling “Brains!” My dad vigorously shook his hand off and we continued to complete the course.
Another thing we did while in Virginia Beach was attend Haunted Hunt Club Farm. There was a spooky corn maze with freak looking zombies jumping out at you or grabbing your ankles from below the corn stalks, I was very terrified walking/running through it. There was also a haunted hayride that would stop in front of scenes that would either be electronic, or actual people acting out certain stories. That was very cool because it was dark and spooky the whole time. I always enjoyed the visit to Haunted Hunt Club Farm, but there was one moment that I will never forget. So first I will preface this with the fact that I am not normally afraid of clowns, but if one is chasing me and carrying a chainsaw, I’m scared out of my freaking mind. Well, this is what happened one night we went. We had just finished the corn maze and I was already on edge because a zombie girl had grabbed my ankle and I screamed, almost stepping on her. Anyway, we were by the entrance, and one of the club’s clown mascots, Heckless, a crazy blue-haired clown, saw me looking a bit distressed and I made the mistake of making eye contact. He immediately turned on his chainsaw and started running towards me. I bolted, faster than I have ever run before, around the farm, and ended up back at the entrance of the corn maze and I hid behind a table. I was so out of breath and terrified as he came closer to me and I remember telling him not to hurt me. He revved the chainsaw one more time and slowly walked away. Even though that was a terrifying experience, it was still very entertaining, an experience I will never forget. I love Halloween and it will always be one of my favorite holidays, no matter how old I get.