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Image Title: Mask Time Stamp: 7:45pm Location: West Bolton, Vermont (The Spooky Walk) Photographer: Michael McKennedy
Mask (click for larger view)
Description: This mask was part of our annual Halloween West Bolton, Vermont Spooky Walk.
About the project: The ‘Things I Saw’ photography project began January 7, 2008. Since then I have shot, edited and posted one photograph per day – every day. As of October 01, 2009 I had taken a total of 22109 images, 634 of them made it to the Things I Saw photo gallery. Take a look at all of Things I Saw photo galleries here.
Image Title: Pumpkin’s Eye Time Stamp: 2:28pm Location: West Bolton, Vermont (my front porch) Photographer: Michael McKennedy
Pumpkin's Eye (click for larger view)
Description: The painted pumpkin on my front porch might not make it to Halloween but this photograph allows us to relive the memory for years to come.
Image Title: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Time Stamp: 7:13pm Location: West Bolton, Vermont (my kitchen) Photographer: Michael McKennedy
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds (click for larger view)
Description: Halloween means one thing, well, actually, two things (maybe more), pumpkin seeds and costumes (yesterday’s picture of the day represented my costume). Here are the seeds.
Image Title: Halloween Is Near Time Stamp: 4:46pm Location: Williston, Vermont (in the front seat of my car) Photographer: Michael McKennedy
Halloween Is Near (click for larger view)
Description: Went to the Halloween store today to pick up a costume for next week’s big day. I dropped the mask I bought on the front seat of my car and snapped this photograph. Adjustements made to the photo: converted to black and white, contrast brought up, added a filter to adjust the zoom level, manually colored in the eyes and mouth, cropped the image and added a filter to apply a plastic look….and I think that’s it.
Image Title: Pumpkin 1 Time Stamp: 7:19pm Location: Jericho, Vermont Photographer: Michael McKennedy
Pumpkin 1 (click for larger view)
Description: A pumpkin…a lack of light…a camera…and me…that about sums it up.
West Bolton Spooky Walk 2008
“The second annual West Bolton Spooky Walk! flawless! We had approximately fifty costume clad guests. Ghouls, ghosts, goblins, ninjas, turtles, princesses, vampires and the like gathered together to brave the dark as well as the vampire and ghost lined forest path.”, said Michael McKennedy (who played the character ‘The Spooky Guy’ and also just happens to be the writer of these words). “The kids had a blast! All that sugar pumping around in their bodies! Mix that with a cup of darkness, and a twist of horror and you have a recipe for success!”
Many donations (pumpkins, candles, lights etc..) came from several local families and a few not-so-local-families to bring this year’s Spooky Walk to life. With an opening story of ‘Ichabod Crane’ by Barb McKennedy, a visit by the friendly local vampire ‘The Spooky Guy’ – who just happens to warn his guests in advance that there is ‘a spooky guy over here” and then offered poses to passersby by saying, “spooky guy photo oportuity approaching…spooky guy posing now” and a play called “Pumpkin Head” by a group of Smilie School students the walk didn’t really turn out to be so spooky, as was the intention. “We were dealing with hopped-up 3-6 year olds! The had been running
Story Teller Barb
around like maniacs. Then all of the sudden it’s dark and you ask the kids to line up and some freak-o-lady in a pink wig with matching pink over sized sunglasses pops out of the darkness and begins telling a story about a headless horseman. Being a vampire I was extra-sensitive to the idea that the 3-6 year old kids really might not be ready to see hiding in the woods, a brown cloaked-grown man, with pale white skin, dark circles under his eyes and a drip of fresh blood hanging from his lower right bottom lip. So I turned into ‘The Spooky Guy’ and I just started telling everyone who got close that there was a spooky guy in the woods so the terrorfiable little kids wouldn’t really get scared. I didn’t hear any screaming or panic coming from any of them so I will dare to say that things went just fine. When they are 10 years old, then we can break out the advanced scare tactics! No holds barred!”, stated McKennedy.
'The Spooky Guy'
The total walk was only a few hundred yards long. There path was lined with various strings of lights. Above hung ghosts, to the sides the occasional odd looking mask, and beautifully carved jack-o-lanterns… but they kept the scariness to a minimum as they knew that the average audience age was still at the stage of “I don’t care if I have been in this very room over 1000 times once the light goes off it’s a different room I will you! Different! We were all there before…with a bit of darkness and a good imagination one can conjure up enough evidence to support the idea that there is “a fire-breathing-troll-demon stalking me and I can can hear his tiny pecking little feet pinging on my metal room. If I open the closet I will surely see more of the evil trolls! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”!
This year the party and spooky walk were hosted by M&J (not sure if they would really want their names in public view (in this case ‘I’ = public, and if you are someone other than me, then “we” = public) so I left them out). There weren’t any reported falls, nor a single incidence of vomiting from over consumption of candy. Breakdowns and temporary spats of poorly thought-out decisions were spreading from kid to kid as expected. Uncontrollable emotion for some? too much of the white stuff-sugar, for others? fifteen or twenty kids running, talking, hitting, crying, laughing at all once is enough to drive anyone a little batty, and possibly the kids themselves?
To sum this up: you take 20ish kids all about the same age or at least within a few years, give them a bunch of candy, let them mix and mingle amoungst each other, then when it’s dark get them to stand still in a line heading down a trail into the woods. Then tell them a scarey story, bring them down into the woods and make them laugh. Continue walking down the trail….loop back the way you came. Stop and watch four six year olds put on a ‘play’ infront of nearly fifty people! After the kids leave, run around grouping breakables and putting any fires completely out. Then it’s time to go ‘trick-or-treating’! Which means more candy! This is a recipe for success!
