Episode 121: Halloween

0:09 Welcome back to another episode of Record My Father. Today we're going to be. Talking about Halloween, I remember I dressed up as a Viking some number of years ago and it was maybe my best costume of all time. That was good. I would, I think if you were to look at, look at your, your, your costumes, that's probably one of your, one of your top, but what else have you dressed up as? I don't even remember, I think some number of years ago, my last costume was Flying Squirrel. I I've been lazy these past couple years. I've been doing a NASCAR jacket, you know. Yeah, yeah. But I, I, I'm, I'm doing the the old retired guy.

0:51 Yeah. Just don't shave and I come to the door all creepy and hand out lollipops and heroin capsules. That's an everyday kind of costume. That's a costume that you put on every day. But I'm costume wise, I'm trying to remember what other ones I did. I think I was a a pumpkin first time. Well, when you, when you, when you think about Halloween, if I, if I think back to my childhood, the different, I mean, I can't remember that many. I remember in probably 2nd grade, a bunch of guys on the block dressed up as women. OK, So, you know, and I remember I had my mom's shoes on and, you know, went out there and I dressed out as an old lady. And there were a couple people that dressed up as old women, but of a different color, which was, you know, this is the 60s. So racism was OK then And maybe coming back, I'm not sure. It's not a good thing.

1:54 But let me think what else? What other kind of costumes? We were like army man. I mean, just very, very, you know, grab a gun off the shelf. And then the mom would say no bullets. And then you would take that and that would be your outfit. You know I. Remember when I was a kid, they started doing the the guns need to have orange tips for school or for or any of the sort, because that was a problem. Yeah. I remember when when I went over your a friend of yours house Pakistani and you guys were in the front yard and you had pistols that look like 40 fives and you were doing airsoft shooting each other and you had ripped the orange tips off so it looked like you had guns. No, those didn't have orange tips, ever. He had a full metal Luger that it looked like a handgun. It was.

2:50 I looked. At that. And you guys were like middle school maybe? And this is when all the cops were starting to shoot kids. Yeah, that was like. And then I was like, no. No, no, you can't do that. Can't do that anymore. No, no, no, you can't do that 'cause you guys were on a public corner. You know you were not. This wasn't in way in that somebody's backyard. You were running. Around in front of the yard which in his house right up. If you had an asshole neighbor, they would have just, they would have killed you, you know, They would have just come over, shot you 'cause you had a gun. And you stop. And no kid in his life has ever stopped. When he said stop, he turns and looks at you and then you shoot him, you know, And it's, it's well, you didn't listen. It's like he's 7. What the hell do you want, you know?

3:31 Exactly. I remember the the falsified notion of razor blade apples. Oh yeah. Which never were a thing. I, I don't know why. And then I remember even more recently, they said they're putting marijuana in the candy so that your kids are going to get high. And I'm like, I think that this is just contrived propaganda from the cigarette industry and to convince. Wonder. Yeah, I started that propaganda. Because no self respecting drug addict would ever share their stash with anybody else. And if they did, they wouldn't. I mean kids. That's just weird. That makes no sense. That's that's just beyond silly. I'm sure there are people out there that put things in apples and things and apples became no more you wouldn't give away like fruit and stuff that people would when. I was a kids pre packaged.

4:18 Yeah, everything was pre packaged. Everything was pre packaged. It's all like, you know, you can't give them something, you know, I'd give them a bottle of pills and people always had a problem with that, but I don't know why. That's odd. I don't know why they had a problem with it and. I just say, hey, don't worry, It's it's good and plenty, you know? I don't like good and plenty. I don't know. What he does because it tastes like that, it tastes like Tylenol. Well, what's the? Difference between good and plenty and Mike and Ike's. No good and plenty is peppermint and and what's the other one you had it good and fruity is closer. That one's good. I like that one. But. But Mike and Ike doesn't have a sugar coating on the outside, whereas they have the crackly coating on the outside for good and fruity. So that was the difference.

5:03 You know, it wasn't that much, but I don't even know if the same company owns them and I don't know, Mike and Ikes has sort of stayed out there. I haven't seen good and fruity in a while. But if you look online, I'm sure you can find any candy you want and it doesn't taste like it used to because I I'm a I'm a fireball addict. Which I never understood. I probably admit to that. Well, for me, you know, when I work out, if I do something and it's like a 20 minute task and I can't smoke while I'm doing it, so I can't smoke a cigar, I will, I, I will take a fireball, throw it in my mouth and then start working out or start running or start doing something. And it takes my mind off of it because it's hot enough and you're thinking about the heat and you're not thinking about the tasks that you're doing. And now the ones that they have are, are not all that Sinead. They're not all that spicy and they taste like there's some kind of weird sugars type substance in them to make them taste that way.

5:58 And you just don't know what that is. And it's just, it's, they're just not good anymore. I haven't found them. And I went to Brock's, I went to all the different companies and they're, they're trash. And that was your. First costume ever other than the the cross dressing one. I remember the cross dressing, but I don't. You know what's weird? I started thinking back to what my costumes were. I was a clown, but that wasn't until I was married. Well, you were Shrek one year, right? No, mom. Mom was Fiona. Who are you? No, I was. You're a pirate. I was a pirate. Yeah, I was a full pirate one time. Another time I was an axe murderer because I had I had the the guy that the gallows guy because I had a Black Hat over a black face mask over the top and the big thing and I had a the double edged axe that I was supposed to chop people's heads off. You know when you go to the gallows and they chop your? Head.

6:52 That's what it was supposed to be. Or not the gallows. You go to the guillotine or the chopping block or whatever. I was that one year I was. We went to a party when after we had become clowns and both of us stayed kind of dressed up as psycho clowns. We took pictures of that. And that's kind of funny. I remember my a buddy of mine came to the party and he was, he's that he was, he was dressed as the Exxon Valdez. Yeah, a ship coming out his chest with a big oil spill. That's really funny. I like. It was just like originality and costumes were really kind of cool. But I remember, you know, the 80s was a really big time, 70s and 80s in particular in Georgetown, if you if you're familiar with Washington, DC.

7:37 They still do the bar crawl, you know that. Well, there used to be a ton of bars there. Now there's like a ton of stores. And I think is is restaurant bar. That's the only one I can think of. But there's very few pubs that there used to be. There was this saloon, there was a Crazy Horse, there was Gunchers, there was Max, there was what the heck was on the corner? Desperados is the club my brother worked at. Across the street was the cellar door that was there. Up around the corner was the 3rd addition. Winston's was there. I remember going there during the week, going to Crazy Horse and drinking rusty nails. Oh my God.

8:20 What is a rusty nail? It's it's really rot gut bourbon mixed with some other stuff that tastes bad. With a nail. They get you hammered really, because it's, it's really, it bites you, it hits you in the head. It's just, and when you're in your 20s, it's like I was in my 20s. I might have been 1920 right at that time because I'm old enough that we aged in. We were able to drink liquor in DC as soon as we turned 18. You know, everywhere else it was beer and wine, and then liquor came along and, you know, just sort of added to the massive drunkenness of younger children because life is good when you can't find your shoes.

9:01 You know what I remember so specifically about Halloween is the SpongeBob Halloween movie. Great movie with the Flying Dutchman. You remember that one? Oh my God. I. Love that. That was really good. Oh my God, that was within the first 3. Seasons. Remember those? Powerful seasons of that show. I think the scariest movie ever watched. Well, there's a couple of them. The scary ones were Exorcist, the first one. But it was weird to watch it because I watched it and I was probably like 16/17/16 probably. And I watched it Mary Washington College, my brother was down there and we went to the local theater there, small campus just off campus. And it was filled with college students and everybody had beer.

9:45 Everybody smuggled in two 40s each. So everybody's in the audience and they're smoking weed and they're passing dudes around. I'm 16. I'm so for me, it's just like, wow, this is heaven. And they're all drinking beer. And I am literally scared to death. I am scared to death of this because it's like, you know, the, the whole exorcist thing just kind of caught me and made me go, whoa, this is some scary stuff. You know, And my brother's saying that he went to, they went to Day of the Dead, the night at Halloween, came home and he's downstairs in our house in, in Woodbridge and a buddy of Seth come by at like 12:30 because Seth got off work at midnight or 11:00 or something like that. And he, and back then people would just walk in our back door and say, Hey, hey, hey.

10:38 Well, Edwin had seen Day of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead, the original, the George Romero, the really if you see that and black. I know what you're talking about, yeah. And and he hears this person fiddling with the back a window, couldn't get in the window. He went over to the other window because they climbed through the window. And then he went to the back door and black door was unlocked, which is like, why would you go to the window? That's silly. And he comes in and Edwin hears them and he picks up. We had an axe, a battle axe. It was it had a full size head on it, but it had a really short like 18 inch handle. So if you you could do some damage.

11:20 He was right around the corner and a buddy assess is there and walking and he's like ready to hit him and waste him and and before he walks to the doorway, he goes SAP, SAP and Edwin stops and he turns the corner and he looks at Edwin and Edwin's like with the with with the ethics looking at. Him. Oh, was that like that? I don't know. That's interesting. So was that like one of the first horror movies you ever saw? I guess. Oh, yeah, yeah. Back in back in the olden days, we would, you know, you needed to be scared. You know, my more recent one, I think I, I, I, I remember, I think I took a girl to it. I was frightened to death was which was I was trying not to be frightened.

12:03 Was Halloween the first Halloween when Jason Was it Jason, whatever the hell his name was, when he kept waking up? Yeah, yeah, Jason the oh, wait, that's different though. Mike Myers is the yeah, the Halloween guy. Yeah. Yeah, but at the end of the movie when they shoot him a bunch of times that he falls off the thing and they and they look run to the balcony and they look down and he's laying down there and he's dead. And they're like. And then the movie's coming to an end and they're talking, and then they look back out and he's. Scary. And I was just like, I was freaked out by that, that just like, Oh my God, he's out there. He's out there looking for us. But you were talking about costumes. And I went to our favorite perplexity and printed out all those great things about Halloween. The best telling costumes, most iconic cost costumes by year. You ever heard of Rumi?

12:58 Rumi. No. From K pop Demon demon hunters. I have not. That's for this year, and that is neon purple hair, combat boots and a glowing sword. I don't even know who that is. Last year was supposed to be Shrunken Head Bob which I don't know about that. 2023 was weird Barbie. You know that was just the Remember the Barbie movie. 20/20/22 was Huggy Wuggy from the horror game Hoppy Play time. 2021 is Reya and the last Dragon. Oh, and then 2020, I remember Joe Joe Exotic from Tiger King. Oh, that was huge when I remember. That was very big. See, some of these are bigger than the others. It's like 2019 was VSCOVSCO girl based on the breedy Beachy social media trend, blah, blah blah. I don't you know, I'm see, this is from this is from artificial intelligence.

13:52 This is from perplexity. This is, you know, I did best costumes ever for Halloween. You don't like thinking, huh? 2018 Skull trooper from Fortnite. I mean I don't remember that. 2017 UMA from Descendants 2/20/16 I do remember Harley Quinn. Oh, that was huge. Yeah, the. 'Cause she was the Suicide Squad. I think some of these are huge, you know. I mean, they have the classics, you know, Spider Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, Jack Sparrow, Chuck. You are getting funnier, I feel like. Well, they're going. To do, they're all, everybody's doing that and they're they're kind of an uproar, but they're not an uproar about doing the Charlie Kirk thing. 'Cause if I was. Around the blood coming off them. Is somebody doing that?

14:34 Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of people doing that and that's going to, you know, be altercations or whatever. I don't know. It's well that. Was years and years ago, there's a woman that dressed up as a Boston Marathon bombing victim and then she went to her office party like that. And I don't understand how you can wake up that's just morning and think that that's a good idea. No, that would be. That's a good idea. I think another person wanted Saddam Hussein or something and that. That didn't go over well either, as you can imagine. Remember Harry when he went to a Halloween party and he was dressed up as an s s officer? Who's Harry? Prince Harry.

15:14 Oh, what did he do that? Yeah, you gotten a lot of shit for that. I wonder why? When you start to think about the different, how do? You think that's a good idea? I I don't get it, you know, and now we have. People get funny either. I don't know that's. A little they just had somebody, they just had somebody do that in Atlanta and he went, I saw that, you know, and you're like. And then he got. What do you think? Need as you should. Yeah, you know if. We If I see a person dressed like that, I will punch them in the face right away. I don't even wait the. Whole thing, it's like it's illegal in Germany but it's legal here and I don't get that. I don't get why the First Amendment covers hate speech. I don't understand how it could cover that. It makes no sense. Why would you? Well, I mean, would you dress up as a rebel?

15:58 No, I wouldn't. Either. That why would it? Why? I don't understand a good occasion to do that, right? I don't understand why you would do that. It's not. Well, we had. It's not witty. It's not funny. Like, no, that's what Halloween's about. It's about being witty, funny and sexy, right? Well, in the 80's, the 80's, the biggest, the biggest thing in the 80s was Michael Jackson and, and people that were white, you know, because he sold across all genres. Yeah, people dressed up in blackface, you know, because they want, Yeah, they want to be Michael Jackson, you know? I've seen new, new Michael Jackson costumes where they don't do that. Yeah, well, they don't they. Just wear the glove with the the. Yeah, and you know who, you know who they, you know, but the whole the whole thing is and and I know there's cultural appropriation, but screw that. It's Halloween.

16:48 We're not talking about. You're not stealing the I I don't see it that way. OK, It's, but it's I think we're in a time where there's certain things that are really insulting. Is is that, is that as insulting is walking around with with the Charlie Kirk bloody thing coming out of your side? I mean, yeah. Yeah, that's, I mean I. Mean that's, that's, that's you're, you're trying to be incendiary, right? No, you are. You're trying to get a reaction. Yeah, you're trying to get a reaction from people that don't agree with you. You're you're trying to stick. You're sticking your nose. You're sticking your finger in their eye. You know, if they have something, it would be kind of like dressing up like Jesus.

17:29 Exactly. You know, Hey, I got, I got nailed today. Do you have a hammer? You know whatever you know. People do Jesus, but they don't do it with the the crucifixion very often. Where he's carrying the cross around. So they did. Yeah, I think there was a. Guy that did that a couple Halloweens ago and it did not go over well. They would say that he was carrying around the giant cross and it did not go over well. No, people don't. People don't they're, they're, they're willing to let a lot of things go. But you know, when you, when you go to the heart of the religion, you got a you, you, you got a tiptoe. You know, Muhammad, if you, if you have his picture that, that that's a sin. And they can.

18:11 I don't know if it's a fatwa or whatever they do. The Charlie Hebdo thing, yeah. Yeah, they went and they, you know, he posted his picture and did it. But there's a lot of people have done it subsequently, you know? Oh yeah, that has dressed up as him for how? Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, Al parked in an episode on that and. Was there ever a fatwa on them? I, you know, I don't. I don't think so. Well, that was The Who was it that got stabbed in the eye recently? Who wrote the the Satan. Salman Rushki. Yeah, there we go. He got stabbed, but he was also they they did they not set off a bomb another time? No, I, I think they just stabbed him in the eye 'cause it was about a decade or two decades that it took them to find him at a point and then for somebody to actually act. But he has a new book out called Knife, which is interesting. But there's also the thing that when you read that book, I can't remember exactly what it's called. It's the Satanic Virtues or something like that. It.

19:08 Verses. Verses, There we go. I was close. Has nothing to do with Islam. It's very interesting. If you read the book, you don't see really contextually how it makes sense. And it was just a like, like many Bible verses, it's kind of interpretation. It's an interpretation of making fun of Islam or maybe just outing Islam as a force, which is what people thought it to be. But I don't know. I. Don't think Christians do. And then and then Muslims think that Christianity's fake and then that exactly think that both of them are fake, you know, and everybody, you know. What is it that Ricky Gervais says about religion? How many religions are there?

19:50 There's 3971. How many do you believe in? I don't believe in one. The true religion, it goes well, I just believe in one less than you. Well. There was the whole thing that Solomon Rush you talked about. Have you ever heard the story of the shadow? It's about a man and one day he sees his shadow appear and then his shadow is accomplishing things on the side and outdoing him at every move. Like this man wants to fall in love with this woman, his shadow does it instead. This man wants to become king. The shadow is able to be king and then the shadow ends up killing him at the end. And this whole idea is exactly what Solomon Rushd's entire life has been about. It's this vision that he's anti Islam and what have you. That's his shadow. But in reality, he's just an author trying to make a living, and he's just an artist.

20:35 I think he might be I, I'm not sure. I'm not too sure about. You see that and you're like. Yeah, no, but it that that story is very, very interesting. You see that your alter ego to the world and the way that you've been kind of analyzed by the general public is a completely different version than who you actually are in real life. And I think that is a a fascinating kind of. Wow. Yeah. I'm looking at like the infamous couples Heidi Klumman and her partners Shrek and Fiona. Yeah, Shrek and Fiona is. Huge and Lydia Beetlejuice and Lydia Love Island. Yeah, they came out with a new Beetlejuice movie. I never watched it.

21:18 Did you watch the new one? Yeah, it. Was I didn't like the first one, really. I thought the first one was all right. But the the my favorite part of that one was the claymation worm man. When they go through the door and you have that, it's not CGI, guess it is CG, but it's really miniatures. It's stop motion miniature. That's what it is. Yeah. And I love that in the original movie. I thought that was phenomenal. That was my favorite part of the entire thing. The use of miniatures in Tim Burton's movies time and time again have been so impressive and really kept me interested. Same thing with Edward Scissorhands, right? And that, that kind of Dolly shot at the beginning of the town. But that's a miniature. That's a miniature town that they built. Practical effects are going away. And it's really sad 'cause there's artistry in that. There's a, there's a profound amount of artistry that's going to disappear if we allow it to.

22:06 I mean, people say AI is a tool, but it's a tool to get people fired and for them to no longer work. I mean, if you want to say that that's a tool. And people keep telling me, oh, Zach, what's for film makers that don't have access to grand budgets to do things? I'm like, I partially agree with that, but I partially also disagree that I don't know. You should be able to assemble a team that's willing to make a film for a little bit amount of money, but you should still pay people. I don't know. I don't know. If you can't pay people, should you be making it in the first place? I don't know. Yeah, that's when we think about people that hire only prisoners to do the work for pennies on the dollar. Exactly. So they can, you know, mail order places are infamous for that.

22:50 You don't even get trick or treat this year anymore, do you? We might get one but I bought I bought about $40.00 for jeans so. I I saw you have the king size candy, all of them. It's so funny. I got huge amounts. No, I just love. I love the whole idea of seeing the kids. When we were over at Pulmonary Dr. I loved it. We would get about 15 or 20 trick or treaters, and the wife's like, why'd you buy $100 worth of candy? And I'm like, man, you know, I want a kid when he comes to my house. They think like wow. This neighborhood I'm not going to. I'm not going to this guy's house, ever. This neighborhood's always been interesting to trick or treat. And because I remember this guy left a bowl on his front porch, but he has a private gate. So you needed to go past the gate on the side of it and walk down a hill that was about like half a mile to his house. And then there was a bowl there and says please take one. We, of course we took it all, but yeah, now that was very, very interesting that he'd even leave anything out. We.

23:48 Used to. We used to hit the Bayview apartments and there were 48121616 apartments to the building and you would you go to the the basement floor and there's 122 on the sides, two in the back. And that that was the way it was all the way up. And usually two or three people would be doing candy on each floor. So you could hit like 10 places in every apartment building, but you run up and down the steps and there'd be tons of kids just crazy. And the thing that's weird is that they had more traffic than anyone and they were like the poorest people, you know, the people living in the apartments where, you know, they were working Quantico or for Elvar. And they're like, he's like, wow, I got no kids. And now I got to feed these little rats coming over. And we were coming over from we were in the acres in Beverly and the baby apartments in the acres as well. But you would see this and it's just like, but we would do that. And it's the same thing here.

24:47 People go over at Kings Manor which are the. That was an amazing time. King's Manor might be the best trick or treating Northern Virginia hands down. I can't think of better. The biggest you did was what's that community over there by Langley High School? Oh I totally forgot about that, don't really remember what it's called. Langley Oaks or something? Langley It's yes, it is Langley Oaks. We went through there. We went through the houses and you came home and we weighed your candy and it was 27 lbs. I remember that. It's 27 because remember I was like, use a pillowcase and I'm like, why? It's because because then then if somebody comes to cut your bag, you hit them with it and you're on, you know, because we even learned that being in our place, we would always have bigger kids would wait, come out at like 10/30, 11:00 and they grab the little kids bag and tell them to piss off and take their bag, you know, Yeah, yeah. The, the fun with bullies and and good neighborhoods, you know, or, or not so good neighborhoods. And you would just you'd see that go. Like I can't remember the last year I stopped trick or treat. Was it 12?

25:54 Was 12 the last year or was it 13? What was it 14? It might have been 13. It might have been right in there. I think, I think it was 12. When it's 14 and 15, that's when you're going out to get beer. I mean, we're always trying to get high and get drunk at that point. We were, we would, we would use candy as an excuse to be away from the parents till, you know, midnight or 1:00 in the morning. And basically it was just to who can we get, who has beer that you can steal out of their parents garage refrigerator, who has wine, like whatever they had, you know, and I think 15 we were in the weed too. So that was, you know, if if you got stoned, you never got any beer, 'cause you just sit around and talk about what you were going to do and you never did.

26:38 Exactly the the great motivator. The great, great motivator. Wow. But it's funny when you think about Halloween. Let's listen. I I'm looking at the origins in history and it's like ancient Celtic festivals. I always heard it's like you can't. It's like they mark the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the winter. And they later merged with Christian traditions such as All Hallows Eve. In the Middle Ages, it became common for people to dress up as the Saints, the dead, natural supernatural peoples, and Irish and Scottish through the immigrants that are brought Halloween customs to North America. You know. And that's how it's going to grown.

27:19 You know, it started in the 19th century, but I can't imagine just walking around in people's houses and not going to give me some candy. London. When I was just there about 3 days ago, they did it. I didn't realize that it was kind of international. I thought it was mainly just an American thing. But now people had their their houses all drawn up with the decorations and what have you. I was rather surprised. Well. If they didn't get out candy, we would toilet paper and eggs and, and when I worked Halloween night, that was usually we would leave the restaurant And I remember getting a, a case of tomatoes and they were old and rotting. And we're driving down the road and someone will catch me for this just 'cause we're, we're in the back of somebody, somebody had a pickup truck.

28:05 I, I, I don't remember, I don't want to out them here. It's, it was probably a felony. And we're driving down the road and I and I grabbed one of the tomatoes and I pitched down at the rear of this this truck, 'cause I was going to just hit the truck with a tomato and he hit the rear window and went right through it. How did a tomato go through a rear window? That doesn't make it easy. It was it was it was a a cab on the back of a truck and had one of those pull down, pick up and down window. So they're they're a. Lot of hard tomato. It must have been one hard tomato. It went man, it just shattered it. I, I felt, I still feel guilty that that's one of those regrets that, you know, when you're just trying to mess things up and make it a little messy and throw some eggs on things and you know. Just we never said anything on fire, did anything like that. I can't remember doing any of that. I think I remember.

28:50 There was somebody doing bags of poop, that was. Yeah, that's a big one. But I don't know 'cause the area is not conducive for that. They're going to see you do it right 'cause the the house you. Can't do it here. Together we were always supervised, except for that one year as well. From 12, I think 12, I wasn't no longer supervised when we did that. Well, I remember we went over to override Churchill Rd. We walked around there. We went over to Debbie's place and they had a wagon and they had a a cooler full of beer. That's funny. And we walked around the neighborhood, it was, it was great. You guys were just running from house to house to house. And we just let you run, you know, and it's like, make it back to the house before it's too late, whatever too late is, you know, which is about 9:00, you know, because.

29:37 Exactly. That's all ending at 9 or 10, yeah. Because then get away. I'm out of candy. I hate you. Yeah, little vermin. What was it your your mother was talking about? The one time she took you somewhere and he went to the door and the lady had run out of candy, so she gave me some saltines. Oh, yeah, The. Well, they were shocked that was on this street. Actually. The couple still lives there. Really. They didn't remember that that. Well, they never they didn't. They remembered it was Halloween, but they didn't. They've never had trick or treaters ever. Yeah, we was. We gave us one or two. We're lucky. Yeah. The breadsticks were funny. I thought that was interesting. Yeah, 'cause there was that one year we hit 3 neighborhoods and then our own SO4 neighborhoods and that was. Crazy was with that with the hollers.

30:21 Oh yeah, I forgot about that one too. That's when I had the pickup truck and they were you guys were riding in the back of a pickup truck. Yeah. You know, and I think Rick and I were in the front chugging beers. That's funny. I'm like, hey, we're only going 10 miles an hour. We can go wrong. You can just kill all the kids in the back, you know? Oh, nobody. Nobody takes risks like that anymore. Oh, nobody has fun. Well, we like, you know, it's it's it's the horror of judgement. Yeah, it's the punishment. Just the judgement, right? Somebody felt. It you did that, that's the most war it. Goes on the Internet and. Everything's over. You did this, you know exactly, you know, egg parties, toilet paper parties. And now they're going, oh, we got to have a, a trick or treating party and they had an online sign up sheet so you could be involved.

31:13 And if you signed up, then you were a safe house to go to. And I was just like, what the hell? Well, that was like, I think in a couple episodes prior we talked about the No Child Left Behind cards or the, that's not what it was called, but it was called something else. And I got an ID when I was five years old. And they always, I don't know, it's the cultures of fear kind of deal, 'cause we needed something to be afraid of after 911 and it turned out to being like this random man that was gonna abduct you from school, which never happens. It's always your uncle or something like that. They like kidnaps you or. More of a non molested. Mom or the step dad or something like that where they kidnap you and then they take you away to. Yeah, I mean, your relatives are the biggest sexual assault. There's who?

31:57 Uncles. Yeah, usually sadly. It's it's. That's what it seems like. Usually uncles. Very rarely do you see, well, that's not the same time the biggest human trafficking kind of ring is the US government. I mean, you look in Maryland every week you see pictures of young black women that are disappeared, that disappeared. I think Maryland is one of the largest disappearing capital of young women, and it's. Crazy they they find an area that is soft, which is PG county where the police aren't monitoring that aren't doing anything about it but. I think that's the government. I'm pretty sure that's the government doing that.

32:38 I don't know, because that's very odd. Well, like we always blame these drug dealers for destroying society, right? But at the same time, who are the biggest drug dealers but the CIA? So I don't know. Well, see, that's the thing I've always had a problem with when people say the drug dealers are horrible. And it's like, actually, no, I don't remember them contacting me ever. When I was like in my drug stages, it was always the other way around. And all my friends are made-up Facade. They were all looking for the no, the drug dealers were not pushing a product. They didn't have a they didn't have a sign out saying Hey, I'm selling this, I'm selling that. You know, we did have one guy. I remember when when Ted Nugent came out with this album.

33:20 Remember cat scratch fever? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This guy's nickname was Cat and they would say like cats, he's scratching, which means he was, he's going to score like a pound. You know, the cat's scratching, the cat's scratching and everybody like really, because he always gave good counts, you know, and then and the and the cat's scratching, he's got the fever. And that meant that he was like really giving huge because he would get a good deal on weed and then cut it up and give really big counts and for a good price. You know, it was like shopping at Costco. You know. You got to get, you got to get the good deal on the good drugs, you know, But then I mean, weed has changed so. Now it has nothing like it used to be. We don't really know the neurological effects on 35% THC, you know.

34:05 Yeah, we don't sit around and we would do bong hit contests and you know, we you'd get tired of doing bong hits. Not like today. Hey, I did 2 and you're, you're a zombie, you know, and it's done. And then it was just like you, just, you would just keep going, trying to catch it, trying to keep it 'cause it, it, it was such a mild hit, you know, it was crazy. Exactly. No, it's rather times have changed. Times have definitely changed. I wonder how Halloween has changed. I don't really know. I wonder if you see the same amount of trick or treaters that once existed when I was a kid, 'cause there was, my gosh, like when I was a kid, jeez.

34:49 I remember King's Manor was covered. It was hundreds, hundreds, if not thousands of people. Crazy, crazy, crazy. We. Should go through there right now and throw eggs at all the kids or something. That's what you do. We could definitely make it on to social media really big that way. I'm sure people. Would I think the the a? Lot of that. The interesting thing is one of the things they poured here is that commercially, Halloween is the second largest commercial holiday in the US. How better than better than Thanksgiving, Better than Mother's Day, Better than Father's Day, Better than Valentine's, Valentine's Day?

35:31 Halloween. Beats it out. Beats them all out. You were talking to me about what was it? Oh Jesus. Oh, the Spirit, Yeah. And the the business model of spirit. Halloween. Yeah. And they were talking. About that yeah, because they they, they are they have managed to get short term leases and they get short term leases near the end of the year and they're usually cheaper because you you're not going to get no one else is hunting for you know, short term real estate property after somebody went bankrupt in June you come along in July and rent it for August, September, October, whatever November and you have a you have a Halloween shop and then you turn it into Christmas shop and then you and you load it up with all I never. Knew they did Christmas too.

36:14 That's something that dawned on me when he told me about the other day. If they get, if they get a long term, a long, long term, you know, the three month lease as opposed to it one month or two-month, you know, and they're going to get it at a huge discount. So it's really cheap property in a heavily trafficked Perrier like ICE and center. And, you know, and or the strip malls, they'll put them in strip malls because strip malls, you know, something gets reasonable amount of foot traffic or people will go to a that's a destination thing, you know, Wow. Well. It's an experience to go look at what costumes are this year. Yeah, and I'm not even. That's a big part of it. I'm not dressing up. I'm not doing anything.

36:55 And I go look and I'm just like, this is cool. Wow. I think I'll buy some long fingernails or whatever the hell, you know? Exactly. Or, or I used to love the vampire teeth. I'd wear those, you know, good old days when you think about all those things that you did for Halloween. But we were mostly we were I, I mean, I remember Halloween in the early years to some degree that I mean, I remember the dressing up as a woman. I remember the cot. But after that, I mean, I think I was in 6th grade. We did a we did a, a report on Vietnam and it's cool. And so we dressed up as Vietnamese people and I had a Vietnamese hat and I remember trick or treating in that in 6th grade, I would have been probably 1966 or 67. So back then 6868 probably, you know what the peak of rebellion and you know, and here I was pretending and I had a headband and a red headband and I had the whole top. I was an NVA Viet Cong, you know, and you don't understand what I'm that's.

38:12 Pretty wild. Well, that's like dressing up as a Taliban. Kind of. That'd be. Yeah, that would be. In the early 2000s. Yeah, I think that that would be, well, I think it was different because I don't think that the American people hated the Vietnamese, the Vietnamese the way that they hate the Taliban. Yeah, we were, I would say. So the propaganda that hate the Taliban was pretty high. No, exactly. And it was a much. Better, much better. Or remember, there was no way on that. You had to watch TV to know who to hate. Well, at the same time that war was one of the most protested wars of all time and you could if not the most protested war of all time I think. And people did not like what was going on with, well, they also being sent there.

38:58 But they also the the military and, and the Iraq war and also in Afghanistan, they did not allow the journalists to see everything. They kept them in the bases. They would not allow them to go out on patrol and stuff like in Vietnam. You would, you would they would go out on Recon and I remember watching the six O clock news every night. And it was just, it was, it was a little war scene because they'd get the footage from from Vietnam and Walt would run it and you would see these guys walking through this really dense jungle walking through here we are. What's up?

39:39 But over there, over there. And then boom, you know, and they hear screaming and a guy hit. And I mean, I remember 1 where he hit and it blew out his midsection because they had these things called bouncing betties that popped up when you stepped on it. It popped up to about 2 1/2 feet and it just blew up right at your guts because they didn't want to kill you. They just wanted to wound you because then two guys got to take you back. Think about what you did and then emotionally what that does to you. And it's always the point guy, you know? It always is. Yeah, I knew. Especially when they were going in the tunnels. Oh my. God, he told me the stories and it was just like, you know, he, they the he was always the point guy and he would go on long range Recon and he was a green Beret and they would talk about the stories that, you know, you would go out with five and come back with three, you know, and three carrying two. And that was the and, and it was not. To mention the tiger drops.

40:36 And whoever got, whoever got point was most likely going to be at least wounded. And usually the The thing is, is that in that war we had a way to pick people up and move them to a hospital better than in any other war. So the casualty rate was really high, but the death rate was a lot lower. Because I think in World War Two it was like, it was like for every four people shot, two of them died. Whereas in Vietnam, it was like one out of six. It was, it was a completely different thing because we could, we could save people, you know, but do you save them? And, you know, their hearts are gone, you know, and now we're looking at that in Afghanistan.

41:26 And we, you know, you got like a lot of people have come back from Afghanistan, but Afghanistan I don't. They had intense fighting, but it was much more pocketed as opposed to Vietnam and it was much more. I would say it seems like it was a lot more mountain warfare. Where? Well, that country had been fighting for 60 years, right? Yeah, they. Were they were a lot better at it. I mean, the whole idea that we went in there was just, you know, I, I, we, we protested. And when it happened, you know, here we are talking about Halloween and now we're talking about the Taliban and how, yeah, it was, it was a bad idea. It was a bad idea to do it. Hindsight, 2020.

42:08 Right, right. There was a whole lot of foresight then, but the all. The news stations. The news ideas. Selling it. They were selling it as they've. Sold. Everything we were all going to run in there and everybody was going to roll over and be happy and it was going to be the and if you think about it, it would have been the 1st. 'Cause they want to be freed, right? That's. What? Nobody. Nobody. Nobody's given over their country to you. No, it's not happening. You don't go soup, you know we're. Not like the Persians in the 1000 BC, right? Yeah, not like. That or 800. CE or something like that, yeah. You have to rule with an iron hand and kill people that oppose you and slaughter them and have your prisons and all that kind of stuff like that. And that's how you stay in, you know, power. Sadly, when the people are not with you, you have a strong man and a lot of people there to support them. It's just like it's crazy.

43:01 Back to Halloween, if you could be anything this year, what would you be? Well, I have a flying squirrel costume. I haven't ever been really thoughtful about the costumes that I've worn. I've never really given them much thought. I As I said before, I've been wearing a NASCAR jacket for the past two years, and that's fine, but I guess I'll put on the flying squirrel costume for fun. I think I'll do that. I would want to be in a barbershop quartet. That's a big mustache. Big, big. One of those big handlebar mustache is wearing the checkered shirt and a hat and the whole thing like that and play the harmonica. That's what I want to be and I just be by myself and I walk up and start playing the harmonica and open up my game. That's.

43:43 Funny, I like and then people would be like. What the hell? You're weirdo. You know, I think that would that, that would, that would. It's just, it's innocuous, it's funny, it's different. It's that. I'd be a merman, but I would. I'd be the top fish in the bottom human. That'd be funny. Yeah, never wear a rubber mask. That just was never. They smell too. Yeah, they smell, but it's also you can't, you can't see, you can't talk, you can't do all sorts of things. You can't. You can't drink beer when you're walking there's. There's all of the costumes that I always chose were trick or treating forward. It was always about the economy, the candy economy, and it was all about what costume can I use or wear that will be the most flexible for go. Speed Racer go.

44:26 Exactly. Yeah, there were years I wish I had a car. Bridal was bridal the little kid in the trunk? Oh, I don't remember. It was the dog or the kid. I love the name. Spridal, I remember emailed. I tried. To name you Spridal. But the wife said that was a bad idea. Call him Spridal. Spridal. I think I'm gonna start calling you Spridal. What do you want? I think it's never too late to change your name. Yeah, I think you're. Don't change your name to Spridal. Spridal, Zack Spridal. Zack, I think we're we're reaching time here. What do you think? Oh my gosh, yeah. I think this is a great. Episode This has been fun a lot of. The walk through memory lane. Timely and Halloween and talking about the chill.

45:08 Well, thinking about Halloween, what do you, what do you think it is it anything that you would expect to change or happen after this Halloween? It's it's. Not really. It's. Not really. Not a reoccurring. Thing cycle of time. Yeah, it's something. Yeah. Well, they used to have the Wilding and all that kind of stuff and say how crazy people get on Halloween and they do all those bad things and. And you just never. I mean, I hung out with quite a few thugs and they would, you know, they, they would talk about, hey, we're going to go throw a dozen eggs at a bunch of houses, OK? I never saw any of that.

45:49 Yeah, I never knew. People that didn't well, you were sadly, you weren't poor. That's fair. That's a fair point. So you couldn't afford to throw away eggs. That's true, you know, but it but just but well, no, it was all the getting even. I mean when it all came down to it, that was like the get even night, the Halloween trick or treat, right? The what? It's trick or treat, right? Yeah, yeah. And we would go around at the people that didn't give us stuff or lock the doors. You'd do stuff like that. I Remember, Remember, I think I told the story about the newspaper where we did that, that I think it was Halloween day when she wouldn't pay her bill, when she. Yelled about it. That's the first episode we ever did of the second, yeah.

46:30 When we lit the paper on fire in front of her house and of course Bayview apartments. And then my brother whips it out and pees on it and puts it out. Oh my God, it's a horse smell, you know. So you got this smoking Washington Post at 4:30 in the morning put out by urine and it's, and she was in the, she was on the 1st floor. So it just sort of emanate. It's just like nasty, you know, I, I said, well, that's a pretty good Halloween prank, you know? That is pretty good. I like. That it was one of the better ones, you know, talk about most of it wasn't. Yeah, but we wouldn't like you would never want to break anything or hurt anything. I just want to make you wash your car. I just want to make you have to clean your stuff, clean your drawer, store, pick the tape, toilet paper out of your tree, you know, something like that. That you would look at it and it would be like, hey, I poked you. I poked you.

47:21 Not it. I mean, not not even to hurt you, but just maybe piss you off a little bit. And and I could laugh about it later. Exactly. I just now, I never, I mean, I had a lot of friends that were in destruction, but I was never into that. It just doesn't. I mean, we didn't have anything. So for for you to break something seemed like, well, why wouldn't you just steal it? I can't, I couldn't imagine that, you know. So in Halloween, one of the things I would like to say before we sign off here is it's better to steal than it is to break. Remember that. That's for sure. I agree that's a good thing. Be creative with your pranks out there. Don't be don't be small minded and break things. Yes. All right.

48:02 Well, it was great talking to you guys. Go find us@recordmyfather.com, sign up on the mailing list. Do it right now. All right, We'll talk to you next time. Next Friday. Next Friday. We'll talk to you then. Bye. Bye. Yep. Party.