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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 19 hours

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Every October from 1966 until 2020, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" etched itself into across the collective consciousness of young darklings with it's once a year broadcast on network television. (To watch it, click on the above link & jump to 5:45 on the timeline.) The importance of "The Great Pumpkin" to me and my fellows, regardless darkling or normie, cannot be overstated. Elementary school children simply did not miss "The Great Pumpkin." However, it lost much of it's 'weight,' for lack of a better term, once VCR's became available. Prior to those wondrous devices, you literally only had one chance per year to watch "The Great Pumpkin" - that's it. To be a kid & miss "The Great Pumpkin" airing was akin to Linus fainting and missing the arrival of The Great Pumpkin, himself. I recall hearing the tragic tale of one kid on the school bus who had missed the airing the previous night as his house had lost power & we all sat in silent horror at this revelation - a fate worse than death or dentist visit.

Of course, me being me, I had already somewhat prepared for such an unthinkable eventuality by having acquired a copy of the 1967 book adaptation of "The Great Pumpkin." In the 70's, my folks choose to live in the boonies, so losing power for no reason was something that could happen. Fortunately, I never did have to cower in a dark corner, clutching my well worn book copy, silently cursing the Fates for inflicting such an indignity upon me. After all, this was one of those vanishingly rare instances where the book version was objectively not as good as the TV version.

(Just as an aside, my fav Charlie Brown character was always Schroeder. I never gave it much thought, but Schroeder is actually kinda goth with his dark colors, quiet demeanor, & music obsession, so...makes sense. I imagine when he hit his teen years, he joined a goth band, died his hair black, & played wicked dark keyboards at countless gigs.)

Fast forward a few years & I can still vividly recall my profound shock at learning a friend of mine, who owned an early VCR, had recorded "The Great Pumpkin" upon it's previous airing. It was a singular wonder to be able to watch something you could previously only have seen once a year, watch it whenever you want, & not even need to find the most sincere pumpkin patch as prerequisite to do so. It was as if you could reach up into the heavens &, with a simple twist of hand, rewind the celestial sphere back in time to the previous eclipse or passing of Haley's Comet, so staggeringly cosmic in power it seemed. There we sat, watching "The Great Pumpkin" in early December of 1981 & it was a big enough deal to me that I still remember it as if it happened merely a month ago. And I wasn't even really that much into it anymore as I was 11 going on 12 at that point & was eager to put 'childish things' behind me. But I still watched it right the way through. I'm sure it found it's way to most folks VCR's during the 80's, & was officially released on VHS in 1988 & DVD in 2000, so I'm sure nowadays it's a rare household with children which lacks their own copy of "The Great Pumpkin."

Of course, there were other Halloween children's specials eager to rake in the chips like "The Great Pumpkin" did, but none of them ever reached the same level of quality as "The Great Pumpkin." Unlike most other Halloween children's specials, "The Great Pumpkin" has several sequences that, to a child, are legitimately spooky, such as the intro sequence, Snoopy making his way behind enemy lines, & the rising of 'The Great Pumpkin' in the pumpkin patch. I can still recall cynically thumbing through the TV Guide at any given year's new entries & weighing each against "The Great Pumpkin." Be it "Halloween is Grinch Night," "Fat Albert's Halloween Special," or "Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween," all were decidedly lacking. There were some older ones that I'd see on local independent stations that were reasonably good, such as the stop motion "Mad Monster Party" but even that was still a distant second. To this day, no Halloween children's special can hold a Jack-o-lantern to "The Great Pumpkin."

So this Halfway to Halloween, take a 25 minute break to revisit everyone's favorite Halloween special, & may the pumpkin patch in your particular neck of the woods always be the most sincere.

creaturesfromelsewhere 4-29-2024

#halfway to halloween #it's the great pumpkin charlie brown #early vcr's #early 80's #late 70's #gothlings #darklings #the great pumpkin #charlie brown #linus #creaturesfromelsewhere #musings from an elder goth #darkly inclined #goth #Schroeder #peanuts #charles schulz

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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 2 days

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Happy birthday, Caroline Jones. You would have turned 94 today.

creaturesfromelsewhere 4-28-2024

#caroline jones #morticia addams #the addams family #darkly inclined #goth #musings from an elder goth #gothgoth #creaturesfromelsewhere #happy birthday

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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 2 days

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I'm getting really tired of repeatedly seeing the same advert for Taylor Swift's new album on Tumblr, even after I've clicked "Not Interested." Go away Taylor Swift, and take your suckage with you.

Show me ads for goth music, please!

#taylor swift sucks #taylor swift go away #goth music please #tumblr advertising algorithms suck #free us from the tyranny of taylor swift #goth humor #dark humor #goth #creaturesfromelsewhere #musings from an elder goth #morticia addams would kick taylor swift's ass

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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 2 days

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Goth equivalent to live laugh love

#bauhaus #goth #trad goth #goth humor #goth memes #darkwave #romantic goth #gothgoth #gothcore #goth aesthetic

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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 15 days

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Not kidding - I just had some Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door (thought that only happened in movies).

I told them I've already found Satan & offered to give them a free Satanic Bible.

They sure can run fast.

🤣

#dark humor #darkly inclined #goth humor #creaturesfromelsewhere #musings from an elder goth #jehovah witness #satanic humor

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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 19 days

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youtube

This Youtube channel doesn't get the love that it deserves.

#Dark Angel #goth humor #goth aesthetic #darkly inclined #dark humor #goth #goth style #musings from an elder goth #creaturesfromelsewhere #Youtube

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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 22 days

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I don't know where these things come from, but if you visit this informative post:

You'll learn that the city of Tampa, which I live right by, has the most trees of any city in the world - which is odd since it doesn't seem like it has an unusually large number of trees, but then maybe I'm just...you know...not seeing the forest for the trees.

🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴🌳🌲🌴

creaturesfromelsewhere 4/7/2024

I know where I want to be ….

#city with the most trees #tree city tampa #florida humor #arbor day #earth day #earth day humor #arbor day humor

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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 1 month

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Happy 94th birthday to John Astin!

creaturesfromelsewhere 03-30-2024

#John Astin #gomez addams #the addams family #darkly inclined #goth #goth style #goth aesthetic #goth humor #happy birthday #creaturesfromelsewhere #musings from an elder goth

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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 1 month

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youtube

Say it once...

Say it twice...

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musings-from-an-elder-goth · 1 month

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Scored 27 of the 32 volumes of Time Life Books Mysteries of the Unknown for just $20 at a flea market. Loved the creepy TV commercials for these from the late '80's: