HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

"I love Halloween.

It's the only time I can be myself."

Y'all have a safe and Happy Halloween!

When you approach a house, yell "Trick or Treat!"

and after they give you candy,

don't forget to say "Thank You!"

You know Ida loves you ALL... OKZ.

HERE'S MORE HALLOWEEN IDEAS FROM IDA...

MORE HALLOWEEN STUFF.........

How to make a Styrofoam Spider -- Take a large styrofoam ball – paint it black. Let it dry. Once dry, glue two googly eyes on it. Stick black pipe cleaners into the styrofoam for the legs, and bend 'em like spider legs. Make lots of 'em and hang 'em from the ceilin' or outside from a tree!

What is a spiders favorite TV show? The newly web game!

What did the spider order at McDonald's? A Big Mac and flies.

Why was the skeleton afraid to cross the road? Because it had no guts.

Do zombies eat popcorn with their fingers? No, they eat the fingers separately. Ha! Ha! Ha! Hee! Hee!

Decorate Tables: Place a white tablecloth on tables and spinkle with Halloween confetti, which can be bought a the craft store (tiny cats, pumpkins, ghosts, etc.)

Shower Curtain: Buy a white shower curtain, and paint an elderly woman's figure (shadowed), with her holding a knife in her hand (as shown), for a psycho effect in the restroom!

Tin Can Luminarias: Save your veggie tin cans, clean 'em well, poke holes of pumpkins or bats or ghosts. Paint the inside of the can a light color and paint the outside of the can the color according to the picture punched (example: pumpkin = paint orange). Make holes in side of can to place a wire hanger. Then put a voltive in the can and hang from a branch which you have securely place in a heavy pot. Light the candles, it's a beautiful effect!!

What are you goin' to be for Halloween?

Are you goin' to a big party?

Tell Ida all about it... OKZ?

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HALLOWEEN PARTY IDEAS!!

If you're plannin'

a Halloween Party

this year,

I've got some FUN ideas for you...

Halloween Surprise Tubes
Items needed:
Toilet paper roll tubes (If you're gonna do this, you'd better start savin' them toilet paper tubes NOW!)
Halloween wrapping paper
Tape or glue
Ribbon in Halloween colors
Small candies, small novelty items, confetti
These are real easy to make! First, measure and cut your paper so that it wraps around the toilet paper tube (with a little extra for gluing/taping) and that the length extends about 2" from each end. Glue the paper to the tube and tie one end closed with some ribbon. Fill the tube with candy; novelty items such as spider or ghost rings, stickers, etc.; and add some confetti to the mix. Tie up the open end with ribbon. Using scissors, fringe the ends and you're done. If you like, you could stick labels on each tube that are personalized with each child's name. Cool, huh?!!

A Fun Idea -- Crack open a walnut shell carefully without crackin' the shell. Clean out the nut meat from the shell. Write funny fortunes, happy thoughts or good wishes on strips of paper, then enclose the fortune in the shell. This is also coo, huh?!!

FUN GAMES:
Mask Making Contest – Set up a large workin' space with scissors, construction paper, glue, tape, colors, markers, cotton balls, stickers, and give each player a large paper sack. Give them a time limit to make the best Halloween mask. Have 'em put the masks over their heads, and give the winner a prize! Eventually, let 'em take the masks off, cause it'll get hot in there.

Pass The Pumpkin -- Have people sit in a circle and pass a small pumpkin around, while scary music is playin'. When the music stops, the person with the pumpkin is out. Continue until there's only one person left, and give the winner a prize!

Build A Scarecrow -- Form groups and have a variety of old clothes, pillowcases for heads, markers and newspaper. Groups have 20 minutes to create. Give prizes to the scariest or funniest.

Other Games:
Bobbing for apples!
Pin the tail on the black cat!
Pin a face on a pumpkin while blindfolded, to make a Jack-O-Lantern!

JOKES:
Headline: "Due to strike, grave-digging at cemetery will be done by skeleton crews". Ha! Ha! Hee!

Bloodshed - where the Red Cross keeps the plasma. Hardy Har Har!

One dark night two men were walking home after a party and decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery just for laughs. Right in the middle of the cemetery they were startled by a tap-tap-tapping noise coming from the misty shadows.
Tremblin' with fear, they found an old man with a hammer and chisel, chipping away at one of the headstones."Holy cow, Mister," one of 'em said after catching his breath, "You scared us half to death we thought you was a ghost! What are you doin' workin' here so late at night?""Those fools!" the old man grumbled. "They misspelled my name!" [Now THAT is SCARY!]

Do you have any cool, funny, scary ideas

for a Halloween Party?

Send 'em to Ida... OKZ!!

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VAMPIRES!!!!!

Rooftoppers, I found some really scary stuff about vampires. You need to read this in case you might be a vampire or maybe a vampire might be tryin' to get at you. I got this here stuff off the Internet, so you know it's gotta be true...

Identifying vampires -- Many elaborate rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion, the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question. Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white. Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism. Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition. In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face. Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-like activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects, and pressing on people in their sleep.

What does a vampire never order at a restaurant?
A stake sandwich

What does a vampire fear most?
Tooth decay

What's it like to be kissed by a vampire?
It's a pain in the neck.

How can you tell when Dracula has a cold?
When he starts coffin.

What type of dogs do vampires like best?
Bloodhounds

Methods of destroying vampires -- with staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in southern Slavic cultures. Ash was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states, or hawthorn in Serbia, with a record of oak in Silesia. Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia. Piercing the skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the bloated vampire; this is similar to the act of burying sharp objects, such as sickles, in with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenant. Decapitation was the preferred method in German and western Salvic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the buttocks or away from the body. This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures, was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising. Gypsies drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. In a 16th-century burial near Venice, a brick forced into the mouth of a female corpse has been interpreted as a vampire-slaying ritual by the archaeologists who discovered it in 2006. Further measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In the Balkans a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling holy water on the body, or by exorcism. In Romania garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the coffin was taken. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In Saxon regions of Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires.

Write in and tell us
what you think about vampires.

And, if you ARE a vampire,

then let us know that too, OKZ?

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FUN WITH GHOSTS

GHOSTS

What does a ghost get when it falls and hurts its knee?
A boo boo.

MAKING A COSTUME:

What you will need to make a Halloween costume like Charlie Brown's:
1. a white sheet
2. a pair of scissors

How to make the costume:
1. cut out circles all over the sheet, so that it looks like the picture posted
2. put the sheet over your head and wear it

What is a baby ghost's favorite game?
Peek-a-boo

The 5 most common places where

ghosts are seen:
1. looking out windows
2. on staircases
3. in hallways
4. sitting in chairs
5. in mirrors

What kind of car does a ghost drive?
A Boo-ick

SIX SIGNS OF A HAUNTING:
1. Pets react to something others can't see, such as growling in thin air, or not wanting to go into a certain room.
2. People that live in the house are having nightmares.
3. Items are mysteriously misplaced, and replaced just as mysteriously.
4. Electrical appliances turn on and off and toilets flush by themselves.
5. Unexplained cold spots and cold drafts are felt.
6. Footsteps, raps on the wall and voices are heard.

What did the mother ghost say to her son?
Don't spook unless you are spooken to.

Why did the ghost pick his nose?
Because he had boo-gers.

What kind of spirits serve food on a plane?
Airline ghostesses

Where do ghosts go swimming?
in The Dead Sea


DO YOU HAVE A GHOST STORY TO TELL US?
How about a ghost riddle or joke?

FUN WITH PUMPKINS

PUMPKINS

How do you mend a broken pumpkin?
With a pumpkin patch!

Carvin' pumpkin tip....After you have carved your pumpkin, wipe Vaseline along the cut edges - this will help preserve your pumpkin.

Decorate Peppers....For somethin' different carve green peppers as jack-o-lanterns! You can also carve red or yellow ones.

Why didn't the pumpkin cross the road?
Cause he didn't have any legs! Duh.

Tip - When pickin' a good pumpkin, select an unbruised one. Make sure the pumpkin has a flat bottom so it sits upright by itself.

Fact - The Native Americans called pumpkins "isquotersquash."

What do you get when you divide the circumferance of a jack-o-lantern by its diameter?
Pumpkin Pi

Pumpkin Pie - The origin of pumpkin pie is thought to have occurred when the colonists sliced off the pumpkin top, removed the seeds, and then filled it with milk, spices and honey. The pumpkin was then baked in the hot ashes of a dying fire.

How big can a pumpkin get? The largest pumpkin grown in the United States in 2007 was 1689 lbs!!!

What do you get when you drop a pumpkin?
Squash

The Pilgrims - Many of the early settlers might have died from starvation had it not been for pumpkins. The followin' poem is a testament to the Pilgrims dependence upon pumpkins for food:
"For pottage and puddings and custards and pies

Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,

We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,

If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon."
[Pilgrim verse, circa 1633]

Undoon? They sure had a funny way of speakin' back then... at least it rhymes with noon.

Pumpkin Capital - Did you know that the "pumpkin capital" of the world is Morton, Illinois? This self-proclaimed pumpkin capital is where you'll find the home of the Libby corporation's pumpkin industry.

Native Americans - Flattened strips of pumpkins, dried them and made mats. Pumpkins were formerly considered a remedy for freckles and snakebites.

What do you call an obnoxious pumpkin?
A jerk-o-lantern

Hey Rooftoppers!
Can you come up with any other important things
that we need to know about pumpkins?

How to Make Tombstones for Halloween

This is such an easy way to decorate your yard for Halloween, if ya do that kind of thing. Ya get some thick syrafoam and cut a tombstone shape out of it. Use a knife for the cuttin', you'll hate the sound, I do. Then, write names on the styrafoam with painters tape. Spray the syrafoam with gray spray paint, sprayin' as many coats as needed. After the paint has dried, pull the tape off and there you have your tombstone with a name on it. Shove some sticks up the bottom of the marker and plant that sucker in the ground. How easy is that?!

I found some really cool names you can put on the tombstones. Some of 'em made me laugh out loud!!

Anita Hart
Myra Mains
Ben Better
Eileen Dover Clift
Ben Dover
Izzy Stillalive
Roman D. Earth
Justin Pieces
Frank N. Beans
Anita Manda Cook
Bill M. Lader
Will Knott Rest
Helen Back

And entire family of Rott's:
Fester N. Rott
Diane Rott
Willy Rott


Can you think of other funny tombstone names?

Send 'em in to Rooftop!!

Uses for Rubber Bands

You know how people send Ms Heloise hints

on how to use things? Well, I thought I'd give

you a few ways you can use RUBBER BANDS,

and then you rooftoppers can send in your own

thoughts on what to do with 'em...

now let's keep this clean, OKZ.

1. Use them to open jars -- Wrap a rubber band several times around the lid of a jar and it will give you somethin' to grip to make openin' easier.

2. Use 'em for decoratin' Easter eggs -- put bands around a hard-boiled egg and place it in food colorin'. Remove the egg, let the egg dry, then remove the bands and you got some cool white lines around your egg. Now isn't that fun?!

3. A friend told me this one... thether stemware and other delicate, wobbly items to the rack of your dishwasher so they won't get cracked. I didn't know about this idea, 'cause the only dishwasher I have, is Me!

4. Here's a neat one, use several big multicolored rubber bands to wrap a present. This is great when you don't have any scotch tape, and it's different too... when have you seen a present wrapped with rubberbands... uh-huh, me neither. Now if you was to wrap the present with newspaper and rubber bands, then people would think you're "Green", and remember how I told you that in this day & time, being "Green" means people think you're real smart when you might not be.

5. We've all heard of this one, but I could never do it, cause it's just tortureous! If you're a smoker, wear a band around your wrist and ever time you crave a smoke snap yourself with the rubber band. Ouch! That's just mean. That would be like when I was a kid, and we'd run outta the house lettin' the back door slam, we'd get our hair yanked for it! The door would slam, and we'd stop dead in our tracks, and here would come Mom out on the porch to give our hair a tug. I'm not a big fan of pain bein' used to learn stuff. It didn't make me learn nothin', it just pissed me off.

Okay, those are the ideas for using rubber bands that I found,

now you send in your ideas and comments.

No matter how lame your idea might be,

I respect all comers.

Now think... what would you do with a rubber band? Hmmm?