Well what a range of costumes were to be seen at the Central Hotel at last Wednesday’s Halloween meeting! The Vox crowd really got into the pagan spirit with a range of weird and wonderful made up faces, pirates, ninja turtles, murder victims, a posthumous haunting of Yoko Ono by John Lennon (or was that Jim Morrison??) and a couple of superheroes to boot!
Banana Man Dan kicked off the Halloween-themed topics with ghost stories, scary movies and plenty of barmbrack – which this long-time tourist toastmaster has never got the hang of but which seems to be some kind of cake with sultanas in it. The difficulty of choosing between it and monkey nuts was not lost on Muna, who had to ask first what it was!
There was a note of rebellion from at least one participant who didn’t buy in to Halloween, but the spirit of this festival in modern times, from ghost stories to ‘Frenchies’ and German bangers (some kind of fireworks apparently!) all got a mention.
A spooky role play involving a real estate agent trying to sell a house haunted by ghostly Joe entertained the crowds, and Cruella de Ville brought the topics session to a close in a graveyard – most appropriate!
The speech segment continued the storytelling vibe with a tale of a trek through a haunted wood with monsters, locked rooms, mooonlight and a white lady all making an appearance in Beulah’s masterfully told tale.
Deirdre educated and entertained with a history of ‘the Irish heritage of Halloween
costumes’, informing us about Stingy Jack, turnip lanterns and more of that mysterious barmbrack – guess you have to be properly Irish to get it! The ladies in the room were interested to learn the ancient method of husband-finding, for which only apple peel is required, while Deirdre’s homemade Wonder Woman costume and professional use of her magic lasso gave her speech some extra flair!
Henry brought the evening to a close with a breath-taking account of just how planes stay up in the air, one so erudite I couldn’t have repeated it even a minute after hearing an account of the formulas involved! Something to do with velocity and pressure, beyond that it really was beyond me. His diseased doctor’s disturbing face paint and physicality had us thinking a mad professor had strayed into our midst, but he proved his knowledge to be deep enough to survive the probing Q&A that followed.
A great night was had by all as the monstrous crowd finally headed off to the bar to scare the locals…
Merrilyn Campbell, VPPR