A "Vinyl Halloween" to Remember!
Devlon
Posts: 355
Tonight a friend, and I were sharing childhood stories about some of our Halloween shenanigans, and it made me think of a childhood Halloween I had involving vinyl.
During the time that this story takes place (about 1970), most record players had 16, 331/3, 45, and 78 speeds. I remember having an old GE model turntable that looked like a small suitcase when it was folded up. You pushed a button on the top of it, and the turntable part flipped down. The speakers were stored on the outside ends of unit by laying backside against it, but would swing out and pivot on a spindle and face you when you pressed a spring loaded release button behind each speaker. What I thought was even more cool back then was that these speakers could actually unhinge from the spindles and you could spread them apart up to about six feet! Deluxe model here I tell ya! They all wouldn?t do that back then! Yeah, we're talkin? awesome stereo spread back then baby! I was the envy of all my friends because of this revolutionary feature!
That Halloween my sinister mind came up with a way to creatively scare the hell out of the kids. My sister had a John Lennon album called ?The Plastic Ono Band? (I believe that was it?) where on side two, and for about half of that side Yoko Ono just wails, and screams, and yells in this high pitched voice. It was awful! What the crap? Weird like she was on some kind of drug trip or something, ??heh, she probably was, lol.
I tried an experiment: I unplugged the record player, and laid the needle on the record on a part of the song where she was really screaming a lot. I turned the speed down to 16 speed, and then plugged the electric cord back in. Oh man! It was just so awesome! At this ? speed, it sounded like someone being tortured to death in a gargling deep voice in slow motion... like in a sci-fi horror movie. It was spine tingling to hear. It would just give you the creeps!
I then tried another experiment: I took my 18? black light that I was using for all those Hendrix, Cream, and Joplin posters I had and laid it across my legs while I was sitting in a chair. I had my sister cover me up with a sheet, and then plug in the black light. While black light made the sheet glow from the inside I raised my hands and made these ghost booing sounds. My sister said, ?OMG, you gotta see this! Your fingers look black and 10 inches long!? ?What are you talkin? about?? I said. ?Just try it and see! Just try it!? she said. So, we traded places. What I was seeing was amazing! Not only did the sheet light up, and glow from the inside which was awesome enough looking by itself, but the added bonus was when you raised your hands inside the sheet it cast a shadow and made your hands and finders look friggin? huge! The shadows made your finders look about 10-12? long and ghoulishly black. Just too cool!
Ok. Putting it all together: On the front porch where the kids would come, I hid the record player behind some large pot plants where nobody could see it. Then I preset the needle down on the LP on that crazy screaming part. I plugged both the record player and the black light into a tri-plug. Then I put the black light on my lap. Sis then covered me up with the sheet. Under the sheet I am holding the tri-plug with one hand, and an extension cord in the other. Now picture this: When I push the electric cord all the way into the tri-plug the screaming torture sound comes on in slow motion from the turntable while at the same time the sheet glows up with the giant black hands raising up and coming at you! My sister said it was blowing here away! I couldn?t wait to try it out on my first victims!
My first victims: What I am about to tell you here I will never forget the rest of my life! So, with my sister?s help I am all set up. The sheet that is over me had two very tiny holes, about the diameter of pencils, for my eyes. Soon two boys come up my driveway and approach me. They are about 8 to 9 years old. About half way up the drive they see me and stop. I hear them talking. ?I?m not going up there! There?s somebody under that sheet!? one of them said. ?No there?s not! They just want you to think there?s somebody under the sheet!? the other one said. ?Well, I ain?t goin? up there and if you?re so sure, and not a scaredy cat you get on up there then!? the first one said. ?Ok, ok maybe I will!? the second one said. Slowly, the second boy inches his way towards me. He gets closer and closer. Now he is about 6 to 7 feet from me, and he stops. The other boy says, ?See! I told you that you were a scaredy cat!? ?I am not! ?.are too!?.am not!?are too!? Wheeew this when on for few minutes when the boy further back said, ?Ok scaredy cat. I?ll hold your scaredy cat hand go up there with you!? Both boys were now about 4 feet from me staring at me and trying to decide if there was a person under there or if it was just a dummy? So, the boy that was originally further back kept taunting the one he called ?scaredy cat? by saying, ?I can?t believe you came all the way up here and you won?t even reach down in that bowl and get us some candy. I know there?s no one under that sheet because if there was I would have seen it move! Now look in those holes and I betcha anything it?s just a dummy!? Well, I was about to bust when ?scaredy cat? inched his way right up to me and bent over and started looking in the holes in my sheet. I mean, he was inches from my face at this point. I couldn?t stand it any longer. I pressed the extension cord into the tri-plug, and?.total nirvana! Oh?..oh, omg! It was glorious and the reaction of the boys was more than I could have ever expected! They went screaming down the driveway in total panic and horror! I was dying laughing and about fell off the chair. One of the poor kids dropped his whole bag of candy on the driveway spilling it all over the place. He turned to pick it up when the other one said, ?leave it?.leeeaaave! Run!?. They blazed a trail outta sight. I could still hear them screaming way down the road. I was literally dying laughing when my mother swung the front door open and said, ?What was all that screaming out here? Devlon! What did you do!?. I explained to her what had happened and she said I should be ashamed for scaring those kids like that. ?Whatever!?, I?m thinking. It was just to much fun already to stop now. I was just beginning.
About 4 to 5 minutes later I hear this large crowd of voices coming up the street moving in my direction. ?What the heck?? I?m thinking. It sounded to me like a big mob or something. Then that crowd turns and starts coming up my driveway. It?s about 15 to 20 people comprised of parents and kids. ?There?s a ghost under there with a purple light or something. I swear, I swear! You?ll see!? said one of the boys that I had scared earlier. ?Stop saying swear! You know better not so swear!? said the mother of the boy that said that. They all approached me boldly while they one kid was picking up his candy. I plugged in my extension cord to let my light and sound show begin! Many stopped dead in their tracks and oooohed and ahhhhhed. Some squealed and I couldn't help busting out loud laughing. It was hysterical! Several of the parents came up congratulating me on the idea. With the parents there some of the kids got brave and wanted to shake my black light monster hand! They wanted me to turn it on and off. On and off, over and over, until the parents said enough, and then they left.
I stayed up late that night frightening the kids and entertaining the adults. For a while larger and larger crowds kept coming. I think a lot of them were the same people leading other people over to my house. It was a night to remember. The black light and vinyl idea made me feel like a rock star that night!
Happy Halloween!
During the time that this story takes place (about 1970), most record players had 16, 331/3, 45, and 78 speeds. I remember having an old GE model turntable that looked like a small suitcase when it was folded up. You pushed a button on the top of it, and the turntable part flipped down. The speakers were stored on the outside ends of unit by laying backside against it, but would swing out and pivot on a spindle and face you when you pressed a spring loaded release button behind each speaker. What I thought was even more cool back then was that these speakers could actually unhinge from the spindles and you could spread them apart up to about six feet! Deluxe model here I tell ya! They all wouldn?t do that back then! Yeah, we're talkin? awesome stereo spread back then baby! I was the envy of all my friends because of this revolutionary feature!
That Halloween my sinister mind came up with a way to creatively scare the hell out of the kids. My sister had a John Lennon album called ?The Plastic Ono Band? (I believe that was it?) where on side two, and for about half of that side Yoko Ono just wails, and screams, and yells in this high pitched voice. It was awful! What the crap? Weird like she was on some kind of drug trip or something, ??heh, she probably was, lol.
I tried an experiment: I unplugged the record player, and laid the needle on the record on a part of the song where she was really screaming a lot. I turned the speed down to 16 speed, and then plugged the electric cord back in. Oh man! It was just so awesome! At this ? speed, it sounded like someone being tortured to death in a gargling deep voice in slow motion... like in a sci-fi horror movie. It was spine tingling to hear. It would just give you the creeps!
I then tried another experiment: I took my 18? black light that I was using for all those Hendrix, Cream, and Joplin posters I had and laid it across my legs while I was sitting in a chair. I had my sister cover me up with a sheet, and then plug in the black light. While black light made the sheet glow from the inside I raised my hands and made these ghost booing sounds. My sister said, ?OMG, you gotta see this! Your fingers look black and 10 inches long!? ?What are you talkin? about?? I said. ?Just try it and see! Just try it!? she said. So, we traded places. What I was seeing was amazing! Not only did the sheet light up, and glow from the inside which was awesome enough looking by itself, but the added bonus was when you raised your hands inside the sheet it cast a shadow and made your hands and finders look friggin? huge! The shadows made your finders look about 10-12? long and ghoulishly black. Just too cool!
Ok. Putting it all together: On the front porch where the kids would come, I hid the record player behind some large pot plants where nobody could see it. Then I preset the needle down on the LP on that crazy screaming part. I plugged both the record player and the black light into a tri-plug. Then I put the black light on my lap. Sis then covered me up with the sheet. Under the sheet I am holding the tri-plug with one hand, and an extension cord in the other. Now picture this: When I push the electric cord all the way into the tri-plug the screaming torture sound comes on in slow motion from the turntable while at the same time the sheet glows up with the giant black hands raising up and coming at you! My sister said it was blowing here away! I couldn?t wait to try it out on my first victims!
My first victims: What I am about to tell you here I will never forget the rest of my life! So, with my sister?s help I am all set up. The sheet that is over me had two very tiny holes, about the diameter of pencils, for my eyes. Soon two boys come up my driveway and approach me. They are about 8 to 9 years old. About half way up the drive they see me and stop. I hear them talking. ?I?m not going up there! There?s somebody under that sheet!? one of them said. ?No there?s not! They just want you to think there?s somebody under the sheet!? the other one said. ?Well, I ain?t goin? up there and if you?re so sure, and not a scaredy cat you get on up there then!? the first one said. ?Ok, ok maybe I will!? the second one said. Slowly, the second boy inches his way towards me. He gets closer and closer. Now he is about 6 to 7 feet from me, and he stops. The other boy says, ?See! I told you that you were a scaredy cat!? ?I am not! ?.are too!?.am not!?are too!? Wheeew this when on for few minutes when the boy further back said, ?Ok scaredy cat. I?ll hold your scaredy cat hand go up there with you!? Both boys were now about 4 feet from me staring at me and trying to decide if there was a person under there or if it was just a dummy? So, the boy that was originally further back kept taunting the one he called ?scaredy cat? by saying, ?I can?t believe you came all the way up here and you won?t even reach down in that bowl and get us some candy. I know there?s no one under that sheet because if there was I would have seen it move! Now look in those holes and I betcha anything it?s just a dummy!? Well, I was about to bust when ?scaredy cat? inched his way right up to me and bent over and started looking in the holes in my sheet. I mean, he was inches from my face at this point. I couldn?t stand it any longer. I pressed the extension cord into the tri-plug, and?.total nirvana! Oh?..oh, omg! It was glorious and the reaction of the boys was more than I could have ever expected! They went screaming down the driveway in total panic and horror! I was dying laughing and about fell off the chair. One of the poor kids dropped his whole bag of candy on the driveway spilling it all over the place. He turned to pick it up when the other one said, ?leave it?.leeeaaave! Run!?. They blazed a trail outta sight. I could still hear them screaming way down the road. I was literally dying laughing when my mother swung the front door open and said, ?What was all that screaming out here? Devlon! What did you do!?. I explained to her what had happened and she said I should be ashamed for scaring those kids like that. ?Whatever!?, I?m thinking. It was just to much fun already to stop now. I was just beginning.
About 4 to 5 minutes later I hear this large crowd of voices coming up the street moving in my direction. ?What the heck?? I?m thinking. It sounded to me like a big mob or something. Then that crowd turns and starts coming up my driveway. It?s about 15 to 20 people comprised of parents and kids. ?There?s a ghost under there with a purple light or something. I swear, I swear! You?ll see!? said one of the boys that I had scared earlier. ?Stop saying swear! You know better not so swear!? said the mother of the boy that said that. They all approached me boldly while they one kid was picking up his candy. I plugged in my extension cord to let my light and sound show begin! Many stopped dead in their tracks and oooohed and ahhhhhed. Some squealed and I couldn't help busting out loud laughing. It was hysterical! Several of the parents came up congratulating me on the idea. With the parents there some of the kids got brave and wanted to shake my black light monster hand! They wanted me to turn it on and off. On and off, over and over, until the parents said enough, and then they left.
I stayed up late that night frightening the kids and entertaining the adults. For a while larger and larger crowds kept coming. I think a lot of them were the same people leading other people over to my house. It was a night to remember. The black light and vinyl idea made me feel like a rock star that night!
Happy Halloween!
Living Room: HK AVR 354 as pre/pro, 2 x Polk Audio Micropro 4000, Adcom GFA-7500, 2 x Mirage OMD-15
2 x Mirage OMD-5, 1 x Mirage OMD-C1, APC H15, Sony S790, Philips 52" LCD, Beogram 3000, FAT (Firestone Audio Tobby DAC), Harmony One
Den: Sherwood R-972,as pre/pro, 2 x Velodyne SPL-1000R, 3 x Crown Drivecore XLS1500, 2 x Polk Audio Lsi9
1 x Polk Audio Lsic, 2 x Polk Audio Lsifx, Sony S790, APC H15, Dspeaker Dual Core 2.0, W4S DAC 2, Keces DA-151
2 x Mirage OMD-5, 1 x Mirage OMD-C1, APC H15, Sony S790, Philips 52" LCD, Beogram 3000, FAT (Firestone Audio Tobby DAC), Harmony One
Den: Sherwood R-972,as pre/pro, 2 x Velodyne SPL-1000R, 3 x Crown Drivecore XLS1500, 2 x Polk Audio Lsi9
1 x Polk Audio Lsic, 2 x Polk Audio Lsifx, Sony S790, APC H15, Dspeaker Dual Core 2.0, W4S DAC 2, Keces DA-151
Post edited by Devlon on
Comments
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Fantastic story, thanks for sharing this! Absolutely hilarious and ingenious use of the record player. Well done good sir!
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Thanks Clipdat!Living Room: HK AVR 354 as pre/pro, 2 x Polk Audio Micropro 4000, Adcom GFA-7500, 2 x Mirage OMD-15
2 x Mirage OMD-5, 1 x Mirage OMD-C1, APC H15, Sony S790, Philips 52" LCD, Beogram 3000, FAT (Firestone Audio Tobby DAC), Harmony One
Den: Sherwood R-972,as pre/pro, 2 x Velodyne SPL-1000R, 3 x Crown Drivecore XLS1500, 2 x Polk Audio Lsi9
1 x Polk Audio Lsic, 2 x Polk Audio Lsifx, Sony S790, APC H15, Dspeaker Dual Core 2.0, W4S DAC 2, Keces DA-151 -
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Great story!
It just goes to show that eventually someone would find a use for Yoko Ono. It just took a few dozen years is all. -
A++++
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One of my biggest Halloween memories is going to an elementary school friend's house and hearing the song Fire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOErZuzZpS8 as we T&T'ed.
Her mother had that place decorated to the max (for that time, remember). -
Fun stuff!
I had a blacklight and numerous posters in the late '60's early '70's. A Hendrix poster was among them. Where has the time gone?Carl
