Here’s how Halloween 2025 proceeded at Casa Del Mar
Image courtesy of Del Stone Jr.
This was the scene at Casa Del Mar for last night’s Spookfest. A few observations:
A. I managed to sit in that driveway for five hours with only one pee break, a new post-Young Del record.
B. My first trick-or-treaters arrived at 5:41 p.m. When I went to bed at 10:30 I could still hear them outside.
C. Usually there’s a 50-50 mix of young kids to teenagers. This year there was a definite majority of young kids.
D. My oldest trick-or-treater had a beard.
E. Nobody offered me alcohol this year.
F. I was watching John Carpenter’s “Halloween” on the laptop while handing out candy. The laptop froze probably five times during the playback. One cause was constant Microsoft updates. Other causes … unknown.
G. During the one and only sex scene in “Halloween,” A PG-rated clip of P.J. Soles and her boyfriend gyrating under the sheets, a group of teenaged trick-or-treaters arrived. I quickly learned to pause the movie and in some cases, lower the screen.
H. I had loaded up on Snickers bars this year because they were always the No. 1 choice in the past. No more. Smarties is now the new popular candy.
I. I used a votive candle in my jack-o-lantern and it stayed lit the entire night.
J. How many trick-or-treaters did I have? I didn’t count. But I started with five of those big $30 bags of candy and I now have one.
K. The kids were mostly polite, though I noticed more kids this year wanting to grab fistfuls of candy.
L. There were more adults than kids, though the adults didn’t ask for anything. They were escorting.
M. FWBPD was riding through the neighborhood on electric bikes, complete with flashing lights.
N. The best costume of the night belonged to a kid who made a box, decorated it with lights and graphics, and wore it over his entire body. He was a box of Topps trading cards.
O. On Halloween nights past things usually wrapped at 8:30, 8:45 at the latest. Last night I called it quits at 9:20 but as I said, I could still hear kids going up and down the street at 10:30 when I went to bed.
P. Today I found three pieces of candy in the driveway dropped by kids.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Thanks for my morning chuckle and moment of reflection. The Navalny quote especially will stay with me.