Baseball's Over, It's Time for Halloween

By Matt Wood in Miscellaneous on Oct 27, 2005 4:29PM

With all the White Sox excitement distracting us, Halloween is sneaking up fast (that would seem in line with the whole "scare the crap out of you" theme anyway). We had a brief bit last week about the Haunted El, but now that baseball is over, it's time to get serious about Orange and Black Candy Day.

In case you haven't gotten a pumpkin yet or you smashed yours on a car window in celebration last night, you may want to think about getting a white one. At least that's what all the cool kids are doing. White pumpkins are all the rage with mommies and kids because they are easier to decorate and they match everyone's trendy minimalist white home furnishings. They are just a variety of those so out-of-style orange ones, but since they are different they cost a little more, and thus, are better. A pumpkin farmer in Rockford sold out of 6,000 of their white pumpkins and plan to grow 20,000 next year.

If trendy pumpkins aren't your thing, you can tour some of the city's haunted spots with Chicago Ghost Hunter Richard Crowe. Even scarier than his website are Crowe's tours through the Randolph Street Market, Chinatown, Rogers Park, and a special collection of John Dillinger's old haunts. The most notoriously haunted building in the Randolph Street area is none other than Harpo Studios. Back in 1915 it was a makeshift morgue for over 800 vicitms of the Eastland Steamboat disaster. Workers claim to have seen a woman dressed in turn of the century clothing disappear in the basement while unexplicably hearing music of that era. Oprah herself is reluctant to stay in the studios after dark.

If you just want a good old fashioned fake scare, you can vist one of the area's many haunted houses. Haunted House Chicago has information and reviews of over 100 haunted attractions.

Plus, don't forget our Stubbs the Zombie giveaway! Winner to be announced on Halloween.