Halloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31, but to Meda La Jollans, the closest Friday or Saturday night. As for a bit of history, it has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints, but who gives a blab blab hell about that.
For La Jolla, it has always been more of a secular celebration and a damn good excuse to get dressed up in your fantasy outfit that covers your real identity and then consume as much alcohol as possible, like the characters poising in the Sip n Surf Halloween party. In the morning, if your costume was good enough, no one knew who the idiot was who ate the dog food thinking it was bean drip, or who imitated Roger Johnson and walked around with this turkey gobblers hanging out, unless you were Roger Johnson. Or Steve Manns who was full-blooded Indian and always dressed like an Indian.
At one huge Halloween party (the Person house, below the Country Club with about 300-400 idiots, drunks and dirt bags) the crashers were from east of Interstate 5. Big mistake! It only took about an hour before the first fight broke out which graduated down the street. Then the big one with a guy dressed like Tarzan and with Mike Crouse.
Crouse (dressed like an old lady, as pictured) calming turned to a buddy, and said, “Hold my purse,” and then all hell broke loosed, in a Western style bar fight. When all said and done, beer cans, broken pints, and torn costumes littered the intersection of Pearl and High (conveniently named) Street. And yes, that’s the real street name for those who have stumbled on this websites and don’t know whether flag it as inappropriate material, or bookmark it.
But getting back, a La Jolla Meda Halloween usually included trick-or-treating (bring your own booze or just drink the parents or hosts booze) wearing costumes (so they did no know who you were), attending costume parties (showing up at a party uninvited or crashing) carving jack-o’-lanterns (crushing them) ghost tours (taking a tad to much psychedelics), bonfires (a flame up on a joint) apple bobbing (swapping spit with someone else beside your boy or girlfriend) visiting haunted attractions (the Troll Bridges) pranks (stuffing the toilet with TP or just fighting), telling or hearing scary stories (learning what you did the night after) and
… watching horror films (seeing pictures like you see above … years later)
Manns looks like the Indian from the movie “Slap Shot”….Steve “Adopted me” one night and we terrorized some folks on Mission Blvd, then went to his house and drank some beers, arm wrestled with his dad (who was an extremely strong) listening to him tell me how Steve was ruined by his lifestyle choices [current lingo for booze, drugs and companions] the rest of the night has fogged over like a Guccione photo into history. Quite an interesting evening.
Ok… two thoughts come to mind. First of all……Spinada?? What was I thinking……ok, clearly I wasn’t! Second of all…. about the drinking contest?….. thanks for sticking up for me Doug and Chris let’s face it, you were kind of a light weight….haha…. just kidding of course. Did I cheat….. never! What fun crazy times! I love this site Kip. Brings back so many fun memories.
Chris didn’t want to cough up the $20.00 she won, plus he never could hold his booze!
Anybody remember when Barbi Blum and Chris Hendricks had the drinking contest at the Girls Field? They made a bet and when the weekend rolled around they started pouring down the Coors. Barbie drank him into the ground and when I gave Lebos a ride home his dad was out front mowing the lawn. Chris tried to sneak by him in broad daylight. Wish we had a video!!!!
Chris and I were just talking about that the other day … Chris “still” claims that Barbi “cheated”
I beat Tarzan after he TRIED to through a punch at me! There were about 300 people watching.
Crouse
I remember that party well, Crouse was so funny fighting Tarzan. I thouhgt Tarzan beat Crouse? Just rememeber a ton of drunken fun seekers. Crazy times…But always good times. Love the pictures, thanks for sharing
Steve as an Indian, Roger dressed as a Pharmacist . Kind of ironic!
Crouse kicked Trazan’s ass that night and it was really funny to see him, dressed as a woman kicking butt. Crouse always loved a good fight!