Halloween Archives - After the Altar Call

Hello World,

I know many Christians are against celebrating Halloween…In fact, my folks didn’t allow me and my brothers to celebrate Halloween as children…Instead we attended Hallelujah events and were given candy without the benefit of trick or treating…in a word LAME…Now that I’m an adult, I choose to partake in Halloween festivities in my own special way…To that end, I have comprised a list of Top Seven List of Halloween Jams that are sure to get you in a “boo”tiful mood….WAHAHAHAHA….my lame attempt at a Vincent Price evil laugh 🙂

1. Speaking of Vincent Price, I have to give the top honor to the King of Pop Michael Jackson. (I still can’t believe he is gone…) If you want to be scared and get your groove on at the same time, “Thriller” is the jam for you…And this video is still one of the best music videos ever made….

2. If you are a rap fan and came of age in the ’90s, then you’ve got to know about “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” by the Geto Boys…This song has a serious message, but the beat is so bangin’ it’s easy to ignore how truly poetic this jam is…”This year Halloween fell on a weekend, me and Geto Boys went trick or treatin'”…you know, the rest… 🙂

3. If you wore jelly shoes and collected “The Smurfs” figurines, then you probably loved the ’80s hit movie “Ghostbusters.” From that movie came Ray Parker Jr.’s hit “Ghostbusters,” which was on the movie soundtrack…This song is my third favorite Halloween Jam…

4. Will Smith is probably more well-known for his acting but back in the day, the Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff delivered hit songs…One of their hits was “Nightmare on My Street” which is obviously their homage to the crazy scary movie “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

5. Rockwell was a one-hit wonder in my opinion as the only song I know sung by him was his jam “Somebody’s Watching Me” which came out in 1983…Just a little trivia: What blockbuster singer actually lent background vocals on this song? Michael Jackson! Extra side note: Rockwell and Stony Jackson, the actor, may have been separated at birth they look so much alike…

6. The Michael Myers’ theme song from the “Halloween” movies is sure to cause goosebumps…I LOVE scary movies…especially the campy ones….

7. This song probably shouldn’t have been made, but it was…M.C. Hammer’s remake of “The Addams Family” theme song for the 1991 movie “The Addams Family” movie based on the popular television show series….Did you see the movie?

What’s your fave Halloween Jam?

Any thoughts?

Hello World!!!

Me and Thelma!!!

Her signature!!!

I admit it…I’m a total Stan when it comes to “Thelma” from the hit ’70s show “Good Times.” When I was around 7 or 8 years old, I desperately searched for images on television that affirmed and celebrated black beauty…In the early ’80s, those were hard to come by…While the white girls in my classes looked up to Jill (Farrah Fawcett) on “Charlie’s Angels” and “Daisy Duke” from “The Dukes of Hazzard,” I looked up to “Thelma.” Next to my mother, she represented everything I wanted for myself in the future: beauty, brains, strong family ties, a loving relationship with a fine husband and a determination to make it in this world despite all of its challenges.

I do think this pic looks like me...

When I got older, I was delighted that I got curvy like my beauty icon. And one Halloween in my ’20s, I even decided to dress as her for a Halloween party. (If you go to my ‘How’ page on this blog, you can see that pic…) I smiled for days when two guys nearly back -to-back told me that I favored “Thelma” just a few years ago. One of those guys is an artist who draws wonderful portraits so I took that as a huge compliment!!!

So you can imagine how excited I was when I found out Bern Nadette Stanis aka “Thelma” would be at the Sweet Auburn festival last weekend. I did not know how I was going to find her among the throngs of people at Sweet Auburn on Saturday, but I desperately hoped it would happen. As R and I walked through the crowd, I overheard a woman say, “That’s ‘Thelma’ back there.” My neck turned nearly 360 degrees. “Where,” I said, forgetting my manners. “Back in that booth just back there,” the woman said as she pointed behind us. Forgetting that R was with me, I bulldozed my way through the people until there she was…the dream of my little girlhood…

Me being a total Stan!

I went up right to her and stammered something about her being beautiful, and she smiled and simply said, “Thank you.” Then I paid $15 to have my picture taken with her and an autograph…As we got close to each other, she said, “You are so cute.” I felt like was levitating…THELMA SAID I WAS CUTE…It came from her own lips…Since she opened the door, I walked right in…”Ms. Stanis, some people have told me that I look like you. I don’t know if that’s true, but I took it as a compliment,” I said quickly. She looked at me closely and then said, “I can see that.” I don’t know if she meant it, but it made me feel good anyway. R said I don’t look like her…Maybe not…but a girl can dream, can’t she?

I’m such a Stan, I even took a picture with her daughter Brittany…