Editorial
Halloween is but a week away
October 24, 2014
Oh how times flies when one is immersed in a sea of papers, midterms, campus threats and part-time jobs; put your pencils down and buy that Rick Grimes or Jack Torrance outfit you have been eyeing because Halloween is but a week away.
A neat feature of being a member of the UW-River Falls campus community is that a number of campus organizations are here to make Oct. 31 a special day for all.
Thanks to an especially elongated J-term, UWRF students do not get a weekday off from the classroom until Thanksgiving. So, now is as good a time as any to take a breather and instead of hitting the books, hit a haunted trail, take the Joker’s advice and put a smile on that pumpkin, bake some Jack Skellington cupcakes, and enjoy All Hallows’ Eve in style.
Halloween is rarely on a Friday, even more reason to let loose and have some good old fashioned fun (the safe kind) on and off campus next weekend. One of the best campus traditions is the “Haunted Hall,” which takes place in the appropriately named Grimm Hall. The event has been around for over 10 years and nonperishable food items are encouraged and later donated to the appropriate non-profit organization.
Little did you know that Falcon Outdoor Adventures is holding a pumpkin carving and s’mores event on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the University Center fire pit. It’s free, bonfires are awesome, carving pumpkins is tradition and who doesn’t like s’mores?
Elsewhere, the Dairy Club is hosting a haunted pavilion at the Campus Farm on Halloween with the Crops and Soils Club selling pumpkins. A story will be released next Friday, just in time for Halloween, giving more details about the upcoming event.
Word on the street is that the Literary Society is hosting a “Murder Mystery Party” on Halloween night, which can always be loads of fun. Murder mystery dinners are sporadically held on campus, but being on Oct. 31, only adds to the fun. Fans of “Clue” and “How to Host a Murder” should find subtle delights in what the Literary Society is trying to accomplish.
Heck, even some campus buildings have been deemed “haunted.” Retired UWRF journalism Chair Michael Norman, author of eight “haunting” novels, wrote about a ghost citing in the Kleinpell Fine Arts building many years ago. The ghost story details the sighting of deceased UWRF speech professor Sanford Syse in the Blanche Davis Theatre.
According to ghostsofamerica.com, which may or may not be entirely unreliable, a male professor hung himself from the ceiling in South Hall many years ago, while the janitorial staff has, over the years, recorded many unexplained things like getting “touched” in the South Hall attic. Again, this is all speculation, but spooky nonetheless.
By the way, Halloween would be an appropriate time to dress up in a clown costume, not on the evening of Oct. 14, just to be clear.