The history of  

Keith's Halloween party:

1965	My mother goes into labor at a Halloween carnival. I was born the next morning.
1970's	My birthday being the next day, I had Halloween parties as a kid.
1988	I decided to throw a Halloween party for my daughters. The event was marginally successful. These kids were just too sophisticated for the kind of stuff we did when I was a kid.
1989	I asked the girls if they wanted to have another party this year. They declined, saying they would rather attend someone else's. I decided to have my own, unsure how adults would react to the idea of a costume party. The result seemed quite successful at the time. About 25 people attended, with costumes ranging from simple to quite elaborate.
1990	Warren, a guest at the 1989 party, becomes my associate. (My wife won't let me use the term "partner") Together we planned the party and constructed decorations. Among these decorations was a full sized wooden coffin lined with plastic for icing down beverages. Originally we painted it white, but we decided black was more suitable. We held the party at Warren's house, and each of us invited many guests. The party was a great success, with at least 50 people in attendance. This was the beginning of the glory days for the Halloween party.
1991	Fueled by the success of the last party, Warren and I began making plans to duplicate that success. The coffin got a new coat of paint, trying to cover up the white paint that still showed through. This year's party was almost a carbon copy of the previous year, and we are beginning to develop a reputation.
1992	The final year at this location, Warren and I host yet another virtual carbon copy of the previous two years. In my mind, we have never been able to quite duplicate the success since.
1993	Warren bows out to deal with personal issues. Clint steps in as my new cohort. Clint was quite a party animal himself, and was single and had money to blow on things like Halloween. Clint brought a fresh perspective to the party. This was one of the wilder parties. In preparation for the party, the coffin falls apart in transport. We took the pieces and rebuilt it, better than ever before. It got a new coat of paint and a new satin lining for the lid.
1994	Warren has his life somewhat in order, so we are reunited. He moves to a new house out in the country. We hold the party out there and wind up having more trouble with the cops than we did in town. Go figure.
1996	After taking a year off and having just moved to the big city, I was basically starting all over. I had few friends in the area, and was living in a townhouse with no room to hold the party. John, a fellow I met shortly after I moved, invited me to use his home. The party was very small. I was preparing for a comeback.
1997	Moved out of the townhouse to a house and for the first time since 1989 held the party at my own house. After a few years of losing touch, I found my old friend Billy, who attended some of the early parties as early as 1989. It turned out that we were living close to each other, so we collaborated to bring back the glory days. Billy was a great inspiration and together we made some positive changes. We totally refurbished the coffin. Billy wanted to scrap it and start over, but it held too many memories so I vetoed the idea. We did wind up discarding the old flat lid and building a nice three-dimensional one lined with satin. We put a Plexiglas bottom in the coffin, built four inches up from the bottom. Underneath the Plexiglas we installed fluorescent lights so the light shines up through the ice in the coffin. Again, it got a new paint job and some minor cosmetic work. This year also saw our first presence on the Internet. This turned out to be one of the best parties in years. I was surprised with a stripper for my birthday, which made for an interesting memory...
1998	Again, Billy and I hosted the party. Another success. Back to the good ol' days. Deciding we should add something new every year, we built a stand for the coffin so it no longer sits on a table or on the floor. The coffin neatly nests underneath the stand for storage.
1999	My friend Ken wanted to get into the act, and graciously offered to host the party at his house. Ken was very helpful, and this was a great party.
2000	Took some time off to have a midlife crisis.  Had a Halloween party for my sons.  It was far more successful than the party my daughters had when they were kids. The karaoke machine was the hit of the party.
2001	Had another Halloween party for my sons. Again, a good turn out and a great party. Beginning to get the itch again. Also getting a lot of pressure from friends to come out of retirement.
2002	Loaned the coffin out for a goth party earlier this year where it sustained some damage.  After some careful surgery and yet another new paint job it was good as new.   2002 marked my triumphant return to the Halloween business. This was the year of cancellations.  So many people cancelled at the last minute I thought the comeback party would be a disaster.  Thanks to some old friends and a bunch of new ones this party turned out great.  A bit smaller than in the past, but a real good start.
2003	Now that's more like it.  This year we had a great turnout.  We're back in the groove.  We even had someone offer us a frozen margarita machine.  We held a costume contest this year.  Actually, we tried that last year but this year's was more successful.  After a failed attempt last year Amanda perfected her Jell-o shots.  We went through about four hundred of them.
2004	What an excellent party.  About 70 guests showed up this year.  We actually had a wedding at the party.  We waited until after midnight to perform the ceremony so the couple could celebrate their anniversary on Oct 31.
2005	This year was a pretty good party.  A little smaller than last year, but still a nice turnout and it was really great spending my 40th birthday with my dearest friends.
2006	I moved into a new house this year. Much larger than the old house. Excellent place to hold the most awesome of parties...
2007	After a dispute with my web host I lost my  web domain www.keithshalloweenparty.com. The domain got bought up, so now I have moved to www.keithshalloween.com .  Maybe someday I'll get it back. We had another great party at the new house. Good times.
2008	This was the largest Halloween party to date.  We estimated about 100 people.  About four times larger than the original Halloween party back in 1989.  This is so much fun!
2009	The 20th anniversary of the Halloween party.  In spite of this milestone, the party was only about half the size it was the year before.  At first I was a little disappointed in the low turn out, but after the fact I learned that most of the guests thought it was even more fun than last year.  I think I may stick to keeping it a little smaller in the future.
2010	So this year we had a neighbor move into a rent house down the street.  Apparently he doesn't appreciate a good Halloween party so he spent his evening harassing us and calling the cops. The cops came, they saw, and they left.  No problem.  Fortunately for us, that stick in the mud moved away later in the year.  Now back to what we were doing...
2011	We're planning on making history again this year.  Will YOU be there?                               home