Students recall their strangest Halloween memories

Zoe Deno
Staff Writer

“I sold my friend for 50 cents on Halloween,” said human services major Adelaide Montresano.

Halloween is less than a month away, and Hudson Valley students are starting to feel the anticipation of the holiday. To prepare for the celebration, students re-lived some of their fondest and strangest Halloween memories.

Dressing up as characters from the popular show, “Teen Titans”, Montresano’s friend was mistaken for a prostitute one Halloween.

“My friend went as Black Canary, and her costume ended up looking like a cheap prostitute. These people whistled at her, so I was like, ‘She’s 50 cents if you want her,’ and they agreed to it. Later that day we saw them again and went to their house.”

Psychology major Paul Lowery Jr. recalls when he dressed up as a version of Shaggy from Scooby Doo, which ended in multiple write-ups from his high school.

“For my senior year, I went to school dressed as slutty Shaggy,” said Lowery. “I took a green t-shirt of mine, and I cut it really short and tied it around myself, I then took these maroon shorts and cut them really short so they looked like panties. I got four write ups.”

Lowery dressed how he did to make a statement on the differences between men’s and women’s Halloween costumes, not caring about the write-ups.

“I was making a commentary on how slutty girl’s Halloween costumes are,” he said. “So many people get upset about that, so I felt like I needed to bring awareness to it.”

“If you search a men’s Optimus Prime costume, you’ve got like all of the truck parts all over the body, and you’re covered. If you search a women’s Optimus Prime costume, you get like windshield [bras] and truck bumper panties,” said Lowery.

Carter Zimmermann, an individual studies student, had an eerie experience involving someone in a clown costume last Halloween. “They were Trick-or-Treating and just kind of stared at us for about a mile. Then he just kind of started following us for no reason,” he said.

Robert W. Narcavage, a business administration major, remembers spending one Halloween going to the Saratoga County Homestead Sanitarium. Although he didn’t want to attend due to what he had heard about the sanitarium, he ended up joining his friends for the ride.

“I had heard stories about people going there and like, crashing their car on the way one, and like all sorts of freaky stuff happening there,” he said.

Staying outside of the sanitarium and not going past the fence that surrounded it, Narcavage remembers watching his friends quickly run back from entering the sanitarium.

“They all came running out, and we all hopped back in the car and took off. On the way home, our [headlights] were flickering and cutting out,” said Narcavage. Their car ended up dying, so after pulling over to inspect the vehicle, the car ended up being fine. Although no harm was done, Narcavage still found the experience strange.

“It was definitely a freaky experience,” he said.

Students like computer science major Donald VanPatten remained optimistic, but recalled being mugged while Trick-or-Treating with a friend.

“There was a group of people just walking toward us, and they end up robbing my friend and ripping his jeans. They took his wallet and, like, $17, but no phone, so that was pretty good.”

Jeff Hovle, a nursing student, was injured one Halloween. “I spent the rest of the night in the hospital getting glued back together,” said Hovle.

After leaving a Halloween maze, Hovle jumped into the back of a truck, which he had forgotten was full of pipes. “Mid-leap, I was stopped dead by a pole that caught me right along my eyebrow and split it wide open.”

“My craziest Halloween experience was when I almost got hit by a car,” said Kenneth Alvarez-Moya. “Everyone else was going, like, 5mph, but this lady was going 25mph. She was an inch away from taking me and my friend out completely; like, [her wheel] was on my cape.”

Although some stories include violence and fear, some stories come from fond childhood memories from students. Jane Ytterberg, a biological science major, recalled finding a chipmunk she named Candy on Halloween.

“One Halloween, I found him passed out and twitching in a sugar coma in the wrapper of a Mr. Good bar. I just kind of put him back into his hole, I never saw him again after that.”

Around eight-years-old, liberal arts major Nick Pascazio remembers being scared by a gorilla. “This guy dressed in a banana costume and jumped [out of a bush] at us. Then out of nowhere a gorilla followed and the gorilla started chasing the banana around.”