Monster Walk at the Five O’ Clock

The Five O’Clock lounge is where I started doing zombie walks. It’s the first one Maddie went to when she was about four years old even. Despite the walk changing hands and now being a monster walk, we still love hitting up the five O’Clock and creeping around Lakewood.

Because this is a MONSTER walk and not just a zombie walk, you see a greater variety of creature. It’s also an excuse for the kids to extort new costumes out of me. Maddie asked for a Mummy costume and Lydia wanted to be a “Dead Mermaid”. It’s amazing what you can do with scrap fabric and dollar store sand toys. I pulled out my Groot outfit for it’s final go-around. Yes, I’m retiring this one – it requires too much maintenance and is a real devil trying to get out of. I still love it, and may try to rebuild it in future days, but as for this incarnation, it’s the last time you will see him. We were met at the donation table by a young woman who was thrilled to see Groot showing up, nice to be appreciated. A few people referred to me as Treebeard, a good guess, probably more accurate of a costume for him actually. we made out donations and headed back to see what other monsters were joining us.

It was a chance for Ginger to break out out her bag lady outfit, while Mark showed up as Odurus Unrungus and his girlfriend Jen by his side in the most adorable hand-made Gizmo outfit (my little mermaid’s favorite monster at the walk – now both of my girls are asking to see Gremlins).

The ZEROS (Zombie eradication and rescue operations squad) was there to lead and keep traffic flowing. We started a bit late, waiting for things to get going and before the walk Sgt. Cunningham of the ZEROS gathered everyone up to remember and memorialize a fallen comrade. William Stanely, Aka Reaper, a very young man who died suddenly and unexpectedly earlier this month. You could still see Reaper in the crowd, on helmets, and in hearts.

Over a hundred people turned out for this monster walk, all of them bringing canned food for the Lorain County food bank, along with donations. Parents brought thier kids, and there were a lot of friends in the crowd. Its an event I really love sharing with my girls, even though it means I don’t get to socialize quite as much as I might want to. We finally got to grab some stuff from Hardcore confections, and the girls each got a chocolate brain (strawberry cake covered in chocolate). Around us we could see happy (and slightly dead) faces at the taco truck, and looking over the art, as well as people in the makeup tent, transforming into horrifying creatures. Great fun s we wandered the streets, zombies attacking cars and Mr. Tickles the clown chatting up random passers by. A great day for a good cause. The next zombie walk in in about a month, and I hope to see you all again.

Photos follow – I admit I stole a bunch of Zombiekitten’s because she got some better shots thazn I did and the group shot is from Photos by Desmalta, a regular a these events. Watermarks intact.