When I last wrote about Halloween, I hadn’t enjoyed it in years… and now, we can add another year to my deposition of Halloween. In my world, Halloween simply marks the beginning of the Christmas season and nothing more.
However, Montrose has its own Halloween traditions that give this dreadful holiday (at least for me) a more fun spin. For the first time this year, Montrose students got to dress their Team Time teachers in costumes with red and white points at stake. My team, WHITEning Strike, dressed our teacher, Mrs. Dorich, as Fancy Nancy, a classic book character straight from our childhood. Some of the other costumes included the Montrose Lost and Found, a mummy, and Taylor Swift. The winning costume was Mrs. Marge, who represented team 110% Milk, dressed as a mermaid. She received the only perfect score from the judges. The first runner-up was Ms. Archbold and Mrs. Stringfellow, who represented fREDom, dressing as Gru and Lucy from Despicable Me, and the second runner-up was Ms. Rios who dressed as Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. See the bottom of the article for all of the teachers in their costumes!!
After a very busy weekend of finalizing college applications, Halloween rolled around. Every year, it’s a tradition that the seniors do a group costume together, and this year, we did our take on Barbie costumes and dressed as different Kens. For my part in the costume, I dressed as Football Ken, a Ken-doll clothing pack that came out in 1992. The teachers also did a group costume where they dressed as fictional characters from books and TV shows.
Midway through the day was the moment that I was waiting for – the haunted hallway. If you read my Halloween article from last year, you know how much I’m genuinely terrified of the haunted hallway as the horror, gore, and jump-scares that come with Halloween are my least favorite part of the holiday. However, it does give me an annual opportunity to confront my fear of Halloween-related horror courageously… even when I need to hold a classmate’s hand as I go through… or in my case this year, clutch onto my go-pro camera for dear life.
Because I’m a senior this year, I forced myself to go through the haunted hallway, knowing that it’d be my last opportunity, though. After going through, I can say that the class of 2026 did an amazing job – I was genuinely terrified as I went through, and it was quite literally a heart-pounding experience (yes, when I came out of the haunted hallway, my heart was beating at over 170 beats per minute according to my Fitbit). The theme was a haunted toy store, with creepy dolls, lots of screaming, and a LOT of blood. One very creative way that the sophomores were able to be scared without doing anything was their starting positions. Instead of starting where they were stationed in the hallway, they all started together at the beginning, staring at those who entered with creepy looks on their faces and creepy costumes before quickly dispersing to their spots, which was when the even scarier part began: going through. Hats off to the sophomores for being able to provide a frightening experience, despite how hard it is to scream on every single round and be able to be in the toasty backstage area, while in costume – and to whoever I accidentally smacked with my go-pro camera, I sincerely apologize… lol!
Towards the end of the day, we had our costume contest. Congratulations to our middle school winner: The Five Girls – a take on the restaurant “Five Guys,” our upper school winner: Dreamhouse Ken by Shannon Mahoney ‘24, our overall winner: The Abby Lee Dance Company, and our faculty winner: Peanuts (the show, not the food… lol).
Photos from the teacher fashion show:
By Kristina Klauzinski ‘24, Sports Editor
