Dave & Vinny: Halloween

Spooky Pints and Questionable Costumes

It was a chilly October evening at The Rampant Horse, and the pub had made a half-hearted attempt at decorating for Halloween. A plastic pumpkin sat at one end of the bar, its plastic grin looking more depressed than scary. Here and there a few fake cobwebs clung pathetically to the ceiling. Ken, the ever-grumpy barman, had put in a pair of plastic vampire teeth but he had to keep taking them our every time he wanted to speak to a punter. He wore them with all the enthusiasm of someone waiting for a root canal procedure.
Vinny and Dave sat at the bar, pints in hand, each eyeing the pumpkin with suspicion. Scraps, Vinny’s scruffy terrier, was curled up by Vinny’s feet, occasionally sniffing to see if anyone had opened a bag of pork scratchings yet.
“Vinny took a thoughtful sip of his pint and stared at the pumpkin a moment. Then leaning back in his seat he addressed Dave and the bar at large.
“You ever thought about where Halloween comes from?”
Dave raised an eyebrow. “Comes from Tesco, doesn’t it? Where all the plastic tat and rubbish costumes come from, anyway.”
Vinny shook his head. “Nah, mate, I mean properly. The origins of it. Where it all started.”
At this, Ken, who had been listening as he wiped down the bar, rolled his eyes. “I’ll tell you where it started — someone figured out you could charge double for sweets shaped like eyeballs and make a killing…