Best Halloween Party Ever!

The best Halloween party ever thrown in Austin, TX was October 26 1996 on Cherrywood. There was music, a living room filled with strobe lights and a DJ. Everyone was dancing. There were costumes, 4 kegs, a full bar and a huge tub of the yummiest trashcan punch. We made sure everything tasted good and looked great. There was tons of food. We had yummy, potent jello shots that made people pass out. There were pretty decorations and party favors.  My friends threw this party and I helped. It cost a little above $4K total between us. At one point I even bought a handful of nice cigars to hand out to people.

See, what happened was we all decided to throw a party as a Halloween/ Birthday Party for our friend Cecilia. We thought this would be our only chance because my friends were renting a huge house with a huge back yard. There was also a huge house located in front of their house to hide it from street view. For us girls, though, the priorities were the decor and flavoring the trash can punch and jello shots so that they were more sweet than boozy. We wanted everything to look pretty and taste great.  At the time, my best friend and I were going to college and I was working a  second job. The longer I worked the more overtime and bonuses I made and was  paid weekly. It was political phoning. The week before the party I was working 12 hours straight for party money. I skipped my classes that week too. All we did was plan for this party.

Because we thought that maybe everyone we knew wouldn't get the info on time, we passed out flyers to friends and friends of friends that week. I left a stack of flyers at work encouraging everyone to invite everyone thinking we'd be lucky if we got forty people. I heard later that someone posted the flyer somewhere public like on the drag or at Emo's or something. For the big day I wore a French maid costume and began to make my way through a modest crowd in the center of the yard, it was 9pm or so. The crowd grew quickly and to our amazement the back yard was a solid mass of people an hour and a half later. We made the rounds and found part of the cast to Slacker, local artists, writers, the drug dealer, old friends (that were not invited because we didn't know they were even in town but had found their way) it was mind blowing and overwhelming.  People were getting together, breaking up, crying, laughing hysterically, climbing trees, trying to get into blocked off rooms, calling cabs to get home, arguing with the DJ because he refused to play Madonna but through it all I kept hearing this was the best party ever.

The cops never found the place because it was completely hidden by the house in front. The house in front was empty and dark that night. This allowed the party to last until 5am before the hosts went to bed. The next afternoon there were bodies in the back yard. Complete strangers waking up and getting their bearings by asking where were they, what had happened. I don't think anyone went home sober or could even see straight. We were all  25 years old and younger and  all we cared about was if everyone have a good time. During the party we had gone out to get 2 more kegs to keep up with our guests. The jello shots and trash can punch was so yummy, no one could stop themselves.

There was still trashcan punch left in the backyard with bugs swimming in it. Quite a mess to pick up. It was a blast but for the next few days we were exhausted and depressed. When you throw something that takes so much planning and was such a hit and you spent all your money on it...the aftermath is blah. As the years went on we'd run into some unknown who would say that they had been to this party and such and such and so and so and it was this cool Halloween party on Cherrywood....NO KIDDING! It was our party. So if you were anyone living in Austin in 1996 you were at this party or heard of it. It was THE party that year. I can't believe that was 10 years ago!