Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

This is a story I've contemplated telling here for a long while now. It's very long, and more personal than I usually get here about certain things. But in the spirit of Valloween, I feel like now would be the perfect time to tell the tale of a "dating" horror story, would it not?  My initial inspiration for talking about this was the existence and popularity of characters like Corey Cunningham from Halloween Ends, and that one character from the Necro episode of American Horror Stories. I realized I knew someone quite like them, and the experience was certainly not some fantasy come true.  I'm also going to say, I refer to this person as a stalker, and while I know maybe it's not quite to the exact same level that other people experience stalking, please know I'm not trying to undermine anyone else's stories or experiences. This was my own experience and in my opinion it was definitely stalker behavior, even if it didn't reach the same level that ...

 I grew up, more or less, having Republican values and beliefs served to me like a side of mashed potatoes with dinner. When I was younger, I thought of it similar to religion. Some people are born one way and some are born another. My parents were Catholic, so I was raised Catholic. My parents were Republican, so therefore I must be too. In a household where I can recall conversations about how Democrats are always wrong and Republicans are always right from the time I was six years old on, I didn’t think I had a choice. And that’s the problem. No one should ever be made to feel as if they don’t have a choice. The funny thing is, I’m from New Jersey. It’s primarily a state that votes blue. But the area that I actually grew up in? That’s a different story. If you didn’t know any better, just based on the stories, and looking at the people, you might think my hometown was in Texas or Alabama. Where I come from, it’s all big trucks, BBQs, country music, and a very right-wing way of t...