by Richard Gonet | North Forty News
A ghost, a zombie, and a ghoul walk into a bar together. No, this is not the beginning of another stage comic gag. It’s a description of the clientele that entered downtown Loveland Aleworks pub in Loveland on October 21, 2023, for its annual Zombie Crawl.
At zombie crawls, patrons stagger into a pub rather than stagger out, and sometimes, they lose blood and body parts along the way. The costumed people who came to the zombie crawl somewhat resembled the spoiled vegetables in the bottom bin of your refrigerator, the difference being that they seemed to liven up a little after they entered, had one of Aleworks’ excellent pints, and mingled with their rotten friends.
For many in the crowd, this was all a no-brainer. Some spilled drinks, some dripped blood, and others dropped body parts. Fortunately, a doctor was on the premises, but he would not give his last name and covered his face with a 17th-century plague mask with glass eyes and a beak to prevent inhaling germs. It was apparent that he had only had a crash corpse in medicine.
Misfits Pizza food truck served pizzas, and dressed up (or down) zombies got $1 off their Aleworks pints. Makeup artists from Phobia Entertainment, Evil John Mays, and Juiced on Imagination did professional makeup work on those still living.
There was a costume contest for Best Zombie with prizes for the top three costumes. After a group picture, the zombies crawled downtown for food and drink specials at participating locations.
It was a dispirited bunch, a dead crowd. People were having a rotten time, and looking at them, even through a glass eye, would make your skin crawl. Despite all this, people were dying to get in.
They told off-handed jokes like, “What does a zombie get when he’s late for dinner?” Answer: “A cold shoulder.” These people worked their fingers to the bone all week so they could paint their faces with mas-scare-a and sip bloody marys with others who were equally bad to the bone. And they all enjoy sick puns.