A really dead crowd at downtown rink
Zombies haunt Millennium Park -- but they're much better behaved than those drunken Santas
December 15, 2008
You would think people put their zombie makeup away at Halloween.
You would be wrong.
About 100 people dressed in their zombie finest hit Millennium Park on Sunday for some ice skating. There were blood-spattered fanboys and fangirls, George Romero film buffs and haunted house workers between gigs (possibly, till next Halloween).
The number fell far short of organizers' plans to set a record for "Zombies on Ice."
Still, zombies seem hot. Fans have Web sites, T-shirts, books. What's going on?
"Anybody can be a zombie. You just need makeup," said Joe Penn, 19, a Harper College student.
"The greatest day of the year for me is Halloween. Anytime you can be a zombie more than once a year, it's a good time," said Hank Hockey, 36, of Maple Park, at the rink with daughters Madeline, 8; Emma, 6, and their friend Kendall Regnier, 6. All wore zombie makeup.
Many learned of the event from chicagozombie.com, a fan site "for zombie news within 50 or 100 miles of the Chicago area," said Jess Valandingham, 20, of Park Forest. It links to haunted houses, horror film discussions and zombie fan events.
An ice rink worker said the zombies were no trouble.
"I tell you what's bad,'' he said. "Two hundred drunk Santas. They go on a pub crawl and then they come here."
The Santas were at the rink Saturday night, said the worker, who asked to be anonymous.
One Santa vomited ("he didn't even make it on the ice"), a few tried to wrestle or fight -- no one was sure which, he said -- and two Santas made out on the ice.
Nurse Beata Wieczorek, 33, wished the zombies would limit activities to Halloween. She said they scared her toddler daughter Olivia.
"She's frightened,'' she said. "She's calling them witches."
Most skaters seemed to laugh at the zombies or asked to take their pictures, though Matthew Stankiewicz, a zombie Santa, said he heard what he took for an insult:
"I did have one mom walk past and say, 'if you haven't noticed, there's a buncha Hoosiers everywhere.' "