On October 06, 2000 I attended an autograph session at SpookyWorld in Foxboro, MA. I'm not going to go in order of the day here, I'll first start with the autograph session because I know that's what people want to hear about the most, then I'll go in to all the details leading up to that night. We were almost at the front of the line, and after waiting 5 hours in drizzle/light rain, we met Mick almost immediately upon his arrival to SpookyWorld. Mick was 3 hours late to the autograph signing because his flight from New York to Boston was cancelled due to fog. When Mick arrived, he was escorted through the crowd and up on to a stage. On stage, they tried to make it look like a wrestling ring, and cameras and media were onstage as well. Mick spoke to the crowd before signing autographs. He said something to the effect that we were awesome fans for waiting in line so long to meet him. He said it was great to be in Foxboro, MA (cheap pop, lol). Someone asked him who hit Stone Cold Steve Austin with a car, and Mick said if someone gave him a Twenty Dollar bill that he would tell that person. Sure enough, later in the night some guy gave him a Twenty, and Mick whispered something to him, and the guy was so excited. Not sure what he told, but I wonder if the guy has spread the word?

Fan Book on the left of the table, Mick signing WWF autograph paper, and about to sign Mankind stationary for us.

Mick holding up the Fan Book for the media!

Now the best part :) It's my turn to meet Mick. Looking out to the left there is a huge crowd of people in front of the stage (who were unable to get in the autograph line, but are there to see Mick too). There are also cameras and media people looking on as we step up to the table. First his assistant asked if I had something I wanted Mick to sign (he could only sign 1 item for each person). I handed her a copy of the March 27-April 2, 1999 TV Guide with Mick on the cover that I have kept. I doubt anyone else had one of those for him to sign, but you never know. She handed the TV Guide to Mick, and he signed it as I walked up to the table. I said something like "Hi Mick, this is a book that we made for you. It's from a lot of us fans and my sister cross-stitched this picture of you on the cover." Mick said "Thank you", opened the book, and said "Spooky". Kind of funny, we were at SpookyWorld, he said "Spooky", anyway...He looked through it briefly and then held it up for the cameras, one of which was a WWF Camera!!! Other media there was WBCN (a local rock station), and I believe our local UPN station, Channel 38. So I am not sure, but Mick holding up our Fan Book could be somewhere on UPN, WBCN, or the WWF - either websites, tv, commercials, magazines, not sure which but I'll be looking. Mick then held the book up so that I could take a picture of him holding it. My sister presented him with some stationary I had gotten a long time ago for ordering a WWF PPV (you know, send in your cable bill, get a free gift, etc.). Mick laughed and said "All right, you've got the official Mankind stationary." Again, I bet he was surprised to see that. I took a picture of Mick with my sister and brother, but seeing I was sort of getting moved along by security I never got a picture with me and Mick. That's ok though cause I got great photos and autographs. The whole meeting with him probably lasted no longer than 1 minute, but it was great anyway. Now, after we walked down off the stage we stayed to just watch for a few minutes. One of Mick's assistants picked up the Fan Book while Mick was meeting other people and he started looking through it. Then he tapped Mick on the shoulder and said something to him, and you could read Mick's lips and he said "It's nice" and nodded. The guy finished looking through the book, then put it down on the floor in something under the table. So hopefully Mick looked at it more closely later on! If I hear anything more about the Fan Book at all, I will post it to this page. The line was just huge, and it seemed as though Mick would stay and sign for everyone, especially seeing he was so late, and everyone had waited out in the drizzle and light rain. I just want to say "Thank you" to everyone who contributed to the Fan Book. I only wish I had received more entries, but people may not have been sure what it was all about, or didn't believe it would actually get to Mick. I couldn't be sure myself, but luckily it did. Thanks to Mick for a memorable evening!!!

Autographed TV Guide!

Autographed Mankind stationary!

Now I'll sort of start from the beginning of this adventure. In early September I learned about the wrestlers that would be appearing at SpookyWorld each Friday in October. I think I first heard about it on the Internet (though there were many commercials during Smackdown for it). The question was, "Which day to go?". Should we see Mick Foley, the Hardy Boyz, Kane, or Edge and Christian (note: Kurt Angle is taking Edge and Christian's place on October 27, 2000). We decided to go see Mick! We bought tickets in advance from Ticketmaster. I wanted to do something special for the event, and not simply get an autograph. I'm also a Mariah Carey fan, and one thing Mariah's fans are always doing is making Fan Books for her. Basically if someone is going to be meeting her, they let all the other fans know, and they collect letters, photos, and anything else people want to share with Mariah. It's kind of neat and allows people who aren't able to meet the person a chance to share something with them. So I decided to do one of these Fan Books for Mick! I started letting people know in early September and tried to get the word out. Sadly I didn't get as many replies as I had hoped. I really think wrestling fans are not familiar with what a Fan Book is, or didn't believe it would actually get to Mick. I did however get enough submissions to go ahead with the book. And THANK YOU to everyone who contributed! My sister also cross-stitched a photo of Mick which took her 52 hours to do I believe. We used this cross-stitch to place in the pocket on the cover of the binder we used for the Fan Book. I then made inside cover pages, printed all the letters on Halloween paper, and put them in the 3-ring binder. I used Halloween stickers to keep down the photos people sent, and the book came out quite nice (as you can see a little bit by the photos on this page). So that's how the Fan Book came out, and our mission was to get the book to Mick, get his photo holding the book, get autographs, and say "Thank you!".

Now, how early should we go? What's the best plan to make sure we get to meet Mick? Up until that day, I had collected information from a variety of sources, and decided the best thing to do was get there about 2 hours early so we could get one of the special tickets that were being given out to the first 1,000 people through the gates of SpookyWorld. It is a 2 hour drive, so we left at 2:15pm I do believe. We got there at 4:15pm, and after finally figuring out what entrance to use to get to SpookyWorld (it is behind Foxboro Stadium, and the Stadium has so many entrances), we find out that we are not allowed to enter the parking lot until 5pm. The person at the gate tells us to go get something to eat and come back. So that was a good idea - eat and stuff. So we came back a little before 5pm and they had already started letting cars in! We got to park pretty close to the gate though and there weren't too many people yet. A lot of the people we had seen at Papa Gino's were there too. We were able to stand in the line for people who already had tickets. There were far more people in line to buy tickets. This meant that we were almost at the front of the line! As time went on, people bought tickets and got in line behind us. The line was huge! and we were near the front. We also received an "A" pass, which meant that we could line up for Mick at 7pm (while "B" passes could line up at 8pm). I asked where Mick would be so I'd know where to go right away. The staff told us there was no need to go wait in line for autographs as we'd have plenty of time. Seeing the mission was to make sure to meet Mick (especially where there are signs that say there is no guarantee of any meeting or autograph with any celebrities), we went to the stage where he would be first anyway. There weren't many people there yet, so we decided to go in the Phantom Mineshaft. It was pretty scary, the most scary part was waiting for explosions and people to jump out at you. It was pretty good, though I think we laughed more than screamed, cause we heard lots of comments like "Stop Laughing", "Pretend to be scared at least", etc. Probably the best part was walking over this glass type thing with someone under it trying to get out, and just about when you step on it an explosive goes off.

We came out of there and noticed there was a small crowd near where the line would start to meet Mick. We walked over, and apparently these were very devoted fans as the staff allowed them to start a line, so we joined in. The staff really didn't want the line to start, as they wanted people to enjoy the rest of the park, but most people didn't want to take any chances. We soon were told that Mick's flight from New York to Boston had been cancelled due to fog. At first we weren't sure whether to believe this or not, but it did turn out to be true. One time we were told Mick was coming by limo, another time we were told he was driving. I have since found out from Cali at WBCN that Mick rented a car and started to drive to Foxboro, and Cali met Mick in Connecticut and brought him the rest of the way by limo. Mick signed for everyone! He did call in and let them know how far away he was. So basically from 5pm-6pm we waited in line to get in to SpookyWorld, and then from about 6:30pm-10:00pm we waited in line to see Mick. It was worth it of course, and I've stood in many lines before so it really didn't bother me. There was plenty of entertainment anyway, watching people try to win prizes next to us by shooting hoops (many people did win in fact), the characters that walk around constantly came by to see us, and of course wrestling fans grouped together talk wrestling. Now there is always one in the bunch, no matter what wrestling event it is, there is always someone who "knows" everything about wrestling and loves to continuously recite "facts". Some of these "facts" were kind of amusing, and I'm sure the wrestlers would get a good laugh at some of them. But most of the people were cool in fact. I mean, I've been watching wrestling since 1985 and I think I know quite a bit, but I do not at all pretend to be an expert. It's fun to talk "with" other fans, not "at" them. I've got to tell you that most people believe the person who ran over Stone Cold is Debra. It's also interesting to hear events that other people talk about and you're like "oh yeah, I totally forgot about that." The comments made by some of the characters that came by were quite funny, one lady who was an Elvira type (best way to describe her I guess, though she was in purple) said "Oh good, they've roped them up for me" (seeing we were standing in a line formed by ropes). Then she heard people talking about Mick's matches and she said "Did I hear someone mention there was going to be flying blood, where?". It was funny, and there are tons more stories like that, but I don't think they come across quite so good in writing (one of those "you had to be there" type deals). Many people stopped and asked what the line was for. One lady made a face and turned around real fast when we told her - guess she's too good for the wrestling crowd, lol. So anyway, there was drizzy and light rain for most of the wait, and while it was a long wait, it seemed to go by pretty fast. So finally Mick arrives and the place goes crazy! A large crowd had gathered in the front of the stage, while those who would get autographs were on the side of the stage. We were almost first in line, so got to go up very early, and while all the media were still there! In order to go up on the stage, you actually go behind a sort of wall, and then climb up some stairs and then you're on the side of the stage and you walk out in front of all the people. Then you exit on the other side of the stage. And you know the rest of the story, as I started at the top of the page where I left off here. I figured people wanted to hear about Mick first! After meeting Mick we went and enjoyed most of the rest of the park, and when walking by later, Mick was still signing autographs. I bet he stayed for everyone, but I'm not sure.

Mick arriving at SpookyWorld!

Mick making his way through the crowd!

Mick addressing the fans in Foxboro, MA! (cheap pop, lol)

In addition to Mick Foley, 4 other celebrities appeared at SpookyWorld on this night, including Lou Ferrigno, best known for starring in the TV Series "The Incredible Hulk". This is a show that used to be one of my favorites, so it was nice to get a chance to meet him. We talked for a bit, and I selected an 8x10 I wanted autographed. The other 3 celebrities were Dee Wallace (best known as a star of the "Cujo" and playing Elliot's Mom in "E.T."), Jack Donner ("Stigmata", "Escape from Hell Island", "Hotel", "Power Rangers in Space") and 1 other that I can't think of at the moment. These celebrities were located near the gift shop in sort of a private room. Their color 8x10s cost $15.00, while black and white 8x10s were $10.00. Because of that I only got 1 from Lou. We did however talk briefly to Dee Wallace, mostly about the beautiful Autumn foliage here in New England.

I also met Lou Ferrigno! Visit SpookyWorld.com

Holding the Autographs!

If you were at this event and have anything to contribute to this page, email me at gwd@nh.ultranet.com

Click here to visit "Mick Foley: Hardcore and More!!!", which has another fan's review of this event.