I really do! I've talked about how much I love the fall and all the memories of going to the mountains - going to the Apple Festival, taking in the scenery, and visiting the Christmas shop. But I also have some really fond memories of Halloween. First of all, I never had a store-bought costume, but I don't ever remember wanting one. I had so much fun coming up with an idea and watching my mom (who is too crafty for her own good) execute it perfectly. This started with the jack-o-lantern costume she made me when I was just six months old and continued at least through elementary school - I remember being an Indian, a black cat, and a baton twirling girl (my grandmother bought me a baton that year and I thought it was the coolest thing ever) among other things.
I remember trick-or-treating with my cousins, school parties, haunted houses, and even a party or two my mom let me have here. There were fall festivals at school, church, and my best friend's grandparent's farm with hayrides, games, and ghost stories. It was just such a great time and as a kid, it's good wholesome fun, time with family and friends that you don't think twice about. I'd do anything to be that innocent again! As I got older, Halloween sort of lost its fun. I think I dressed up once when I was in college (as a zombie Stepford wife), but Halloween parties at that age are just like any other party. Last year was a bit of a downer - I was working evenings in coffee shop to earn some extra money and I had to work until 6:30 that night (we had candy but we had maybe four trick-or-treaters), and after that my mom called to tell me that she and my aunt found my uncle dead in his home.
This year, I find myself getting back into the spirit of things. I just can't find an outlet for it! I'd planned to decorate my cute little historic downtown home for the fall, but as we all know, that's not an option now. Even at school, in almost every class I work in, there are one or two kids who's parents ruin it for the rest of the class by not allowing them to do a lot of Halloween-type activities. I think Halloween would be a lot more fun if I had a kid or two, but that's just going to have to wait!
I'm hoping next fall things might be a little better. I did go through my Netflix list and move all the scary movies to the top (just got "The Happening" today!) and I bought some caramel to make apples next week. I will at some point watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special (if you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan), and who knows, maybe I'll sit around on Halloween night and wait for the Great Pumpkin myself...
Oh yeah, and I'm probably going to take a little political break this weekend, so if I do post, it'll be more boring post like these that no one's going to read ;-)
2 comments:
If you need an outlet you can come help me decorate. I'm so bummed I can't have the super fab party I envisioned that I'm not even in the mood.
I noticed your fondness of Charlie Brown. Pat likes Charlie Brown, too and hopefully we will get to watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special this year. I always got a kick out of Snoopy and the Red Baron.
I have some very fond memories of Halloween as a kid growing up in Grand River, Iowa. Grand River is a really small town located about 60 miles south of Des Moines and 120 miles north of Kansas City. When I took Pat there for the first time about four years ago, she was pleasantly surprised. There were more than cornfields.
What was neat about Halloween back when I was a kid, we had a tradition, where we trick or treated two nights (the night before Halloween and on Halloween). This allowed up to use a system. We would hit one side of town on one night, and hit the other side the next. But in reality, Grand River is so small you could hit the whole town in a couple hours, if you really tried.
One thing about living in a small rural midwestern town back then, we believed in traditions and held on to them dearly. I think that is why I can relate to older people better than I can younger people, because of my love for traditions.
One tradition we had in the small towns from where I grew up, and Grand River was no exception, was the "gremlins" would come out on Halloween.
This was when outhouses, and we had a few in town when I was growing up, would get tipped over, or windows would get soaped up.
Everyone knew there would be gremlins and were prepared for them, but no one got hurt and nothing was permanently destroyed.
However chickens would somehow find their way from their pens and end up in the school buses.
A cow would find its way into town and end up getting tied up to the door of the post office.
All was funny, and I'm not admitting to anything, because the gremlin tradition started dying off (sort of) when I got into high school.
But the classic gremlin moment happened in the late 60's. By golly, it was such a classic, it was even the Leon Journal Reporter reported it, with pictures even.
The gremlins took a grain elevator and placed it against Van Ritchie's store. Then the took someone's outhouse, slid it up the elevator to the top of the store; then, the took Harry Cofey's goat, led it up the elevator and tied it to the outhouse.
Even Van, who was a dear and kindly soul, got a kick out of it. I never heard how Harry took it. He thought highly of his goats.
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