Hallloween

Happy Halloween!
Somehow it's the end of October already. As a kid I loved Halloween. Of course life was simpler then. We always made our own costumes from whatever we could find around the house. Cowboys and hobos were common ideas. (What kid would even know what hobo means today? When I think about that, it reminds me of stories that my mother-in-law has told me, about her mother feeding hobos during the depression. It's a word from our parents' youth, back in the thirties.) If we needed a moustache or beard my mother would find a cork, light it, let it burn a minute, then blow it out. With the blackened end she would draw the moustache and /or beard on our faces.

With a sister, friend or cousin we would set out with our pillow cases. As we got older we ventured farther and of course our parents had no idea where we were for all those hours. I remember being so exhausted. My legs felt that they might fall off and the pillow case was so heavy at the end of the night I could barely drag it along, much less carry it.

So I've always enjoyed Halloween; the candy and the costumes. It's really evolved over the years. This weekend talk shows on radio and tv have included discussions on creepy (scary) clowns, politically correct costumes etc. I won't waste much time on that except to say that I don't understand people who get pleasure in scaring and shocking people. There was a young man on radio last week who talked proudly about jumping out of bushes to scare people, even people in wheelchairs. I'm all in favour of folks having fun around Halloween but not at the expense of others.

In my youth the main decoration was a lit pumpkin. Now, of course houses are decorated, some weeks in advance, to get you in the mood. I enjoy walking around, seeing what people have put out. Here's one from our street a few years ago.

What I don't appreciate or understand is the notion of setting up fake graveyards on front lawns. Like the idea of zombies and zombie walks I simply don't get the notion of making fun of death. Death isn't funny. Cemeteries are not fun places. Death is final and sad. For anyone who has had a recent death in their family, for all the folks like our newest refugees, who are fleeing violence,  images of blood and gore and death are anything but entertaining.

Enough complaining already. It's time to put the final touches on our decorations out front. Here's an idea we picked up a few years ago. You collect cheese graters (available at all garage and rummage sales) and line them up along your walkway. Put tea lights in them to make a twinkling path. It's so simple but effective. People love it. The only problem is you have to store the cheese graters. That's just one of the reasons our basement is so darn full.