Monday, October 21, 2019

Monday, 10/21


Told you I was going to do it. So here's the photographic proof--



Yup; I touched the pumpkins on my way to the Farmer's Market Saturday, despite the signs telling me not to (for the whole explanation, just scroll back to Friday's entry). And now that I have that out of my system for another year, I've come to a strange realization--

Touching the pumpkin is actually how I now celebrate Halloween.

Halloween used to be a really big holiday in my little world. I would prepare for it by spending a week or two on the road begging for blood (or, as I always used to call it, “Pimping for Dracula”) and then spend the night itself carrying on a decades-long tradition of going over to my parents, getting dressed up, and trying to scare the crap out of neighborhood kids. But since we don’t do the blood drive anymore and since my parents moved and since it seems like kids really don’t go trick-or-treating door-to-door anymore anyway. . .well, Halloween’s just not that big of a deal any longer.

Because I live on the upper floors of a house-turned-apartment, we don’t get kids ringing the bell for candy, nor do we have any place to put any kind of decorations. Since my nieces have grown I don’t get them visiting and showing me their costumes. Speaking of dressing up, I suppose I could always put on a costume and head out to some sort of Halloween party, but not when the holiday on a Thursday, like this year. In fact, the closest I’ll probably come to celebrating Halloween at all is to slip in the disc of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and watch it.

That is, of course, assuming I can find the time. And the DVD.

I’m not trying to be a Halloween Scrooge, or anything. I know a lot of people are really into celebrating the season; after all, it’s the holiday on which people spend the most money, following Christmas. And I have to admit I enjoy walking home on a crisp fall night seeing carved pumpkins glowing in the dark, and then walking to work the next morning seeing those same pumpkins smashed to bits and thrown into the street. And I certainly appreciate all the work local groups put into various haunted houses, bog walks, Spectacles, and other Halloween activities.

But to me, it’s no longer that big of a deal. It’s sad, but true. Maybe I HAVE become a Halloween Scrooge. Even if that’s the case, though, I hope that YOU get to do everything you want in the next ten days--costumes, parties, pumpkin carving, and, of course, “sampling” as much Halloween candy as you can.

After all, that’s the part of the holiday that even a Halloween Scrooge can enjoy!



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