Posted tagged ‘Halloween’

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“But I love Halloween, and I love that feeling: the cold air, the spooky dangers lurking around the corner.”

October 31, 2013

It happened: my Red Sox won the World Series last night in splendid fashion. They led the whole game. I, however, still had clenched teeth until that last out at the top of the ninth. I was so excited I stayed up until after two and watched all the festivities. How could I not? It was spectacular.

The morning was sunny, lovely and warm but since then the sun has been replaced by clouds, and the day is getting darker. I don’t mind. Halloween should be dark and even a bit scary.

I can remember the Halloween excitement from the moment I woke up and remembered what day it was. Having to sit in school for so long was pure torture. At lunch and recess all we talked about was what we were going as. It was never what we were wearing. It was always what we were going as. We were, for one night, witches or ghosts or pirates. I can remember hounding my mother to let us start trick or treating as soon as it got dark. She always said it was too early. We’d look out the picture window hoping to see a trick or treater, a sign it was finally time. Some years my brother and I would go together. We were adventurous spirits who would roam all over town. I can still see in my mind’s eye the sidewalk covered with yellow leaves and here and there bright circles of light from the street lamps. The houses always had their porch lights on as invitations for us to stop. Those were the days of small trick or treat bags filled with individual candies. The lady, never a man, would come to the door, open it a bit and give us a bag from the pile on the table beside the door. If it was a neighbor, she’d try to guess who we were. It was never really very difficult, but the best neighbors always pretended it was. We’d finish the neighborhood then branch out to streets around where we lived then we’d even go further afield. I remember a house where we once got an apple, never a favorite treat, but it had a nickel pushed into the skin as the real surprise. Sometimes the candy bags had a penny or two, and back then pennies still had great value. As the night wore on, we’d see fewer and fewer trick or treaters and fewer lit houses. We knew then it was time to head home.

The haul was always important, but the best part of Halloween was being out at night when the shadows of bare branches looked like hands reaching out to grab us and when we’d hear footsteps behind us and be a little afraid to look. We sometimes scared each other, and I remember laughing while my heart raced just a bit from the fright.

We always walked home slowly making the night last as long as we could.

Categories: Musings
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“October proved a riot to the senses and climaxed those giddy last weeks before Halloween.”

October 26, 2013

Today is Saturday, really bad movie day. I am watching Spaceflight IC-1 made in 1965. A spaceship with families, including children, is going to a new Earth with the original name Earth 2. The ship is enormous. The kids sleep in a huge room with bunk beds and a small classroom. They fall asleep to a holograph of Ho Ho the Clown telling them a story. The crew couples have individual rooms bigger than bedrooms in some apartments. Each crew member wears a tag designating his/her responsibility, just in case anyone forgets. They have a head in a box, an electronic crew member, and a few other members of the expedition who are being kept in stasis. Right now the doctor is telling his wife the doctor she has a pancreatic infection. Her response, “Oh!” I have little hope the rest of the movie will get any better.

The nights are cold. Last night got down to the low 40’s, and the house was chilly when I woke up. I turned on the heat. I guess we’re officially into the time of year when the sun just isn’t enough anymore. I’m wearing a sweatshirt.

Back when we were kids, we’d probably have spent this week figuring out what we’d be wearing for Halloween. Because we never had store-bought costumes, we had to rummage through our imaginations and the house for something to wear. One year my sister was a ballerina and wore a tutu she had worn at her dance recital, but it wasn’t as easy for the rest of us. My mother would sometimes buy us masks, and we’d build our costumes around them, but I never really like the full-faced masks. I couldn’t see through the eyes too well, and the masks were hot and I’d get sweaty. The Lone Ranger type mask was my favorite.

I really don’t remember many of the costumes I managed to cobble together. I know I was a ghost, a cowgirl, a monster with blood on my face and a hobo with a pack. My mother made up our faces, and I do remember hobo stubble. We usually had paper trick or treat bags but when we got older we went to pillow slips. The best part of the night was getting home, grabbing a bowl and going through my haul. The apples went into the fridge. We’d trade candy and eat as much as we wanted. We’d even stay up late as we didn’t have school the next day. It was All Saint’s Day though the saints took second fiddle. I have always associated All Saint’s Day with Hershey Bars and bubble gum.

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“There is something haunting in the light of the moon.”

October 31, 2012

I know you didn’t expect this to be here today, it being Wednesday and all, but it’s Halloween so I just had to post. I figure I’ll take tomorrow off instead of today.

I never understood why we were forced to go to school on Halloween. It always seemed like some sort of a sacrilege. I’d be at my desk during silent reading, but the book was always the last thing on my mind. I’d be daydreaming instead. I’d be thinking about nighttime and trick or treating. During recess that’s all we talked about: what we’d be wearing, what houses gave the best candy and how late we could stay out. The clock seemed never to move that day.

At home, we wanted to get dressed, but my mother always made us wait. She’d tell us it was way too early. She’s even make us eat dinner. I remember it took forever to get dark. I’d look out the window hoping to see a trick or treater so I could say to my mother, “See, I told you so,” but finally she’d tell us to go put on our costumes. We’d run upstairs and be dressed in a heartbeat. Our costumes were usually homemade as we couldn’t afford the ones from Woolworth’s, but we never minded. My mother put together great costumes, and she always bought us new masks. We were hobos with black beards on our faces, ghosts in sheets or cowboys and cowgirls. My sisters tended toward ballerinas: they were far prissier than I. We’d start out in our own neighborhood then branch out to the nearby streets. Our bags would get heavier and heavier, but we didn’t stop. We’d head further afield. The house across from the First National gave out nickel candy bars. That was always an important stop. We hated apples except for the one or two with coins stuck in them. Back then, we’d get lots of small bags decorated with witches and pumpkins. The tops were twisted so the candy wouldn’t fall out. They’d be filled with candy corn or M&M’s. As the night got older, fewer kids were about and the outside lights were turned off so we knew when it was time to head home. I remember walking on sidewalks filled with leaves and how dark it was except under the street lights, but we were never scared. We just took our time and munched candy all the way home.

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“Yes, my dear child, monsters are real. I happen to have one hanging in my basement.”

October 6, 2012

Today is a lovely day, sunny and warm; however, it’s a teaser. Tomorrow will be in the 50’s and tomorrow night in the 40’s. I figure days and nights so cold this time of year are just promos getting us ready for what’s to come. In a few months, the 50’s will seem a heat wave.

I bought a zombie. He is crawling out of the hearth, and when he senses movement, his eyes turn red and he makes horrific noises. The first couple of days after his arrival I jumped when I noticed him out of the corner of my eye, but now he and I are on good terms. Yesterday he was joined by the mummy’s hand and a bat. The hand moves.

I have boxes of Halloween decorations which I’ll bring up this week to turn my house into a monster fest. My favorites are the rats, the disgusting rats, and they always have a prominent spot in my living room. When I was a little kid, it was witches and ghosts which haunted my Halloweens, but now it’s rats, giant crows and zombies.

I was never an easily scared kid mostly because I didn’t believe in monsters under the bed or ghosts, but strange noises in the dark of night gave me pause. I’d hear the wind blowing the leaves on a bush, and my imagination would take hold, and I’d conjured the man with the hook, the one my father told me about, the one who stayed with me for years. He could have been real. I knew ghosts weren’t, but a man with a hook for a hand could have been.

I remember calling out to the sound, “Hello, anyone there?” and I remember hoping with every fiber of my being that no one was there. I don’t know what I would have done if I ever got an answer. Besides, what would he say? “Yes, hello, I’m here. It’s me, the man with the hook, and I’m coming after you.”

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“All the candy corn that was ever made was made in 1911.”

November 3, 2011

The day is lovely but not as warm as predicted. I suppose I ought not to complain, but I was expecting a bask in the sun sort of day.

Miss Gracie woke me up at three this morning when I heard her swallowing over and over. I figured she didn’t feel good. Sure enough, she got off the bed and went downstairs. A few minutes later, the poochie bells on the back door rang so I went downstairs to let her out. I waited a bit but got cold so I went upstairs to get some warmer clothes on. While I was upstairs, she came inside so I had to trudge back downstairs and shut the door. Around 4, I heard her again get off the bed and go downstairs. Then I heard something fall. I went to look and found Gracie had tried to eat one of the plants, and it had fallen on the floor when she pulled at it. What to do? What to do? I decided to cut off some spears of my spider plant to feed to her. I tried to leave them on the floor, but she couldn’t get at them. There I was at 4:15 feeding my dog spider plants to quell her queasy stomach. She finished around 4:30, and we both went back to bed and neither one of us woke up until 9:30. I would have thought the least she could have done was make the coffee.

My mother used to give us each a bowl for our Halloween candy. We’d dump the candy in it then go through the haul and check every small treat bag to see what could be traded or what we didn’t want which we’d then toss in the trash. Apples and some candy corn were among the rejects though my mother usually grabbed the apples. Yellow candy corn was just too sweet, even for a kid. I was a brown candy corn fan. Popcorn balls were tossed as was loose popcorn.

There was a hierarchy of Halloween treats. Once in a while I’d find a penny or a nickel, and it was prized above all else. Next in the hierarchy was the nickel candy bar. A Three Muskeeters bar was common back then. Last in the hierarchy was all the rest.

My mother let us put the bowls under our beds, and we could munch whenever we wanted. The day after Halloween we never had school so we’d munch treats most of the day. It was a taste of paradise on Earth before the fall.

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“Visitor’s footfalls are like medicine; they heal the sick.”

November 1, 2011

This morning it was dark when I heard the blasted alarm ring. All of a sudden I flashed back to those working days when I got up at 5 or 5:15 every day. It was a daymare. This morning, though, it was so I could get Francisca to the bus stop to catch the bus to the airport. Her five-day visit finished in a flash.

Last night I had more trick or treaters than I can remember in years, and Francisca came to the door every time so she could see all the costumes. She was also the official dog holder as Gracie was more than willing to join any of the groups of kids. Gracie was sporting her new Halloween collar, a gift from my friend Clare. She looked quite festive in orange and black with a row of pumpkins, ghosts and witches circling her neck. I wore my wizard’s hat which played Ghouls Just Want to Have fun as the tip of the cap moved back and forth in time. I had bought Francisca a small witch’s hat as a surprise and she wore it all evening.

The house still smells of last night’s dinner, the leftover FraFra meal from Sunday. It was even more delicious last night than the first time. Watching Francisca eat was like being back in Ghana. She used her hand and scooped everything including the rice. I’m good with the t-zed, but I’m not so good with the jollof rice. I don’t tend to get it in enough of a ball, and it all falls apart before I can eat it. Ghanaians eat the bones, and Francisca finished off the Guinea fowl bones while I ate more than my share of the leftover meat. Gracie got the skin and, believe me, giving it to her was a sacrifice on my part.

The day is dark and cloudy and has nothing whatsoever to commend it. It feels damp. I sat and waited with Francisca until the bus came as Africans are not lovers of the cold. She bundles up for any temperature below 70°.

It seemed so wonderfully strange to have one of my students here. Never would I have envisioned it when last I saw them in 1971. Francisca’s elder sister Bea will be in Canada soon for her daughter’s wedding, and Francisca is helping Bea to get a visa to visit the US after the wedding and is hoping that she and Bea can visit. What an amazing gift that would be for me.

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“You dirty, double-crossing rat.”

October 22, 2011

This is one of those the house is colder than outside sort of morning. I put on my sweatshirt, roused Gracie, slipped my feet into warm slippers and came downstairs. The temperature is 58°, a lot cooler than the last few days. I’m glad I put in the storm door.

I’m watching 1933’s The Ghoul. It’s has all the wonderful characteristics those old horror movies always have. Two women have spent a great deal of the film screaming or swooning. The female star managed both, one after the other. I guess it was that dual combination ability which boosted her to stardom. She was, of course, carried away from danger by the tall, dark and handsome hero wearing a dark suit, complete with vest. The butler was eerie, the  house was dark and the Ghoul was Boris Karloff.

The paper today had an article about black cats and how people are reluctant to adopt them. All the other cats go first. A woman has started a black cat rescue group to change this and has managed to place several. Maddie, my great mouser, is a black cat. I never thought about superstition when I adopted her and Fern. Maddie is just my black cat.

My house is totally decorated for Halloween. Monsters sit on shelves and on the mantle. Creatures howl and scream when touched. A cemetery with stones, statues and a mausoleum is laid out on the table. A few rats and a vulture are also on that table. The rats are disgusting looking with their teeth and claws showing. I find them repulsive which is what makes them perfect for Halloween so out they come every year. A little mouse doesn’t bother me. It borders on cute, but there is nothing cute about a rat. I remember a few years ago when I was sitting in a well-known Boston bakery having coffee and pastry when a rat ran by my table. A chill went up my back, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if a pack had followed in a wave, then attacked in unison and eaten me and my pastry. Rats are like that.

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“Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen, Voices whisper in the trees, ‘Tonight is Halloween!'”

October 31, 2010

I am behind my time today. Yesterday we went on the Boston movie tour and the day was long and tiring so this morning I slept in later than I usually do. The tour was great fun, and we got to see where scenes from several of the movies were filmed. We even stopped at the L Street Tavern, seen in Good Will Hunting, for a drink. When the tour was over, we had a late afternoon lunch in a restaurant in my old home town. Afterwards, I gave my friend a tour of all the places she’d read about in my blog.

Tonight I’ll join forces with my friends to give out treats. They’ve invited me for dinner, and later in the evening we’ll watch The Amazing Race.

I remember how on Halloween we could hardly wait until dark or even nearly dark. We’d beg and beg my mother to let us start trick or treating, but she’d tell us it was too early. We knew she was wrong. After all, she was an adult and she had no idea. We’d look out the window hoping to see a kid in costume so we could say, “See, they’re already out,” to my mother as admonishment for holding us back when other mothers were obviously far more understanding. When she finally did let us loose, we’d do our neighborhood first then branch out to the streets all around.

The night always seemed filled with shadows. Moonlight highlighted the outlines of branches so they looked like arms waving across the sidewalks. Leaves blew. Some neighborhoods were darker than others. Most of the front doors were open and the porch lights lit. The old neighborhood ladies always tried to guess who we were. It was part of their fun. They oohed and ahed the costumes and pretended to be afraid. We’d eat part of our haul as we walked, and we’d sometimes trade candy with one another. When we noticed fewer and fewer trick or treaters, we knew it was time to head home.

Once we got home, my mother would give us each a bowl for our hauls. We’d check out the candy, have a bar or two then go to bed and fall asleep exhausted by Halloween.

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“Where there is no imagination there is no horror.”

October 30, 2010

The cold is back. The days are autumn cool, but the nights are downright chilly, blanket on the bed chilly. Yesterday was so windy yellow oak leaves now dot the deck and the lawn is hidden under pine needles. Some trees along the roads are down to bare branches. They look desolate. They look like winter.

Once in a while a memory from Ghana pops into my head. Today I remembered the Chinese restaurant, the only one in the city back then. It was a long way from the center of town. Taxi rides used to cost only 20 pesewas no matter where in the city of Accra you wanted to go, but the Chinese restaurant was a cedi away, a whole 100 pesewas. It doesn’t sound like much money but for us it was.

The restaurant seating was mostly outside. The tables had real tablecloths, and the Ghanaian waiters wore short black jackets over white shirts which made the restaurant seem fancier than it was. The Chinese food was different but it was delicious. For some reason I remember a lot of peas and fried rice.

We never celebrated Halloween in Ghana. The volunteers in my region were spread thinly, and we didn’t get together much as the travel time was too long, and we were teaching. My only acknowledgments of the holiday were some Halloween cards my mother had sent. They were on display on my bookcase. My students, who would often visit in the evening, checked them out and wanted to know what Halloween was. I tried to describe it. They were most impressed with the trick or treat and candy part.

On Halloween there was a knock at my door. Three of my students were there and they yelled, “Trick or treat,” when I opened the door. Luckily I had peppermint candies which I offered. Each of my students took one, said, “Thank you, madam,” then left. Halloween was over.

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“When witches go riding, and black cats are seen/the moon laughs and whispers, ‘tis near Halloween.”

October 29, 2010

Yesterday was warm but sunless. The sky was light gray and cloudy. The mid-cape highway was foggy. Some of the bridges and low lying spots had disappeared, swallowed by the fog. Nothing was ahead of me but thick banks of gray. I thought it was perfect weather for a few days before Halloween. I wouldn’t have been surprised if something had lunged out at me of the fog. When I crossed the bridge, I couldn’t see the canal. There was just thick fog. As I got further away from the Cape, the clouds started to disappear and the day got warmer. Boston was beautiful. It was sunny and warm with temperatures close to 80°. On the way home, close to the Sagamore bridge, the fog reappeared, the sky went gray and it sprinkled a bit.

Today is colder than it has been all week. Tonight will be in the 30’s.

We kids who went to Catholic schools had extra holidays though I suppose calling them holy days would be more accurate. All Saints’ Day was a favorite of ours, and it had nothing to do with religion. It was the day after Halloween. We got to trick or treat later, stay up well beyond our usual bedtimes and devour all that candy without having to worry about school the next day. Mass was a small price to pay for all that.

When I was a kid, some people handed out individual candies in small trick or treat bags twisted at the top. We always thought they were the cheapskates who bought just one bag of candy and divided it. The best hauls were five cent bars, but they were a rarity. Apples were the worst except for the house where they always stuck a nickle in the apple. We tended to toss all the apples as too heavy and unwanted. Once in a while we’d get homemade cookies decorated like ghosts or witches. We usually ate those to save them from getting broken. They also fortified us for the rest of the journey.

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