November 01st, 2021

Happy Halloween!  Well yesterday was All Hallow's Eve. So Happy Halloween Yesterday.

Did you get any Trick-or-Treaters at your house?  We had Zero. None.  So disappointing. I knew we probably wouldn't get the masses of kids we used to get (even here!) but none at all?  Awwwww ;(

I think it's especially disappointing after last year when nobody had nothin' ever!    Bummer.

But of course Halloween isn't what it was when I was a kid. Heck, it's not what it is when my kids were kids!  (that's how freakin' hold I am! - Geez)  But things change.  That's just life. And for the newest generation, it's no big deal. They've never known anything else.  So every time I think, "what a shame" I have to remember that it's not a loss for them, only for me. And I already got to experience it. So truly, it's not a loss at all. It's a memory. My memory.  And since I'm pretty old and out of style,  I guess my childhood memories are too.  Maybe kids today wouldn't get to excited about the things we used to do?  Ah well.  They will make their own way with new fashioned ideas. And that's fine too.

The picture at the top of the page here, is something I found in someone's yard when I was taking a walk!  I have never seen such a clever Halloween Decoration before.  It was in this massive shrub in the center of their front yard.  Somehow they laced firmly into place within that shrub first the giant fake sunflowers.  Then they attached the plastic skulls to the sunflowers.  Wow!  Creative and creepy both.  

I think part of what makes it extra creepy is that sunflowers are such happy things.  They are so bright and sunshiney with their  faces turned toward the light :)  And then to put an icky spooky skull in the middle of it?  Yeah, extra creepy.  But that's the fun of halloween.  It's the occasion when gross and scary are twisted in a way that's fun and  at least a little scary.  

I know little kids were still celebrating Halloween somewhere, perhaps at parties instead of going door to door?  And they still dressed up like ghosts and goblins and witches  and monsters.....  Well also princesses and unicorns and clowns (which are dang creepy all on their own) and bunny rabbits most of which aren't scary at all.  I know of one little kid who wanted to dress up like the guys on his favourite TV show, S.W.A.T.  Scary!  But fun :)

Somewhere in town, I think it was church affiliated, they did a Trunk or Treat for the kiddos.  Loads of people drove their cars to an empty lot and parked with their car trunks facing each other  with a large aisle in between.  Then they decorated the open trunks. I mean Decorated with a Capital D!!! It was really impressive.  And once it was all set up and ready, the costumed kiddos went from car trunk to car trunk, where the parents were also costumed, and collected their sugary loot.  They still sort of had the trick-or-treat experience.  It was a creative solution.  I have to applaud that.

There were a few places here and there that had Old Time Halloween Related festivities.  Things like hay rides and corn mazes (both regular and haunted), hot cocoa and donuts and cider and jack-o-lantern making stations,  petting zoo's and bouncy houses.  Actually the bounce house idea wasn't around when I was a kid.  Dang, I missed out on that one!   

You know what? Now that I think about it, the "Pumpkin Patches" where those events take place are pretty darned popular. So maybe my old Halloween memories aren't as out of style as I thought.  Old New Style Halloween!

Hope yours was a good one :)