Halloween

It's that time of year! You know that I love Fall. I'm sorta indifferent about Halloween, though. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not into scary stuff and the things like zombies and horror movies or if it creeps me out that people get all fascinated with blood, guts, eyeballs, big rats, and spiders; or maybe it's because I'm not sure that it's "right" for me to be involved with "dark" things. I think my mind works differently from most people's. I can remember almost every single word to almost every single scary story from "Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark" by Alvin Schwartz. Straight up remember. Like I didn't google that dude's name and the title of the book. The illustrations were insanely creepy. It was published in 1981 (I did google that part, I'm not that big of a dork), and it was a staple in my Elementary school library for the whole time I was there. So, what did I do? I checked it out. More than once. The librarian may have had to gotten a new card to put in the back of the book because my name was on it so many times. There was a second book, I frequented it as well. What the crap was my problem? Why did I keep reading something that scared me to death? My parents are reading this and are realizing why I felt the need to sleep with them forever and why I was scared of my shadow. Have I mentioned that the illustrations were insanely creepy????!!!! From time to time, I still think about those scary stories...and secretly hope that the library has wised up and banned the book - since they were re-released in 2011 for the 30th anniversary (thanks, Google). I so don't want my kids to read them. I'm scarred for life!!! Although, apparently, the new illustrations in the 2011 version have been ridiculed because they didn't reach the same level of creepiness as the originals. Read: kids can get them out of their minds. Might I also add that my 4th grade teacher had them on LP. Yeah, a record player, people, I'm old, remember? The dude who did the voice, well, I think it was voiced by Satan himself. His voice was unbelievably scary as heck. I need to find a new word for scary, because I'm overusing, but this is for real.

Here's the cover....Aren't y'all freaked out???!!!!

 

Okay...so, now that y'all know this book wrecked my life, and my friends who love the macabre have probably read some of the stories and are howling with laughter at me because they just don't find them scary at all, I will tell you about my good memories of Halloween.

 

Halloween as I was growing up was pretty awesome. Total, quintessential 1980s Trick or Treating. You really don't get any better. Early 80s, we all wore those masks, those hard plastic masks that pretty much smothered you and just had two little holes cut out so you could (sort of) breathe, and there was a rubber band that went around the back of  your head to hold it on. It always got stuck in your hair and ripped big clumps of it out. You know you remember :) As the 80s progressed, my cousin and I were the same thing for a couple of years in a row. A punk rocker. I think we just liked spraying that color in our hair and spiking it all over the place. I was a cat one year with a big sweet outfit with a tail and everything. That was legit. Good stuff. I always remember not having a big deal costume. It was always just kinda last minute hodgepodged, rushing to get ready after my parents got off work. I tell you this to begin to tell you my favorite part. It's not macabre, it's not ghoulish, it's not scary. It's lovely, actually.

 

My goal for my children is to always feel surrounded by love and fun. I want them to always, always, always know that we care about them deeply. I want us to spend as much time with them as we can, in any way that we can. I want them to think of their childhoods and immediately feel like they are being hugged. Well, Halloween nights were one of these times when I was growing up, you know, before events began to get in the way and Halloween wasn't what it once was. We would always gather at my Aunt & Uncle's house. My cousins and I would put on our costumes while our parents prepared dinner. It was typically chili or soup, something warm and Fall-ish. Until my cousins moved, they lived in the absolute perfect Trick-or-Treat neighborhood. We would eat and take off, as a family, over the hill and go door to door, street to street, with all of the neighborhood kids. Some years we would begin by going to our grandparents house and getting a ton of candy. There was also one lady's house that we went every year that gave a popcorn ball. Then, I was like 'what the crap is that'? Now, I'd be like, 'score'! One year we went to a shindig at the church because it was raining. I won a prize for winning a game that year :) My ultimate favorite part was when trick or treating was over. My cousins and I would sit in the den floor and pour out all of our candy. We would categorize it (aaah....OCD, even then), and swap out things we liked and didn't like...and joke on the people who gave us raisins. My boy cousin was older than us, so he would usually be knocking down the door to play ATARI while we were sharing candy :)  Those years, looking back, they meant a lot to me. I love that I have those memories. I love what those years meant to me as a little kid. My family probably never knew that those few hours on that one night per year made me feel so loved and so carefree. I'm sure then that I griped about my costume not being "the right thing", or being mad that I had to go to popcorn ball lady's house because she would try to talk to us and slow us down, or that the adults took too long to eat the chili and all the good candy was gonna be gone. I also know that I cried my eyes out because the Parsons' had this scary voice, scary music, and strobe light coming from their house and I got all hysterical and made my dad carry me (greater than one time). See, I've always hated scary. All of these things to say, I hope that we can shape beautiful memories for our children like these. Something that they can look back and say to themselves, 'wow....those were the days! I was so loved'!

 

Here's hoping that everyone has a Happy Halloween. Scary is over-rated anyway. Enjoy the princesses, the My Little Ponies, and the animals. It's okay to bring a little sunshine and rainbows to the "dark" day :) :)