October 31, 2022 ~ Monday (night/10:46 pm)
I should be in bed. There, I said it. I’ve been thinking it for the past hour but something is gnawing at me. I am unsettled. Perhaps it was that today was Halloween … and so unlike the “old” Halloweens of years past. How I miss them!
Today was a beautiful day in Denver … 67°, sunny, a slight breeze. A true TREAT. I think back on the years when the kids were young and it always seemed that Halloween was cold. As in FRIGID. As in make sure their costumes fit over their parkas or snowsuits! I remember one year driving the kids from house to house in our neighborhood … I think we made five houses and then we went home to thaw out and drink hot cider.
This year there were no trick or treaters … NONE. That wasn’t much different from other years, though. I’ve never lived where costumed groups of kids would be ringing doorbells. Well, some – but not many. When I lived by the park, our street had only five houses – a park across the street, a pond and a school. No one wanted to come our way – too remote. My neighbors and I would count how many kids we’d have come by … it was a treat for us to hand out candy to six kids … four of them being our own! When I lived in Illinois, I was across from the cemetery … and only my neighbor’s toddlers came by so I usually went over to my parents’ who seemed to have hordes of kids … witches, pirates, ghouls. Such fun! On the island everyone around me was ancient and asleep before 7pm! And here? The only ones possibly ringing my doorbell would be the local homeless. I turned off my light early.
And, horrors! I didn’t even put costumes on the dogs this year. The dog costumes (and my stash of socks) are somewhere in with my things stored. And, I thought it kind of silly just to torture the animals in costumes just so I could laugh for a few minutes (at their expense)!
But, how I miss the days of yore! And the days of gore!
When my kids were little (elementary aged), we had parties every Halloween. I loved it! I’d spend all week prior to the day thinking up an indoor scavenger hunt … finding prizes to put at the end of the strings that I wove into a giant spider web in the living room – each kid getting the end of one string … they’d have to go up and under, all at the same time, winding up their black yarn strings to get their prizes. It was like a 3-D Twister game!
We played spooky music and had cauldrons of dry ice “fog” … ice hands (gloves filled with water and then frozen) were the ice cubes in the punch. Chocolate cupcakes with gummy worms crawling out of them awaited small hands – along with other treats, popcorn and candy.
We had costume contests … we played “Hot Potato” but with a skull or stuffed ghost or bat … the kids wrapped up partners with toilet paper/the first “mummy” covered from head to toe won. We made mazes to crawl through and made up creepy stories and passed around “body parts” (grapes for eyeballs, spaghetti for intestines, etc.) … all so ghoulish!
And then the kids would go out trick or treating. We let them loose out into the neighborhood – never fearing that a pedophile would be lurking nearby. Never worrying that a neighbor would poison our children. Never worrying that they’d be harmed or get into trouble or not be safe – at any time.
I was talking with a friend today and she said that her grandkids don’t know what a “real” Halloween is. Not like what we had as kids … not what our kids had as kids. And that was sobering and dismaying … and a bit sad.
I’m so out of touch with what this day means anymore … I’m hoping it is better for all these younger kids than what I’m thinking.
But then, as the evening wears down, I think of November – which will be arriving in 57 minutes and I let out a contented sigh. I do NOT know where October went … or June through September for that matter … but I am certainly happy that November is upon us.
Ahh, November.
I think it might just be my favorite month (at least in the top three). I am of Pilgrim stock … and maybe it’s in my genes … but I like that there is no glitz or glamour … no gifts or costumes … no changing of decorations or seasons. Thanksgiving comes at the end of the month – a final hurrah to my favorite season, Autumn. And, it is a time for settling in. It is Mother Nature’s way of telling us to breathe it all in. Cherish what is. Prepare. Fill our souls with quiet.
November seems to give us a breather … in between the heat of summer and the cold of winter … between the busyness of summer and the sometimes hectic nature of the holidays. I feel it gives us … almost makes us … slow down.
It’s a month for breathing in the crisp air … for watching the squirrels find treasures and then bury them/all the time with their fluffed out, question-marked tails twitching. The last of the leaves, the ones holding on tightly to be the last one, slowly flutter to the ground … filter through nearly bare branches and join their buddies in piles at the base of the trunks. I will never get enough of Autumn’s carpet.
This is the time of year when I want to cozy in. I read more. I write more. I eat more. Not necessarily in that order – or as a good thing! But, it’s a time when I take a step back and just let it all soak in. I take deeper breaths. I sleep more. I look at the sky more. It’s almost a primal thing … like some ancestral, primitive chord starts strumming inside of me – telling me to hunker down … slow down … relax … savor.
And then, there’s Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday – by far. Oh, yeah, I love Christmas and the winter holidays with their glitz, glitter and glamour … but I really love Thanksgiving with its simplicity and meaning. What’s not to love about being grateful and thankful and (hopefully) sharing time with those you love and who mean the most to you?
But, that is 24 days from now … I have over three full weeks before the turkeys are roasting or (if I’m lucky enough, the wild ones are gobbling outside my windows as they have in the past!) … where I can enjoy cozy sweaters … the waning sunlight of a crisp afternoon … the honking of geese as they fly overhead, their V formations filling the sky … the gray stillness of a local pond … mournful train whistles … and chimney smoke that lingers and tickles the nose.
The colors are more muted in November … all the splash of October is past. What color is left is softer and one leaf blends in with another that blends in with a still blooming flower or seed pod or grass stalk and it’s this soft blur of nature … a landscape awash in monochromatic watercolors.
I might miss the old days of the fun and noisy Halloweens … but I know when November comes around each year, the days will be the same – always.
Lovely, peaceful and comforting.