How I Love Halloween

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I suppose I am still a child at heart as I still LOVE Halloween. I get the house decorated with lots of decorations in early October and most of the decorating takes place on the huge front porch of my 100 year old house. I have lived in this old house now for 20 years and the porches are what sold me as they add so much character, we have three porches in total and they are not only a great place to decorate for the holidays but also a great place for family gatherings, surprise parties, and relaxing, The one that I relax on most is off my kitchen and is screened where I sit and read on my wicker furniture, with my cats who lay on the railings watching the birds and squirrels in the 100 year old hemlock pines that line the back yard, The cats enjoy sunbathing here while I am enjoying my morning coffee, and my dinner in the evening. There is another porch under this one that is also screened and goes into the back yard where underneath the hemlocks grows lots of English Ivy and not much else as the hemlocks shade the area and are constantly dropping needles into the soil making it to shady and the soil is very acidic which makes it hard to grow most plants, even grass does not grow here but I have found out that poison ivy thrives here along with the ivy. Off this porch in my woodsy back yard where I like to make my Halloween graveyard.

My boys are all grown now with lives of their own and I miss the Halloween parties and parades from their younger years and the adventures of going door to door with them in their favorite costumes and hearing them saying Trick Or Treat and watching their faces light up with delight when they received their treats from the kind people behind those closed doors.

I have spider webs with spiders, lots of pumpkins and scarecrows, skeletons, a huge life size Frankenstein who sets in the porch swing, a large witch flying with the moon behind her that hangs on the wall of the front porch, a lighted tombstone,a little ghost who is so darling, who is child sized that sits by the front door and of course a fog machine, along with various monster heads that are motion activated that scream,laugh eerily or wail when the kids come to the door where when they step on the doormat, it makes screaming noises, we also play some spooky Halloween music to set the mood and they absolutely love it. There are kids from years ago, some of who now are parents of their own children who tell us how much they loved to visit my house for Halloween as it was the spookiest, coolest house on the block. Last year a young man told me I had serious competition a street over. I asked him what that house had that I did not and he said a fog machine. I now have a fog machine and it is a really cool item as when you push the remote control button you get a little or a lot of creeping misty fog depending on how long you hold down the button. I think what I enjoy most is putting on my favorite Halloween costume and passing out the candy to the large and small trick or treaters and watching their faces light up with delight and their eyes looking around at all the decorations in awe, some braver than others who try to hit or kick at the skeletons or Frankenstein and some who creep onto the porch slowly and seem a bit afraid, some make mom or dad come off the street with them to the door for security I suppose.

We had approximately 30 to 40 trick or treaters this year and I enjoy telling them how cute they look in their costumes that are quite a variety, most with painted faces, my how the costume's have gotten better since I was a child. My favorite costume this year was a toddler dressed in faux fur that looked real as Yoda, he was following his older sister alias Snow White and was so in to the moment that he did not care about getting a treat, he was adorable. I saw lots of great looking spider man costumes, their seemed to be a lot of those, witches, and of course Dracula, also two kids from the hood who were dressed as jailbirds with signs declaring them to be Paris Hilton in jail. Imagine that, Lots of princesses, brides, etc.

I always enjoyed being either a princess or a witch and I remember one year when I was about 9 years old that I had a particulary bad Halloween night. We had a lot of fun in those days and we got shopping bags full of candy and some really good candied apples from a close neighbor year ofter year that I always looked forward to. My Dad was with us that year and I was the oldest of four children with a sister five years younger than I and two brothers one being 2 years younger than me and one seven years younger being the baby of the family. We had been to so many houses and the younger children were getting tuckered out and we had loads of candy,as in those days you got full size candy bars and not fun sized ones. I climbed up quite a few steps to small wooden porch, knocked on the door and yelled Trick or Treat, the door opened and I got my goodies and said thank you to the nice lady, then promptly tried to cross the porch the wrong way and fell several feet off the wrong side of the porch bruising me up a bit but most of all hurting my pride for being so stupid. In those days we had the plastic masks with the little eye holes that pulled down over your face and were attached by a plastic band and boy were they hot. Daddy decided that we should head home after that and we started home hitting the houses on the opposite side of the street as we went. We finally arrived at our driveway and I told Dad that we had to visit our next door neighbour, so that I could show off my princess costume and get my candied apple that she made every year. Dad said he would call and tell her that we were to tired and we would come by the next day to get it. I begged him but he said the younger siblings were to tired to go to just one more house. I told him I was a big girl and I wanted to show Mrs. Comer my costume and enjoy that candied apple before bedtime, I promised him that I would go no further than Mrs. Comer's house and to take my younger brothers and sister home and I would be right back. Dad always had a way of letting me get my way and agreed that I could go and come straight home. I was hot from the plastic mask on my face so I pushed it up on top of my head while crossing the yard to the Comer house and intended to walk up the steps to the Comer's front porch, pull the mask down to show off my princess costume before ringing the doorbell. I started up the steps to the Comer's porch and there were three older, taller boys behind me laughing with their masks covering their faces. One of them grabbed me and pulled my princess mask down over my face, he then pushed me down and took my shopping bag full of candy. I was shocked and lay crying on the ground by the first step to the Comer's porch when Mr and Mrs. Comer came running to my rescue. Dad also came running across the yard and the Comers told him what had happened. Boy was Dad pissed, his face was red and he asked Mrs. Comer to walk me home while he went in search of the candy bandits. Dad was worn out from dragging the two younger siblings this Halloween night and I don't think I have ever seen him move so fast, he ran to his car and took off to find the boys who had taken my candy, only to return about 30 minutes later, which seemed to me an eternity. He had not only gotten back my shopping bag full of candy, but two others shopping bags full of the boys candy as well. He told mom that he had found three boys walking just up the road and one of them had two bags of candy and they happened to be my friend's brothers and were about 5 and 7 years older than me. The Drennen boys. Dad went to their house and told their Dad what they had done to me and their Dad made them give their candy up to learn a lesson. I thought my Dad was quite a hero and needless to say I enjoyed those mean old Drennen boy's shopping bags full of candy for many weeks to come.

Happy Halloween All!!!!!!!