On Sep 20, 2005, at 20:33, Alice Howell wrote:
Halloween is the manufacturers' second biggest holiday of the year (after Christmas). They now put out all kinds of decorations (Halloween pumpkin lights, anyone?)
I'm not especially in-tune with Hallowe'en; for us (in Poland) it meant nothing at all, unless one had two graves - spread accross the country - to visit and light a candle on, and couldn't do both on Nov 1.
I suffered through Danek's "wee years" (after he was 11, trick-or-treating was "on his dime" - costume and transport alike. Thankfully, he's not much of a "sweet tooth" <g>), making imaginative costumes and spending days carving the xyz-d pumpkin to his instructions (loved those seeds, though <g>). And was relieved when Hallowe'en became a "may I bake a batch of gingerbread cookies and have 10 friends in the basement?" issue.
An issue, BTW, because the TV set is there, and DH likes to watch TV. However... A promise of an "extra-special dinner, with a fancy dessert to follow" was usually enough to lure him upstairs... I'm a born politician; must be the Libra in me <g>
But, once I became an Arachnean, I *definitely* changed my attitude :) September/October is the time to haunt WalMart and all sorts of fabric and craft stores for *spiders*... Beaded spider pins one year, rolls of spider stickers another, spiders during the rubber stamp mania yet another... Every year, I've been able to pick up *something* interesting :) So I no longer resent it.
As for the "visiting aliens"... I no longer carve the pumpkin (can buy a bag of seeds cheaper <g>), but do get candy and do leave the porch lights on. It's my duty to open the door (because DH disappears downstairs as soon as he's been fed, and he makes sure he gets fed before dark <g>).
But, truth to tell... I *enjoy it*. I like seeing the kids all dressed up and willing to explain who they "are" and why (I never had the chance myself and rue it still, at 55). And the kids we get now are not like what DH relates of his own childhood (trick-or-treated till mid-teens and *retaliated* by soaping up the car, dressing trees in toilet paper, etc); it's all "yes'm, no'm, thank you!" with - as likely as not - a parent standing on the top of the driveway and yelling "thanks; Happy Halloween!" as well.
I don't dress up; I wear a pair of black corduroy jeans and a black turtleneck - pretty much daily wear in the autumn anyway. Sometime around 10PM (half an hour after the last visitor), I turn the porch lights off, and nobody rings the bell after. Since I'm also in charge in buying the candy, I buy what DH and I like and, if there's any left, we divide the spoils accordingly. Since there's almost always some left, I get my sweet tooth fed for at least 6 months (it doesn't need much, being, basically, a *sour* tooth <g>)
Helen's solution - hand out less interesting stuff - wouldn't work for me.
I live in the upper class suburbs of Lexington (if you thought a town of 4.5 thousand can't have a snotty suburb "hill", think again. We even have a black slum-hill, accross the city. Used to shock me - a newly-arrived commie - no end, but, as I age, I calm down a bit and *pick* my battles <g>). Because the houses here are small and expensive at the same time, the population is mostly retired couples, not young ones with kids; you see a kid, and it's usually a visiting grandchild - as rare and precious as in some sci-fi stories about the dying populations... :) So, the kids who come trick-or-tricking come mostly from the county, and cannot "spread the word" about the poor quality of loot.
You can tell, too, who's who... The neighbourhood kids come come early; the county kids come late (after the parents are off work). The neighbourhood kids come on foot or in SUVs; the county kids come in pick-up trucks. The neighbourhood kids come in family groups - 2-3 kids at most, usually just one; the county kids come in gaggles of *at last 6* (presumably, one parent offers to drive the neighbour's kids as well. We don't have all that many mormons in the area, so few people have more than 4 kids, even among the poor who have no better entertainment tha baby-making). The neighbourhood kids come dressed in costumes made by stay-at-home moms like I used to be - original and very imaginative, and made from scratch; the county kids come in plastic costumes bought at WalMart (if both dad and mom happen to have a job), or in paper grocery bags, painted with mom's lipstick...
I can also tell - without reading the papers - just how bad the economy in the area is; in the worst years, the county kids come with kids; 2-3 mothers of 16 or 17, each with a kid under 1... The baby won't get the candy; the mom will... Probably, her one-per-year chance to pig out on sweets. Much like mine? Yes. But mine is *by choice* (still; won't be by '08, I dare say <g>), and her's is not.
So, every Hallowe'en I'm reminded that *not everything* about the Polish socialist/communist system was rotten, and not everything about the American democracy is star-shining... And no amount of the left-over candy can provide the necessary comfort to a disenchanted heart...
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
