TheBanyanTree: Monster Mash

[Margaret R. Kramer]

It finally got below freezing this morning – it’s 29.3 degrees.  The clouds
have cleared out and the wind has died down.  I could feel the edginess in
the air when I walked out to get the newspaper.  The stars were glittering
crystals in the black sky.  The crows are cawing this morning just as they
did last night at dusk.

I kind of ease into Halloween decorating.  I put out Indian corn and
colorful gourds around the autumnal equinox.  A few weeks ago, I added some
orange candles and a beautiful orange glass pumpkin I bought at Target.  I’m
not supposed to buy more stuff, but I can’t resist holiday things.

Yesterday, I got down on my hands and knees and crawled into our crawl space
and dragged out the BIG Halloween decorations – all nicely stored in an
orange-lid plastic box I bought from where else, Target!

My mother was a master at ceramics and we had little ghosts and pumpkins and
witches scattered through our house long before it was fashionable to
decorate for Halloween.  In fact, I remember as a child and before my mother
discovered ceramics, the only decorations around Halloween time were the
carved pumpkins and maybe some pictures of scary monsters stuck on the front
window with scotch tape.

During my son’s time, the big pumpkin leaf bags were added.  We would stuff
those things with leaves and they looked fat and full and then within a
week, after the bags lost their air and cold rain pounded on them, they
looked flat and lifeless.  I also bought scary plastic bugs to hang from the
dining room light fixture.  And I always had my mother’s ceramics to add a
Halloween festive touch to our home.

Of course, now Halloween decorating is rivaling Christmas.  We can buy
haunted house candle holders, lighted black cats, and scarecrows on a stick
to set outside.  And over the years, I’ve succumbed to the decorating fever,
and added more and more things to complement my mother’s ceramics.

So yesterday was a busy day of Halloween decorating for me.  I hung the
realistic looking plastic skeletons from the planters’ hooks by the front
door.  Those scary skeletons will surely keep away any salesperson.

I set out my fake carved pumpkins with the little light inside.  I like them
because they look real, but they’re not the real carved pumpkins which would
rot within a couple of days after being brought inside.  These fakes will
last forever.

The grandsons come over for trick or treat and we always feed them a hearty
and healthy meal before they go out in the cold.  I’m glad Halloween is on
Sunday this year and we won’t have to come home from work and school and
hurry around trying to fix dinner, eat, get the boys dressed in their
costumes, and greet trick-or-treaters.

The Vikings play in the afternoon, and my son’s life stops when the Vikings
are playing.  Nothing can interrupt that three hour block of time for him.
But he’ll pull it together after watching a couple of hours ESPN football
analysis and be able to drive over to the house.  So our family Halloween
traditions will not be disrupted by the Vikings playing on Sunday night as
they were when my older grandson celebrated his first Halloween as a six
month old and my son refused to budge from the TV to take him
trick-or-treating.  Not that a six month old would really care, but Susan
and I did.  So we took him ourselves, it was a beautiful almost summer-like
night, and had lots of fun chatting with our neighbors.

I added to my Halloween collection this year and bought a new pumpkin
tablecloth to go with our hearty and healthy meal.  I’m so excited to accent
our table with my Halloween decorations and use my new tablecloth.  How
Martha Stewart is that?!!!  And isn’t the hearty and healthy meal sounding a
lot like Thanksgiving?!!!!

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

You wouldn't believe
On All Hallow Eve
What lots of fun we can make,
With apples to bob,
And nuts on the hob,
And a ring-and-thimble cake.
~Carolyn Wells