A friend sent me this image, then I went to the Halloween Lovers Facebook page and saw so many other delightful pictures about this holiday celebrated in many countries in the world. Click on the link in the caption if you’d like to see more cute images, but do come back to read the essay from y friend, Slim Randles.
My husband loved Halloween & he’d especially enjoy this picture featuring a black cat & a friendly ghost. Two of his favorite Halloween images. For years Carl would make a ghost in our front yard using a ladder and a white sheet, and he’d top it with a pumpkin. That didn’t scare kids nearly as much as finding him on the porch-swing shrouded in a robe with a hood & speaking in a creepy voice. He only pulled out all the stops on that for older kids.
For toddlers, he’d let me be the friendly witch telling them not to worry about the lump of dark cloth on the swing. We figured it was bad enough we were giving their kids sugar-highs, we didn’t need to send nightmares home with the parents.
Halloween was the preface to all the holidays to come over the next few months that were so special to our whole family, and still are even though so much has changed since those years when we were all together, a family of seven, living and loving and laughing and crying, and sometimes yelling and sometimes fighting, but always together.
Carl is in heaven. The kids are all grown up. Some have moved to other states or other parts of Texas. We don’t get together for all the holidays like we used to, but those of us that still live in relatively close proximity, do try to gather for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
This year will be my first to see trick-or-treaters without Carl there to share the fun with me. For years we lived in the country, where we didn’t have the kids going house to house. Way too far in between. 🙂 Then, when I moved to a small city, I was in a Spanish neighborhood & their culture doesn’t do Halloween. So no kids in costumes coming to my door.
Now I live in a new neighborhood where I’ve been told kids do go door-to-door, so I have my candy. I’ll dig out the clear plastic bowl we sometimes used to hold the candy. I’ll put a chair on the porch so I can sit out there to see the kids.
It’s too late to try to put much of a costume together, but I may put my Nona hat on and wear too much rouge and have a shawl. People don’t have to know that I look like that most chilly days, minus the hat and the make-up. 🙂
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At this time of year when so many of us are seeing lovely Autumn colors adorning trees, it’s a good time for this lovely piece from Slim Randles. I’ve shared it before on my blog, but it’s been a few years, so I reprise it here for all to enjoy.
I think there must be autumnal reasons for Halloween being hued in orange and black. It’s a fun time, a magic evening if you’re a kid, and if you’re a grandpa-type guy, like me, who gets to hand out the goodies.
The colors of this sweet evening celebration are shades of reds and golds and blacks, and so is October and early November. In another few weeks or so, our deciduous trees will stand like dark skeletons against the gray skies of approaching winter, but for today, we have the splendid colors of fall.
It happens right about sunset each day. The sky turns that eternal burnt-umber orange and the remaining leaves and the baring branches of our trees fill the evening with a holy filigree of contrast.
Oh, it’s not something we need to do anything about. There’s no need for picture taking.
It’s just something that we can step outside for … look toward the west through the lacy pattern of black tree branches and for a moment, just a short moment, say to ourselves, “Isn’t that pretty?”
If the paint store could sell me something that looked even close to that for the walls of the little cabin I have, I’d buy a gallon. Maybe two.
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Brought to you by Strange Tales of Alaska available at Amazon.com.
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Check out all of Slim’s award-winning books in better bookstores and bunkhouses throughout the free world.
All of the posts here are from his syndicated column, Home Country that is read in hundreds of newspapers across the country. I am always happy to have him share his wit and wisdom here.
That’s all from me for today folks. If you are celebrating Halloween with family, or even without, I hope you have a lovely time. I’m so looking forward to seeing all the costumes this evening. Be safe. Be happy.