I read today that Halloween is the best non-holiday Holiday there is. When else can you get away with loading up on 60 lbs of candy without feeling guilty? In fact, you are actually "obligated" to have the candy on hand for those little trick-or-treaters and who can blame you if you stick a few pieces (or 6) into your mouth during the evening?
We finished our graveyard, so we are all ready for tomorrow night. My own cats wouldn't stay put, so I had to use a stuffed one.
I am probably in trouble--- (from Barb and Theda). My back yard. We did not rake for two weeks and during those two weeks all of our trees lost their leaves and last night, it rained. So now our yard is full of dead, wet, leaves. Which I actually love. I'm kind of weird that way... I like the smell and the crispness. And I like what used to be the crunch of the leaves beneath my feet. Now it's all damp and not so crunchy. But it feels like fall and that is what I like.
The drawback to the turn in the weather, is that it is not so good for the kids to trick-or-treat, but, they can bundle up and go for an hour and it's all good.
I had a couple people call me today (at work) and ask "When does Winnemucca trick or treat?"
I thought it a dumb question. I always say "ON HALLOWEEN."
Geez...the weekend is over, and we didn't have trick or treaters, so it only leads to Halloween night.
I don't know, I just think its a silly question.
I talked to Luke today and he said that last night was the first time Mara had ever carved a pumpkin. Tonight he was making her watch "Garfeild's Halloween". She is being initiated into the Stone traditions. :~)
Halloween
from Phil, Rich's step dad, my favorite father in law:
I hope that Rich is going to make this experience "interactive", such as dressing up as a scarecrow and sitting on the porch and scaring the little monsters that come up after candy.
With his younger brothers we used to make up a scarecrow and put it in the front yard,put a speaker in its chest and talk to people that came by. Had more fun with that. And I one time would park under the front porch and grab them by their ankles. They had a good time being scared out of their wits.
from Mark Stone:
Take some pictures of the garage and dress up that mannequin will ya.
from Diana Elwess:
No haunted houses, I'm a coward.We lived in a trailer park until I was 8 or 9. I remember going with my mom and sister. When we moved to BFE- Antleope Valley 75 miles south of Battle Mountain our closest neighbor was 3 miles away. We trick or treated as a group and usually went about 20 miles that night to our All or our neighbors. They always had homemade goodies as they knew us and we knew them. It seems quite amazing tht my mom would have about 20 kids show up to trick or treat 75 miles out of town. (not meaning that Battle Mountain people drove out to trick or treat.)
from my mom, Bev Hambelton:
Yes, we did like and still do, Halloween. our costumes were home made as that was the only choice we had. Usually a bunch of us went together and always had soap to soap peoples windows if they didn't give us a treat. We had a haunted house in our neighborhood that was REAL!!! And we never went into it. One time when we were older and it wasn't halloween, we did go in and what a scary place it was!!! When we became teenagers, my friend, Glynn and I Every Single Year, pushed over your grandparents wood pile and stole their gargage can. Then the next day, your father had to restack all that wood!!!! Halloween is not anything like it was when we were growing up.
from Barbara Brown:
Our neighborhood was single family homes, and EVERYONE knew EVERYONE. Never a store bought costume! Always home made. In the 6th grade I was a deer hunter. I wore my dad's red sweatshirt, jeans, his boots and cap, and put cold cream on my face with coffee grounds for a beard. And I carried a BB gun.......................to school! Today I would have been evicted from school for doing that.We always carved pumpkins. And each of us kids got to pick out our own at a pumpkin patch.In "My Day", we got the big candy bars passed out to us. Those pitiful little things they have now didn't even exist then. I remember one old man who passed out nickels. And there was the woman who ran out of candy who gave us those little frozen cans of concentrated juice instead.And we always had to examine the candy to make sure an evil person hadn't put soap or razor blades in the jelly beans or apples!
from Lisa Verner:
Boy, Debbie, you sure threw a lot in one question! Did you get your garage cemetery done? Just wondered...
Well, you know I do not remember my costumes and Halloween too much when I was little but when I was older we lived at 201 Fairmont Street and me and my brother grew to love that neighborhood. I fell in love several times on that very street as there were several teenagers all within a couple of years of each other and all of us had cousins that would come to visit in the summer and they too would fall in love with one of us or one of our friends. What a great neighborhood! All the parents got along and were glad to have the gang over for games, music, food or SNL. We did however, have one cranky old neighbor lady right in the middle of the street that did not like us kids too much. She was convinced that we were doing things to her mailbox (I have written about her before). We never did to my knowledge but because she disliked us so much we would ring her doorbell and hide - especially on Halloween......it was soooo much fun! Not sure why. We all called her Groady Bode as her last name was Bode....
I have fond memories of taking my girls trick or treating through the years though. We did not ever spend too much money on costumes as we did not have it so we would come up with "home made" costumes. They always had ideas and we would just make do. It was always fun and most of the years in Texas it was not too cold so they could wear tutus and leotards with no coat....
Me and my friend Donna, who had two boys younger than my girls, would take the kids around Clyde to t or t and the funny part was that we would sit in her van where it was warm and let my girls take the boys hands and go door to door and then when they got back in the van we would convince them (mostly her little ones - mine caught on real quickly) to give us their chocolate bars they got! Too funny. We would laugh and laugh when they got out at the next stop! We would be practically ill by the end of the night...
We always carved pumpkins but I don't remember ever going to a haunted house. My mom had a big black cauldron and she dressed up one Halloween as a witch, got out in her front yard and was "stirring" her pot and cackling when the girls got close! Too funny. She scared them good and they yelled "Oh Granny, what are you doing?" She replied, "Why, I'm not your granny, I am a wicked witch -cackle, cackle, cackle!" We all laughed and laughed. She loved it and told me later that she had always wanted to do that - isn't it funny what some people wish for???
The funniest thing that ever happened to us as a family on Halloween was when our neighbor called and invited us to a party at her house. She told us that we HAD to dress up as everyone else was and not to be party poopers. Well, we all dressed up - me, my girls, Steve, my brother Donny, my mom and our close friend Jan and went to the party. We came through the door and we were the only ones that dressed up! We were so mad - especially Steve and my brother whom we had to beg and plead with to even get them there much less in costume. Somewhere I have a picture too of that horrible, frightening experience.....
from me/debbie:
Hopefully you'll all have fun tomorrow night.
Watch a scary movie. That's what I want to do.
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts!!
