Friday, November 1, 2019

The Day After Halloween by Diane Burton


Halloween is over for another year. The kids (and some adults) dressed up in costumes, running from door to door for candy, decorations in windows and on doors, scary movies. All done for another year.


My favorite aspect of Halloween is watching the kids in costumes race down our street, dart up driveways. Hubs and I usually sit in our open garage with a huge bowl of candy between us and welcome the neighbor kids. Yesterday was bitter cold and rainy. The day before we had our first snow. Snow in October? Yeppers. It melted as it hit windshields and the streets. Nevertheless, we had snow in west Michigan. That’s pretty rare. At least the Trick-or-Treaters didn’t have snow.

Our town (and the one we lived in before) had specific times to trick-or-treat: from 6 pm to 8 pm. People put their porchlights on if they were handing out treats. I’m amazed at the politeness of kids as they stick to the street (we have no sidewalks) and don’t run across lawns—even when we told them to cross the strip of grass between our house and the one next door. They almost always thanked us for the candy, too. And, if outdoor lights are off, they don’t bang on the door.



When no little witches, goblins, or Wonder Women were on our street, we turned off the light and went inside at 7:30. Considering how nasty the weather was, if I was a parent, I’d bribe the kids to stay home, turn out the lights, and give them the trick-or-treaters’ candy. 😊 And watch a scary movie.

Having done our "civic" duty, we proceeded to watch that scary movie. If you’ve read any of my posts, comments on FB, etc. you know I don’t do scary stuff. No roller coasters, no Stephen King, no Friday the 13th. It took me years before I watched Alien (and the sequels). When I made the mistake of taking my kids to Gremlins, they begged to sleep in my bed that night. And I let them because I’d been scared, too. LOL


So, consider yourself amazed that I willingly watched a scary movie last night. Jekyll & Hyde (1990) with Michael Caine and Cheryl Ladd. I love Michael Caine, so I thought why not? I’d never read the book but sort of knew the story. (Who doesn’t?) That it was written by Robert Louis Stevenson surprised me. I hate to say it, but it wasn’t very scary. Gremlins scared me more. But, hey, I was trying to get into the mood. LOL


As I said at the beginning, Halloween is over for another year. We do have some candy left over, which I’ll take to the craft show on Saturday where I’ll sell my books. Candy always makes people stop. The spooky decorations will come down, and those for Thanksgiving will go up. Another holiday and one I look forward to.

Enjoy the post-Halloween time, if your kiddies aren’t hyped up on all that candy.


2 comments:

Maureen said...

Great post! I enjoy Halloween. This is the first year we missed handing out candy because we were traveling.

Nancy Gideon said...

I learned early on that scary and slasher are not the same thing (surprise, Last House on the Left was not a scary movie!). I LOVE old horror movies and new ones if the emphasis is on human drama and not human dismemberment. The more fantastical the better because reality is too frightening. And yes, Gremlins was NOT a cute kid movie and (along with Indiana Jones 2) is the reason we have a PG-13 rating! But it's still on my Christmas movie Must Watch list. And it's with great sorrow that the house returns to normal once all the creepy regalia is tucked away for another year.