It wasn’t raining and there parties everywhere and children being let out to extort goodies in treats in exchange for tricks. But, the kids were missing on our floor of 7th Moorings. We counted at most 4 who would or could be out but none came. We had stocked up six Hershey bars in the event that we would have visitors – but, as I have said, none came. That means Carol and I will have to apportion those six into perhaps 12 or 24 snacks on late nights when thoughts of them tell us that they are there and we are here and why not?
The parties will be going on late in the month and blend with Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years. That is the way of our kind in the midst of war, privation, hunger and chaos. Those who have the means or the inclination can go and party to their hearts’ content. Getting dressed up (as adults often do) to go and trick or treating is one way to assuage thoughts of those less well off and those who have marched off to war listening to a different drummer.
Aside from the fact that Halloween is a derivative of a pagan celebration and not worthy of our attention or investment of much thought or energy, I have, in the past not given the origins of this “holiday” much thought. In fact, I looked forward to it because of my sons who looked forward to it until the bloom was off the rewards and the imagination of home-made costumes waned and ceased altogether. My costumes, the ones made for my children, were pretty much of the cardboard, paint and stitching together variety. There has always been a sort of competition to see whose costumes made at home would be best received – sometimes at a contest held by local school or civic organizations. I think I won on originality rather than expense. My cardboard against some professional with a sewing machine was an unfair contest but I do believe I won for originality and hard work. Others used professional sewers who would produce princesses and witches and such. I remember making two turtle bodies and helmets that resembled the head of the turtles and I was pleased and saw they were good – at least for me.
But, my best memory was when I had made my big half human sized puppet bodies from the waist up. On Halloween I set my characters up on chairs in the living room with all the lights on and was pleased with the results. My puppets were not dressed for the occasion; they were in costume for the parts they played in my shows and they just sat there and waited for the inevitable attraction for parties of children and adults to come by and look in and see what I had wrought.
The nose and hand prints on the Living Room windows were proof of my eventual success as a Halloween costume maker. Of course, the footprints squashing my bushes were counter-productive.