Halloween

Ah, Halloween! That special time of year when monsters and ballerinas set aside their differences to walk hand in hand around the neighborhood in search of coma-inducing, sugary treats.

I was going to write a long, well-formed essay on the strangeness of this fall ritual that seems to have taken on a life of it own. For instance, why is it called a holiday? Isn't that supposed to mean holy day? Perhaps in the days of the ancient Celts, Halloween's ancestor feast day was considered holy. But I find it hard to put the concept of holy and begging for candy in hob goblin clothing in the same sentence. Particularly because I've got a bit of a sugar headache from eating a good portion of leftover candy, I think an essay is out of the question. I'll just write a few bullets and let it go with that.
  • I don't think I've ever been a real fan of Halloween, either as a kid, or as an adult. I think one has to be really secure in one's own skin before she can throw herself into becoming someone/thing else even for one night. Self assurance has never been one of my strong suits.

  • I don't recall for sure but I figure I did find some childlike delight in donning the plastic costume and matching mask that we bought from Woolworth's; being a black plastic cat was less frightening to my chicken little persona than being than being a white plastic ghost. But let's face it, what used to pass as costumes were not the over-the-top disguises that kids are privileged to wear today. Modern Halloween outfits vary from Disney-esque princesses to cartoon characters to movie boogie men. I think I can say with relative assurance, however, that none of the outfits are made of sheet plastic that closely resemble decorated garbage bags. Costumes have come a long way in 50 years. Well, really, what hasn't? [Photo R: I'm the cat in the 2nd row, 2nd from the end.]

  • Like other contemporary merchandising extravaganzas, Halloween has taken on a money guzzling life of its own. Gone are the days when little kids could enjoy a relatively mild day of dress-up and popcorn balls. Today's child is hit with a marketing blitz of mammoth proportions. Candy, costumes, pumpkins, neon colored lightsticks, yard decorations, spooky-screeching cd's. You name it, and it's right there on the shelf next to the pre-lit Christmas trees.
  • I heard on tonight's news that a dentist was offering to buy back the local children's left-over candy (Read: Raisinnetts and Smartees). For a dollar a pound, kids will get rid of the candy they won't eat and can't trade to their younger siblings. On top of that the dentist is throwing in a super dooper toothbrush with lights that flash for two minutes at a time. Not all that coincidentally, two minutes happens to be the amount of time that is required to get that piece of Bit-o-Honey unstuck from your back molars. Interestingly, after the this enterprising dentist buys all this candy, he is then going to package it up and send it to the soldiers in Iraq. Call me a pessimist, but the last time I looked, Iraq was in the part of the world that is considered by many to be a desert. It's hot. It's sandy. It is NOT the kind of place where chocolate delights like Snickers and Three Muskateers bars are going to keep very well. I see a big chocolatty mess happening. And, I could be wrong, but do we really want to add rotten teeth to the list of infirmities those young men and women are coming home with? Maybe the dentist is going to send some of those toothbrushes along with the candy.

  • Speaking of candy. If you haven't already read the nutritional (ha!) label on your favorite Halloween treat, STOP! I made the mistake of doing this after devouring the second bag of candy corn that was brought into the house. How can something that consists mainly of: sugar, and corn syrup, and contains less than 2% of the following: cocoa, salt, honey, confectioner’s glaze, partially hydrogenated cottonseed, palm kernel, and/or soybean oil (adds a dietarily insignificnt amount of fat) artificial flavor, gelatin, dextrose, soy bean lecithin, titanium dioxide color, yellow 6, yellow 6 Lake, red 40 lake, red 3, yellow 5, blue 1, and blue 2 lake taste so good? According to the package, Brach's has been selling autumn mix and making fall more fun for over 50 years. But here's the best part, America’s #1 Autumn Mix, is made with real honey! That's got to mean it's good for you!

Well, there you have it, my take on Halloween. I've got to close this post and get to bed. I'm hoping that my night's sleep will be filled with visions of things to write about for the next month, instead of the blood dripping scary guy that came to my door tonight. Tomorrow, November 1st, marks the beginning of Nablopomo (National Blog Posting Month) and I'm already feeling a little performance anxiety.

I think I'll have one more little handful of candy corn and call it a night,

Merry ME

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Every Little Bit Helps

Image
UPDATE:  I'll be picking a winner on Thanksgiving Day. So make a donation and leave your name in the comment section below.  ME UPDATE:  I see a tiny problem but it should be easy to fix. Commenting anonymously doesn't get your name in the drawing. And there's no way to tell Anonymous A from Anonymous B. Are you different or the same? I need to be able to get back in touch with you somehow. We can exchange email addy's later. But please at least leave your name. If you still comment as Anonymous, just say your name in the comment.  You can use first name and last initial. Or last name alone. Or an Alias. Just so I can get your name in the hat. And really, thank you. Thank you again and again. Merry ME _____ I always breathe a sigh of relief when a storm veers away from Jacksonville.  At the same time it's hard not to feel guilty that it went somewhere else.  I was in no way prepared for Hurricane Sandy. Like a lot of others, I felt like the...
Read more

An Easter Miracle

Image
How is it that after someone you love dies, time moves on even when it feel like its standing still? Philosophers, poets and writers have tried to answer that question since time began. I don't have the answer. I just know that, by what I can only imagine is the Grace of God, it does. When you heart is broken into something resembling a 1000 piece jig saw puzzle and there are no directions on how to put it together, somehow it mends. When some else dies and it cracks again, God stitches the old wound and the new wound together into a patchwork of healed scars. Fifteen years ago, when I watched my mother draw a breath then counted the seconds before she took another but none came, I sat by her bed and tried to imagine being a motherless child. Then I did what any kid would do, ran down the long hospital corridor sounding the alarm. "My mother isn't breathing." "My mother isn't breathing."  Want to see doctors, nurses, CNAs, and cleaning ladies tur...
Read more

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY BLOG PARTY

Image
In honor of women everywhere ... Welcome to the International Women's Day Blog Party (Turn up the sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuB3_HLcFfk ) International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. To this end, this party is a way to honor those special ladies who have inspired us and made us better than we ever thought we could be. It is with gratitude and pride I welcome you to my blog. I'm anxious to hear your stories and celebrate your choices. All you have to do is go down to the bottom of this post and click on the comment section. That will take you to another page where you can write your tribute in the space provided. You can use your Google/Blogger user name or remain anonymous. There is nothing to join. If you choose to post anonymously please leave your name in the comment section so we'll all know who you are. When you're through hit publish and voila your lady is o...
Read more