Monday, October 31, 2022

RHYS On HALLOWEEN



 RHYS BOWEN:  I confess, I’m in grumpy mood.  I am not a big fan of fall. To me it means the coming of winter, darker, shorter days. Less time spent outdoors. And pumpkin spice. I am also not a big fan of pumpkin spice although the world seems to be obsessed with it. I even saw an ad for a pumpkin-spice cosmetic serum today!  I’d rather put mud from the backyard on my face.



And my next confession: I’m not a big fan of Halloween. I suppose I didn’t grow up with it and I can see that little kids think it’s wonderful to dress up in scary clothes and get candy from everyone. When I was a child in England there was no such thing as Halloween. I think they always celebrated it in Scotland but I knew nothing of it until my first year in the US. I had recently moved into our first house, just had a baby and… there was a knock on my door one evening, shortly after dark.  I opened it AND there was a child dressed as a black cat standing there. “Trick or treat” she said.  I had no idea what she meant.  She had to explain that I was supposed to give her candy.  I had to search my purse for some quarters instead.

When I think back to my own kids and Halloween I loved the early years when they were happy with store-bought costumes: princess, witch, pirate. Then came the creative years. One year Clare wanted to be a tree. Do you know how hard it is to make a tree in which a child can breathe and move?  And one year one of them wanted to be a dragon. How to attach the tail so it didn’t fall off when they walked? Much late night sewing involved.

After that the scary years: costumes with fangs and dripping blood. Not my thing. But by then they were old enough to go trick or treating alone.  But who had to carve the pumpkins? That's hard work, folks.

And every year there was the triumphant return, the tipping out of candy for mommy to inspect and toss out anything that looked suspect. Then they were allowed to choose a few pieces to eat and the rest went into the pantry where it was soon forgotten and eventually tossed out.

I don’t think we ever got wholeheartedly into the thing, making bowls of fake eyeballs or spaghetti-guts the way some families did. Perhaps I am a person who scares too easily.

I’ve been to a few adult Halloween parties but never came up with brilliant costumes like Hank and Jonathan. Only one sticks in my mind. John had a dark beard at the time so we went as the devil and a fallen angel. We got lost on the way in a dark and leafy neighborhood and stopped a group of teenagers to ask for directions. A boy was happily pointing us in the right direction when he noticed John.  “You’ve got horns” he said in an alarmed voice.

                “Yes, of course. I’m the devil,” John replied as we drove off. That was fun!


So how about you? Did you enjoy Halloween as a child? Do you still enjoy it?  And what about Pumpkin Spice????

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Aw, thank you, Rhys!  I really remember being a princess, and my mother made a pointy hat out of silver cardboard, and put a pink scarf in the point so it floated down the back. Then I had a pink shower curtain as a cape. I’m telling you, I pranced around the house in that outfit for weeks. It was the perfect princess outfit. As an adult, I once dressed up as a teabag, in brown leotard and tights,  and put a clear plastic bag from my knees up to my chin. Then I filled it with scraps of torn up construction paper (brown, orange and black,) and then  tied a string around my neck and hooked a big Constant Comment tag at the bottom. It was pretty funny. ( I don’t think any pictures exist :-)  Thank goodness.)





Then there was the year when Jonathan and I dressed up as the Arcs, Joan of and Noah. Pretty funny. (Some people have no idea what I meant by this. I think I am hilarious, but maybe it’s just me.)



Pumpkin spice? Hard no. To all. Except pie. But that’s another blog.



LUCY BURDETTE: No pumpkin spice for me either! So funny you’d rather put mud on your face than ps serum, Rhys! I have been enjoying fall in New England–, the cooler weather, the colors, the earlier nights. Until I went to the acupuncturist and he said: “Fall always brings us around to death, doesn’t it?” Yikes, I suppose but I hate to think of that!

I do enjoy dressing up too–especially for an occasion like our previous Crime Bake banquets. Though I have to say I think Hank and Jonathan won EVERY ONE OF THOSE CONTESTS. Still, it was fun to think up a costume and know it would be appreciated by all those creative friends.

JENN McKINLAY: I LOVE FALL!!! AND PUMPKIN SPICE!!! AND HALLOWEEN!!! Potentially, it’s because my well known immaturity really gets to shine during this season. Also, I grew up in the mountains of CT, where it was apple picking, pumpkin carving, and gorgeous colorful leaves dropping to the ground like autumn confetti. Glorious! What was it Anne of Green Gables says? “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers” or something like that. That’s me. 



I love the dressing up and the passing out of candy and spookifying the house. My fave memory was when the Hooligans went trick or treating on their own for the first time - H1 was death (black cloak and scythe) and H2 was a crash test dummy (you know, the yellow mannequin thingy) - anyway, I made H1 carry my cell phone as they didn’t have their own phones yet and when they were roaming the streets trying to be scary I called them from the landline to check on them and the cell phone piped up with its ringtone “Here Comes the Sun”. *snort*  H1 reported that I killed their creepy vibe. LOL. 

And Rhys the way you recall all of those Halloweens with your littles  - I can tell you had a blast :)  

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I suspect you’d feel differently about it if you lived in New England, Rhys - the spectacular color on century-old trees, the amazing blue sky that only occurs this month, the perfect (in my view) temperatures - crisp and chill in the morning, pleasantly warm in the afternoon.

However, I’ve never gone all-out for Halloween. Honestly, I’m don’t really decorate for any holiday other than Christmas. So I get a few pumpkins (they were carved when the kids were young) and set a couple candles in hurricane lanterns on the porch and call it good. What I did do was make home-sewn costumes, which then evolved into costumes created from our vast, three-trunk store of dress up clothes and accessories. Leopard, witch, Batman, Glamor Witch (that was the Maine Millennial, of course) Roman centurion (reused for the church Nativity pageant!) Old King Cole, sailor (that was prescient) and several princesses. I have no digital copies of any of these, so instead I’ll share a pic of Youngest and her Shih Tzu wearing matching Halloween costumes/jammies. 



HALLIE EPHRON: I love almost everything about Halloween… except pumpkin spice. My neighbors on both sides decorate to beat the bands. This year our neighborhood has sprouted plastic blow-up tableaus with ghosts and dragons and pumpkins. I love it when little kids show up at the door in their costumes.

Pumpkin carving–or watching Jerry carve a pumpkin–was always a special treat. The faces he carved were nothing short of amazing.



For some reason (maybe I was too cheap) I would not buy store-bought costumes for my kids. They claim this caused a major trauma. A homemade Superman outfit did not compare with her classmates whose parents had bought theirs, but we managed a pretty good witch.

 


As adults my daughters make fantastic costumes from almost nothing. One year one of them went as Cher in her TURN BACK TIME video. I leave it to your imagination. I can’t wait to see this year’s get-ups..


DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm afraid I've always been a bit of a Halloween fail. My mother didn't make costumes so I had store-bought as a child. I didn't do much better by my own daughter, but thankfully she's broken that tradition and my granddaughter has had wonderful costumes. I can't wait to see this year's! 

 

I do like decorating for fall but skipped it this year, with spending almost the whole of October in the UK. I'm glad not to have to worry about disposing of the pumpkins!

 

Lots of Halloween decorations in London, however! Here's a wonderful house on Tite Street in Chelsea.



RHYS: Great pix everyone. So who is a fan of Halloween? Of pumpkin spice?

68 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I remember trick-or-treating a time or two when I was young, but Halloween was never a big deal . . . .
    Of course, our children loved Halloween . . . I’d make costumes but we never did the door-to-door trick-or-treating and I never did much decorating for it. One year we went trick-or-treating at the local mall; most years we had dinner and a party at the church so everyone had fun without the door-to-door traipsing around. These days we seldom see trick-or-treaters, so it’s not much of a holiday around here . . . .

    As for the pumpkin spice . . . no, thank you.

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    1. I bet those costumes were amazing Joan! It seems that decorating the houses for the holiday is much bigger these days.

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  3. When I was younger and life was innocent, I loved Halloween for the costumes and trick or treating with friends. As I aged, not so much. Not a fan of pumpkin spice.

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  4. Pumpkin spice belongs in pie and pumpkin bread. Period.

    I choked when I went to buy a bag of candy to hand out - the price was through the roof!

    I love Halloween and made some awesome costumes for my boys. And I have always loved dressing up in costumes, including for the Crime Bake banquet - at which Hank and Jonathan ruled. But nobody seems to hold adult Halloween parties anymore (certainly not for the last three years), alas.

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    1. I enjoyed seeing your past Crime Bake banquet costumes this morning on FB! Sadly, they did NOT have costume parties when I last attended Crime Bake in 2005.

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  5. I hate all things pumpkin spice. Period.

    As for Halloween, yes I loved it as a kid. We went out all over the neighborhood and had lots of candy. Each year we had different costumes and it was always interesting deciding what we wanted to be.

    After I stopped going out, I kind of hated the day. So I spent the night in my room as my mom answered the door. But before she passed away, I had taken over as the one answering the door and giving out the candy. And I like it these days as well. Maybe not as much as I once did because if we are being honest, the older kids that come ruin it with their crappy attitudes. But the younger ones are still fun and there are the occasional great costumes.

    And yes, I'm still giving out candy, comic books and special prizes for those great costumes at the door. This year, there are less prizes because everything I normally bought has skyrocketed in price, so I could afford less of it. But at least I'll be decked out in a pumpkin face T-shirt to have thematic tie to the event.

    My sister is coming over again this year but unlike most years, I will be relying on her to do some of the "work" this year as I'm still dealing with back issues that have been plaguing me for a month. So I definitely need some help being at the door and passing out the goodies.

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    1. I hope that back gets fixed up ASAP, Jay!

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    2. Sorry about your back Jay! I bet your comics are very popular.

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    3. It is so great that you give out comic books!

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    4. Comic books are such a cool Halloween giveaway! Hope your back issues improve soon, Jay.

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    5. Jay, hope your back gets straightened out--in both senses--double quick!

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    6. Thanks Edith. I'm trying but it is not happening fast that's for sure.

      Thanks Lucy/Roberta. Trying to do what I can but when you can barely stand up for 10 minutes straight, it makes everything harder. The comics are very popular with the youngest ones.

      Hank, thanks. I buy a bunch of extra copies in May each year on Free Comic Book Day and put them away for Halloween. When I met Brad Meltzer at a book signing a few years back I told him about what I do on Halloween and he said that it was a great idea and that he was going to start doing that or giving them to hospitals. (He's on DC Comics comp list because he wrote comics for them).

      Grace, I did it the first year as an experiment but all the kids loved it so I kept doing it. At one point, I was known as "The Comic Book House". And I have Star Wars toys, a Supergirl action figure a full-length graphic novel and more stuff to give away as the special prizes should there be any great costumes.

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    7. Thanks Karen. Me too but it feels interminable already.

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    8. Sorry about the back issues, Jay. Fun to have a reputation for comic books at your house!

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    9. Thanks Brenda. Yes, lots of kids are happy about the comics and then you have the few outliers who don't want them but don't know how to decline graciously and sound like brats when they don't want a comic to go with their candy.

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  6. I love the fall, dislike Halloween, and loathe all things pumpkin spice. That said, I hope everyone has fun today who wants to play along and dress up and pass out the candy!

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  7. Happy 🎃Halloween! 👻

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  8. Two of my kids were born Halloween week, so the entire month of October was a manic high of anticipation, two birthday parties, and trick and treating. Christmas paled by comparison. I sewed simple costumes until the year my daughter had to be the little mermaid. I bowed gracefully to store-bought, including a ninja turtle costume for my son.

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    1. wow, that made for a very busy week Margaret!

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    2. I bet they were so happy! And that is always fun to see…

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  9. I love autumn. Also a Connecticut native, October is a spectacular month to be here.

    My birthday is on Halloween. My Dad decorated the inside of the whole house with skeleton, witch and ghost paper decorations and streamers. My grandmother would come up from New York and bake a birthday cake for my party and she'd bake cup cakes for me to take to school. I had costumes, but we lived in a rural area and did not trick or treat.

    I did throw some fun costume parties as an adult and had some terrific costumes. One year I dressed as Gabby Hayes, with the crown pushed up in my hat and a gray beard. Any friends 10 years or more younger than I am did not know who he was.

    When I taught, I sewed a hot pink satin witch costume with a tall hat. My bestie from high school, also a teacher, borrowed it every other year.
    FUN MEMORIES.

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  11. Fall is my favorite season but for me pumpkin spice is not part of the experience. I like pumpkin pie--but using that spice in everything under the sun? I don't think so.

    As a child, I loved Halloween and trick or treating. I also loved to sew. When I was 12, I made my little sister (who had just turned 8) a Flying Nun costume out of old sheets. She loved it and now uses a picture of it as her Facebook profile each year. My son's best costume was Miss Scarlet-with-the-candle-stick. The high heels were kind of hard to walk in and the dog loved the wig. I think she thought it was a dead squirrel.

    I've never been into decorating for Halloween, but I love Día de los Muertos. I have visited Cuernavaca several times during the season. Since we were staying with Benedictine sisters, we got to go around with Padre Diego when he visited homes where people had lost loved ones in the past year (they open their homes to the community on the evening of Nov 1) and see their ofrendas (altars set up to honor their loved one) and experience their unforgettable hospitality. This year I made a small ofrenda to honor my son's grandma who died in January, using flowers, candles and pictures. We have a Latino community at my church, so we have a much bigger ofrenda set up there.

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    1. I’d love to be in Mexico for that!

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  12. Never liked Halloween as a kid – we were only allowed on our street which was the longest in town, but there were fire crackers then. The big kids would run up to you and throw the lit cracker at you or down your costume – scary! Also, more apples were given than candy, and then it was likely only 2 candy kisses – no such thing as mini chocolate bars. As for costumes then – it was usually a case of cross dressing with something from your parent’s closet. Lots of hobos, and harlots…
    We lived in farm country when the kids grew up. Then I liked to make the kids costumes. When Laura and Michael were about 4 & 5, I made them an authentic looking Snow White with all the bits in the sleeves and a magician/vampire (depended on the year). These costumes were played dress-up with for many a year, and two other children!
    In the country, there were two ‘rules’. The candy was usually just put outside and every child just helped themselves (parents were driving their own children from home to home because of the distance between), and there was always a pumpkin with a candle on the step. If the candle was out or the lights were not on, there was no candy left, so go on to the next house. It all worked.
    Pumpkin spice – nope. Not a fan of any of the ‘spice’ things and that includes carrot cake. Now if you were offering chocolate, lemon or custard…
    Oh, and by the way. We would go out on the day after Halloween, hoping the temp overnight had not gone too far below freezing, and collect up all the ‘used’ jack o’lanterns to take back to throw over the fence to feed to the sheep. They loved them! (did you know that raw pumpkin seeds have a natural wormer reaction – good for the sheep as well!)

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  13. I suppose once upon a time I must have liked it. Maybe. But I've never been a big fan of the whole dress-up thing. And I can buy candy any time I please.

    I did do a few store-bought costumes, but my kids moved into "I want to make my costume" pretty quickly. It was very stressful, because the costume they wore to school, wasn't good enough for trick-or-treating or activities, the costume for trick-or-treating never allowed enough movement for dance or martial arts...ugh.

    Pumpkin spice in moderation, but I tend to gravitate to the bread and pie products anyway.

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  14. It just dawned on me - I've never tried Pumpkin Spice anything, except pumpkin pie (which has spices in it and I love). I will have to try a pumpkin spice latte or something.

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  15. Like many others living in the NE, I LOVE fall. The changing fall colours, the cooler weather is invigorating.
    But I don't like the shorter amount of daylight and am not a fan of pumpkin spice.

    As a kid, my mom made all my costumes. I remember going trick-or-treating in Toronto dressed as a witch or Tinkerbell.

    No adult Halloween parties for me, though. And our historic Byward Market street has been pretty quiet on Halloween. But there was a nice turnout at this weekend's Day of the Dead Festival.

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  16. Rhys, love that photo of you and John--if they'd had a prize at that party for most handsome couple, you would've won hands' down! My brother always went for store-bought costumes for youngest nephews--their Pooh and Tigger were adorable as toddlers. Little old ladies swooned and filled the candy buckets when Tigger did what Tigger does--BOUNCE!

    A friend is very big on Halloween and whatever her granddaughter wants for a costume, Grammie makes it happen. One year she was a spider witch, this year a zombie princess. I'm told her trick or treat bucket is a skull that lights up! And a big NO for pumpkin spice anything--please, no drinks, no candles, no sprays! Pie, yes!

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    1. Flora, my friend Ann is big on Halloween. She does the haunted houses, hosts a Halloween party and dresses up all the various places she can do so. The first year I went to the party you had to dress up as either your favorite dead celebrity or your favorite living celebrity if they were dead. I went as Bob Ross. She combined both options and went as zombie Marilyn Monroe. One person came with just a pair of hands attached to their back and said they were Natalie Wood. OUCH!

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    2. Thank youJohn did look dashing with a beard!

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  17. I am not a fan of Halloween at all! No trick or treaters because one wants to come up my long steep driveway in the woods. I never liked the carving pumpkins things; for me it was the smell. No, no, no to pumpkin spice anything. But pie or pumpkin bread. But fall can be, and often is, glorious!

    I learned just this morning, from Alexa, that it was Ireland that gave us Halloween! I had no idea.

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    1. I knew it was a Celtic festival. So also in other Celtic areas

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  18. My mom would answer the door, and reply to "Trick or Treat!" with "Okay show me your trick." It would flummox most of the time. She would say, tell me a joke, sing a song..etc. The parents loved it -- totally embarrassed me when I was a teen. Now, thinking back I think this was pretty cool.

    On Nome Street we turn out the lights and hide under the covers with a flashlight and a good book. Pumpkin spice ice cream maybe.. otherwise nope.

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    1. We draw the blinds and do the same thing, Coralee!

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    2. Since we have always lived on roads with rural mailboxes and neither sidewalks or street lights, we have not had a kid show up at our door for 35 years.

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    3. Karen, the neighbors' granddaughter came over once, other than that, no trick or treaters on our rural road either. But I always buy candy, just in case!

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  19. Halloween - Meh. Never really got into it.
    Pumpkin spice - sure. In pumpkin pie, bread, or cookies. Living in a northern area I love the warming spices (second only to chocolate for desserts). Pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice (a slightly different combination), gingerbread spices, speculaas, cinnamon buns -- bring it on. But I drink my coffee plain. And add a cookie or cinnamon bun on the side.

    In one of the Murdoch mysteries episodes, Constable George Crabtree 'discovered' adding pumpkin pie spice to coffee. Too Funny.

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    1. That is so recent in England. When I was growing up pumpkin spice was not a concept! Rhys

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  20. I'm with Edith--pumpkin spice for pie, only, and that's one of my least favorite pies.

    Being October-born might account for my affinity to fall and Halloween, although it didn't work that way for you, Rhys! But I am the Halloween Queen. As the oldest of four, and with a mom without a molecule of creativity, I made costumes for us all, and have continued to do so all my life with my three kids, and with Steve and me. Costumes as diverse as a Crayola crayon to a stop sign to Charlie Chaplin (me), and loads of couples costumes for us: werewolf and green witch, Pierrot and and hobo clowns, safari guy and Fay Wray in pith helmet, Snow White and an all-too-convincing Dumbo, vampire and bitten flapper, Jill Sparrow and her first mate, and yes, devil and fallen angel. At our party on Saturday we were both pollinators: an old bat, and a Monarch butterfly.

    And we had the most epic Halloween party ever this time. I decorate the inside of the house--every public room--and have music, lights, spooky noises, a vast and pretty convincing graveyard, and themed food with signature cocktails. This one took months to plan, but our friends, who all know how far I go with it, spend a lot of effort with costumes, this year in particular. Late in the evening I announce more than 20 costume awards, including the Party Favorite, as voted on by the guests. The photo backdrop was a big hit this year, too. I stretched a spider web across a four-panel folding screen, with a couple props.

    I have only managed to hold these parties every other year, they take so much effort, and because of the pandemic, this one was a year late. I told Steve it might be my swan song given our age, but he protested. Not only does he enjoy it (and dresses up as whatever I tell him to, bless the man), but as he pointed out, we have a whole lot of Halloween "stuff" now. Well, yes, I've been collecting it since the 1970s.

    Happy Halloween 2022!

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    1. Wow Karen! I’d love to see your house! Rhys

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    2. Your party sounds like the party of the year! Wish I lived closer!!

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    3. You guys can see the graveyard on my Facebook page right now, if you're interested. It's my banner at the moment.

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  21. I liked Halloween when my son was little. When he was in kindergarten, we had a children's Halloween party that was a great success. I still remember having a serious conversation with someone and glancing in a mirror and seeing myself--in clown makeup, complete with a red fright wig and red nose. The best part is when we took the children out to trick or treat. Two doors down, we urged our 5-year-old to go up to the door and say "trick or treat," and someone would give him candy. Now candy was a great motivator for him, but he was still reluctant. Finally he cautiously approached the door, and when everything went as we had told him it would, he turned around and yelled, "It worked!" BUT when I was a child adults didn't really dress up, and when that started happening, the magic sort of went out of it for me.

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  22. And happy Halloween birthday to Judy Singer!

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    1. Thanks, Karen! We are going to a special restaurant tonight and we won't be leaving lights on in the house.

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  23. Comic books are such a great idea. I don't think I've heard of anyone doing that. I'm sure the older kids prefer comics to candy. When I was a kid, I loved dressing up to trick or treat. My favorite costume was to dress as a gypsy.

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  24. My favorite part of Halloween is the costumes and sorting through the candy haul. One year my mother made me a Flying Nun costume. It was very windy and I swear I was actually lifted a few inches off the ground!
    I made some great costumes for my kids over the years too. It was especially fun to come up with a theme. Like firefighter and Dalmatian, Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, Scarecrow, Dorothy, and Tin Man, Uncle Sam, Statue of Liberty, and camouflaged soldier. The secret to a great costume is always in the accessories!

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  25. I love reading about everyone’s Halloween memories. It is most definitely my favorite holiday!

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  26. Finally, someone else who feels like I do about fall - I'm not a fan since it means winter is coming, and I'm not a fan of the coolish weather and shorter days. (And yes, I'm saying this as a spoiled So Cal resident.)

    I enjoy Halloween as a kid. I don't dislike it now, but it's also not something I look forward to. I'm not a creative person, so I have a hard time coming up with costumes. I have friends who host an annual party each year, and they encourage costumes. This was the first year they didn't say anything to me for not even trying to show up with a costume.

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  27. I'm about to head out to buy 1) two pumpkins (which will not be carved) 2) mums (a local nursery has a buy-one-get-one-free sale) 3) candy. I can reliably get a small bag, because we have very few if any trick-or-treaters on my rural road, but you know, you can't risk having nothing unless you're willing to sit inside with all the lights out! :-)

    And yes, I always wait until the day or close to it to buy any decor. When the kids reached their teens we stopped doing "scary" decorating and carving pumpkins, and now I shoot for something that will last outdoors through Thanksgiving.

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  28. My best Halloween costumes were: 1- many, many years ago my mother and I worked out a costume for me to be a storm. Draped in black with Boom! And Crash! And lightning bolts on it. In my hands were coat hangers bent to look like lightning bolts, wrapped in aluminum foil, that I could spin in my hands.
    Then a few years ago my husband and I went to a party as a Hitchcock Double Feature. I was draped in a shower curtain with a outline of a figure on it and red paint hand marks dripping down the curtain. My husband has black birds all over him, even bursting through his shirt, with blood stains. There was a bird on his head on a baseball cap with an eyeball in its beak. He had one eye blacked out.

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  29. I love the fall and as a child loved Halloween! Trick or treat for UNICEF! Anyone else remember that. You always asked after you collected your booty so the giver wouldn't get confused. My mom could rival any makeup artist. My favorite costume was a tiger. She made the tiger suit and painted my face in stripes. It was wonderful. No pix though, my family was never a daub hand with a camera - my dad took the photos at my first wedding, but forgot to put film in the camera. Nuff said :)

    Pumpkin spice, hard no except in pie. Rhys and I will be side by side at the mud hole.

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  30. I loved Halloween as a kid. Absolutely loved it! This will be my first Halloween here and I don't know what to expect. I have lots of candy but it is raining and will be raining all day. I'm not sure the kids will hit this block since it's a short one. As for pumpkin spice? Yes, in pie, cake, and pumpkin bread.

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  31. I'm with Rhys. Fall means my favorite season has ended, cold days are coming along with pumpkin spice, ugh!. Love Halloween though.

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  32. I hate fall because it augurs winter. I hate pumpkin spice because it makes me gag. I don't eat pumpkin anything as a rule, and not a big fan of apple pie either (lemon meringue is another story!) Not happy about going off daylight savings time either. I want all the daylight I can get. And all the warmth.

    Grateful today that Blogger finally let me on, even though I'm now anonymous. The last few days, I couldn't even get the comments section to open. Right now I feel about Blogger the way I feel about fall/winter and pumpkin spice: "dark in the lonesome October of my most immemorial year." (Ah, but I do love Poe.)

    EllenK

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  33. I'm a big fan of fall and of Halloween! I love my Halloween decorations I do inside, with the black and orange and green and purple colors. I haven't shared a pic this year on FB of my decorations, but I might do that today. I've added Funko Pops to the decorations this year, which include the Hocus Pocus witches and Hocus Pocus Dani and Thackery Binx as a cat, Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, and Jack from the Nightmare Before Christmas. I think the fall season makes everything better. I admit I don't go all out on Pumpkin Spice food or drink items, but I don't avoid them either.

    I no longer dress up in costumes, but I loved doing so when I was a kid, and I enjoyed getting my kids dressed up and taking them trick-or-treating. Costumes when I was growing up were a mixture of bought and making one out of items already on hand. My childrens' costumes were more working with clothes and costume items collected over the years, with a little bought. The best Halloween costume was for my daughter, then her daughters. It was an old black heavy satin dress of my mother's (I'm guessing from the 30s or 40s at the latest), a pencil-skirt like bottom to it, with long sleeves and a collared top. It was all in black. It made the best witches costume ever! We just had to add a witch hat and broom.

    Rhys, that's a great pic of you and John. Your son Dominic looks so much like John in this pic, both handsome men. Of course, you look beautiful. Hank, I love your sense of humor. The Arcs, Joan and Noah of. Hilarious! Jenn, I think you've made an excellent point. Halloween brings out the kid in me, too, or rather it lets the kid out that is always lurking there. Julia, youngest and the dog are adorable in their matching pumpkin attire. And, I'd love to experience some Maine fall, even though my Kentucky fall is pretty spectacular. Hallie, I am such a fan of Jerry's art work, his drawings and now this pumpkin. He was a major talent. I'd love to see some of your adult daughters' costumes. Lucy, I'm betting you can come up with some great pet costumes. I'm thinking of the "hot dog" costuming parade in Key West. Debs, I do hope you post a pic of Wren in her Halloween costume this year. That adorable girl is growing up so fast. And, I love the house in Chelsea.

    I will add that the only time of year where I lament having no sewing skills is at Halloween. I see what people can make for themselves and their children and grandchildren, and I am amazed. A friend of mine just posted a pic of his granddaughter (3 years old) in the Winifred Sanderson witch costume her grandmother made. So cute.

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  34. I'm not a fan of Halloween. Never have been. But I do remember one from when I was young when my parents took us to my grandparent's house. She dressed up as a hobo, then when they opened the door, she told them she wanted more candy and pushed past my grandfather and walked into the livingroom to get more. It was pretty funny way back then, but these days, that would be oh-so-scary!

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  35. RHYS, sorry I’m so late today to the party. Woke up with a headache then I got my mammogram today. Full day for me. With the shorter days, I feel very tired. I already set out bags of organic Halloween candy bags outside for trick and treaters. With the ongoing pandemic, I thought it was better to have treats outside instead of opening the door to trick and treaters.

    Love pumpkin spice. I wonder if it is in my 🧬 dna? My mom is not a fan of nutmeg though I love it in my coffee.

    I used to date a man who was not a fan of Halloween. In fact he refused to wear a costume on Halloween. As a young child, I loved to dress up and use the excuse to wear makeup. I loved makeup and still love 💄

    One year my mom made a cleopatra costume for me. It was really cool. I just stood there and she wrapped me in gold fabric like a toga or sari. That was fun. She does not sew except to mend holes in clothes. I thought it was creative, I remember getting Halloween costumes at the local Woolworth or dime store.

    This year I did not wear a costume. Major headache that finally disappeared just before my mammogram appointment.

    Totally agree with Jenn! Love pumpkin spice.

    Diana

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  36. Yes! I love that quote from Anne of Green Gables about October. I remember hearing the crunch of the leaves as I was walking about a month after I started hearing again with my cochlear implants.

    Diana

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