Henry David Thoreau
It's a beautiful fall day in Chicago and not rainy as I remember so many of my Halloween trick-or-treating experiences being. It never stopped us though. I looked so forward to the annual showing of "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" which meant trick-or-treating was just around the corner. : ) Actually, I still love that show but now I own it on Blu Ray and we watch it every Halloween night.
The History Channel had a special on about Halloween traditions and how they started. Turns out that there was a period in history that Halloween was celebrated as a Christian holiday to honor the dead. Did you know that there was a man named Jack that would run around town with a carved gourd and a lantern and that's how jack-o-lanterns began? He was a strange and creepy man I guess. Ya think?
I was trying to remember why I was watching that show and it just occurred to me....."Twister" was on and I just couldn't take it anymore. Why did we all like that movie back then? The tornados were cool but then you had to wait for them through the other parts. Well this time I guess I bailed. : ) So back to Halloween......
Have you noticed that more people are getting into decorating their homes for Halloween? It's getting to be almost like Christmas in the Chicago area. Last night we went to see a house that Dan had told me about near his place and it was so great! You needed to get out of the car to see all of the detail. So we did.
While we were standing on the sidewalk and admiring everything, the homeowners brother came up to us and it turns out that he too does similar things to his home (in a neighboring town) and he has even won an award for scariest house in the contest Glen Ellyn does. He told us all about everything and how it was all done. All about how much work his brother does every year to make everything. He has an artist background and started decorating his parent's home when he lived there. Now the two brothers share their love for this every year. He went to get his brother to meet us and sure enough they talked about everything like it was the best thing they had ever done. They don't just go out and buy decorations. They design them and get things off the internet that they then customize for their yards. Some of the high points were...
a free floating ghost in the front window (full size)
3 pumpkins that sing the theme song from The Haunted Mansion at the Disney Parks and they do it in an animated fashion like the busts in the graveyard on the ride.
a graveyard complete with a smoke machine that would go on whenever it would lightning and thunder (a system that they had devised to make both happen) and it wasn't just one light, it was a few in different locations.
a Linda Blair small head for their door knocker (she's from the movie the exorcist if you don't recognize the name)
The exorcist was the movie (back in the day) that had everyone heaving in their popcorn tubs due to fear and the gross stuff.
a window above their garage had an ever changing spooky scene going on with lights and film
at the entryway to their house they had a little area with a roof so they were able to put spider webs with loads of spiders (no not the rings) all over them of different sizes. Carved pumpkins that could be at Martha Stewart's house on the step but then in a tall window next to the door about 3 feet wide there was a scene that looked like a normal entryway with a little table and lamp etc. The mirror above all this would change and have 2 head busts of people that looked like they were straight out of the Haunted Mansion. They were actual busts and had been ordered from the same artist that did some famous horror movies (sorry, I can't remember what they were).
And so much more!
But the thing that struck me was how cool it was that these two brothers shared this together with their families every year and were so proud of each other. One of their little sons came out and was so proud too. You could see that this was a shared father son activity but really...this was a "dad" thing and the kids got the benefits too. We could all use a lot more of that don't you think? Fun just for the sake of fun! We all have enough responsibilities and we need to find the fun again.
So for today.....go out and do something silly and fun! Carve a pumpkin or maybe even go for a walk tonight when the trick-or-treating has begun and watch the kids in their costumes. Listen to their giggles.
Or...go buy a bag of candy and yes, eat some. It's ok....it's Halloween!
Go have some fun!