Lions and tigers and heffalumps, oh my!

Did you notice that people seemed to really get into Halloween this year? There were more of those big inflatable creatures on lawns, pumpkins on every step—lots of pumpkins. One house in our neighborhood even had a miniature haunted house constructed of empty appliance boxes. Orange light strings, pumpkin lights, cobwebs on bushes—like a preview of Christmas decorations.

While walking Kodiak one afternoon I saw a remarkable witch seemingly lashed to a light post. She was all in black with green tinted hose. It was rather alarming, since she looked so real. I was sure I was looking at performance art! One summer I saw a woman dressed in a gossamer, filmy gown doing a bit of performance stuff in the city. She was standing gracefully with her stare fixed on her tip jar—a smart move. This witch though was freaking me out—it was the knees. They looked so real that it wasn’t until I was very close that I could see it was just a mannequin after all.

Tonight we had a grand total of 67 trick or treaters—about average for the last few years. A sampling of the costumes we saw: lots of devils, Power Rangers, skeletons and Harry Potter characters. Cutest costume: a princess bumble bee. We saw a big sister pushing a stroller, which was sort of odd. Of course there were lots of big kids stretching out their childhood for one more Halloween.

Max was a Heffalump and he included us in his trick or treating rounds. Shane reported that Max had exclaimed, “I love getting candy from strangers!”—thus undoing centuries of parenting admonitions.