PASSIONATE RATIONS

Let me take a moment to lament the fact that Halloween just ain’t what it used to be.

I remember hordes of children trolling the streets of my childhood for sweets.   It seems like there are fewer children ringing the bell every year.

Maybe it’s the lack of sidewalks.  I’ve had several philosophical conversations recently about the impact of no sidewalks on trick-or-treating.  “It’s all about the fraying of community in America,” said one colleague, and it does seem like I knew my neighbors better when I was ten than I do now.

It’s so disappointing to a girl who holds Halloween as her favorite holiday.   How can someone with a voracious sweet tooth and a love of edgy sub-plots NOT like Halloween?!

To remedy some of the sadness of lost black magic, we finally put on a Halloween party this year (actually a Halloween Eve event).   I say “finally” because we’ve been talking about doing one for years, but haven’t because we didn’t have enough props to do it right.  After some mad-dash shopping sprees to purchase vats of blood, a wedding dress, parti-colored lightbulbs and miscellaneous objects in orange and black, we were finally able to pull one off at the scale I envision (and will minimally require) for what I’d like to be an annual event.

There were giant spiders, a black-lit dead bride, jack-o-lanterns, a dungeon scene (with robed death figure), scary clowns, strobe light effects, vampire bats, and…the coup de grace…a bathroom crime scene involving blood spatter and severed body parts (thank you for the inspiration, CSI).  Nothing like those severed limbs to bring home the meaning of community.  (The staging was why I didn’t post earlier this week.  Sorry.)

And, let’s not forget, there’s the fun cooking aspect.  It’s amazing what you can do with cupcakes, food coloring and cookies that look like tombstones when up-ended.  My spouse made a fabulous seasonal butternut squash soup.  And a guest brought a dessert that looked like a potted plant (dubbed the “dirt dessert”), but tasted like everything that is sweet and good in life.  Ah, yes, now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ ’bout!

As I wade out of the giant bin of leftover candy (the result of optimistically overestimating the number of candy-grubbing ghouls and goblins), I sigh.  The river of trick-or-treaters may have become a trickle, but there’s still community to be had in Halloween.   Yes, a party must definitely become an annual event!

Well, at least fewer kids means there’s plenty of peanut butter cups left por moi.