Halloween is Scarier Than Ever!

    When I was growing up, admittedly eons ago in the last century, we had fun on Halloween. We'd go to haunted houses, the Halloween fair at the elementary school, giggled at seeing adults dress up giving out candy, and laughed at the creative decorations on the porches where we screamed "Trick or Treat!" At some houses, we bobbed for apples, and at others, our friends' mothers spent days making homemade treats you couldn't get any other time of year. Some people even carved their pumpkins with really outrageous faces. But they'd have only one pumpkin, not 10, nor would they cover their whole front yard in scary decorations. It wasn't like today, where many of the decorations could scare the you know what out of you. I must be getting old because I don't understand why Halloween decorations are now so frightening. Is it because our society is much scarier? 

    

    In my little town, many of my neighbors began putting up their decorations in September. And the funny thing is that few kids trick or trick in my town because a day or two before Halloween, the city sponsors a Trunk or Treat event downtown, where kids can walk or drive by with their parents to safely collect their treats. Very few kids actually go door-to-door trick-or-treating. We used to do the Trunk or Treat event, then a few years back, we stopped doing it and began giving out treats just to our neighborhood kids on Halloween. They know us, we know them, it's safe for everybody. 

    This year, I don't know if we will get that many kids because we don't have "cool" decorations. Not like some of the homes in our neighborhood. We don't have one of those 12-foot-tall, $250 skeletons or mechanical ghoul sculptures standing on our lawn, nor does fake fog rise up from a fog machine, looking like the dead will rise any moment. We don't have a skeleton dog or cat, either, or a terrifying Grim Reaper. We do have a singing vampire, though, with a motion detector that starts singing "After Midnight" when a kid walks near our door. When we got it years ago, it scared the littlest kids. These days, I doubt it could frighten a baby. But we'll put it out anyway, because we're old school and we like it, and that vampire has been with us so long he has come to be like family.

    It seems like these days Halloween has become a lot like Christmas; it's all about making a profit. I don't think it's about having fun anymore. It's just an opportunity for companies to sell as many of those giant skeletons and animated sculptures as they can. Have you ever priced any of those things? Out of curiosity, I have. Buy a few of them, (and many people have several on their front lawns) and you might as well forget about making this month's house payment. But they aren't the only ones milking the formerly fun holiday. Don't forget the candy companies that are now charging $12-$22 for a bag of candy, and the costume companies that are selling costumes starting at $40 that will be worn only once. 

    I guess I am getting old. I remember Halloween used to be fun. I'm not sure that it is any more. I can't imagine that it is for the parents and homeowners who are paying $1000+ to make their houses look scary, and buy outrageously priced costumes, and overpriced candy. Where's the fun in that?

Till next time,

Jeffree Wyn