Month: October 2015

Halloween! It was always the best.  But, do the witches and ghosts, jack-o-lanterns and skeletons, bats and black cats, spread fear or joy?

Halloween served as a right of passage.  It starts out with families and friends trick or treating in groups.  For a time parents will travel with the pack.  But, then comes the All Hallow’s Eve when you strike out on your own.  No parental supervision required.  You and your friends handling the intricacies of  the “trick or treat” and “thank you.”   Kids trusted to safely cross streets at night, in the dark, on their own.  Halloween was the pre-teens Independence Day!

It is the one “school night” bedtime doesn’t seem to matter. It is also the one holiday when school was in session the next day.  Talk about the trailblazing and the costumes and the pranks and the loot is of primary concern.  The excitement hangs in the air from the past evening’s adventure.  Teachers hate it.

Today, some $6 billion is spent on Halloween, second only to Christmas.  That is a lot of orange and black.  Here are some of my favorite hauntings from October 31.  What are yours?

Favorite scary haunted house movie:  Forget all the blood and gore and fancy special effects that litter today’s movie landscape.  The best scary movie was 1966’s classic “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.”  Don Knott’s can not be topped.

 

Scariest treat:  Apples.  Do you eat it or don’t you eat it?  Apples got a bad wrap in the seventies with the razor blade scare.  Some folks went so far as to have treats x-rayed before kids could dig in.  Of course, caramel apples and bobbing apples were always perfectly acceptable.  We always wondered,  “who would give a kid an apple on Halloween?”

Best spooky cookie:  The Halloween Oreo!  The black wafers with orange cream are awesome!  Doesn’t matter if they taste the same as the regular Oreos.  The orange and black are the best.

Best candy:  Candy corn is okay but the classic candy bar is the best.   The standard size candy bars might seem generous, but they interfere with  sampling three or four of the little ones.  Make mine mini’s, please.  Besides, little tummies need little candies.

The tricks on you:  Really, you just found what in your trick or treat bag?  Discovering a tooth-brush is the worst.  Why not throw some floss in, too?  The tooth fairy gets her own days.  Way to disappoint that little princess or ghoul!

The neighborhood get-together is nice and safe.  A beverage, bowl of chili, cornbread and a little salad are great ways to hang with the neighbors.  But, once the dining is done, let the kids roam (with reasonable parent supervision, of course).

The experience gained exploring our world Halloween night is a part of growing up in America.   If the next generation of Americans is too afraid to walk around the block, how will we ever make it to Mars?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are not too many celebrities that I hunger to meet.  Back in the day, my one true celeb crush was Olivia Newton John.  That was when she was just starting out as a country singer, before she starred in “Grease” or “Xanadu” or before she wanted to get “Physical.”

Having the chance to get to Europe, I hoped to come face to face with another star.  She is well known and her face is every where. She is on billboards, key chains, mugs, and tea towels.  She is a marketing machine.  I wondered what it would be like to have one moment to look into her eyes, say “hello,” and smile a little smile back at her.  If the opportunity presented itself, would I freeze up?  Could I find the words that would get her attention?  Would the moment pass without a glance?

There we were landing in Spain!  The plane touched down in Barcelona.  Unfortunately, so did the toy truck in the overhead bin.  It set down on my skull, splitting my forehead.  How embarrassing would that be, to meet her with a big bandage on my head.

Five days in Barcelona.  Awesome food!  The paella, the tapas, the fresh fish were delightful.  So were the fruits and vegetables that were abundant.    The trip to the 450 year old winery was fun as well as wandering around this remarkable city on the Mediterranean coast.  Not much of a chance of seeing her in Barcelona.  Chances of running into her in Paris were much more likely.  Thankfully the bandages came off.

So, to Paris we flew.  Flew, as in moving 300 km/hr on the railway!  I had a strong feeling the person I wanted to meet was there.  We arrived late in the afternoon.  We took a short cruise along the Seine and then spent a day at Versailles.  We wandered through the art district of Montmarte and then spent a day at the Louvre Museum.  So many nice people, so much art.

It was then off to London.  So much history and so many pubs!  The Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Walks through St. James’s Park and Hyde Park.  A visit to Princess Diana’s Memorial Fountain.  It is a pretty incredible city.

So, did I ever meet her?  No.  She is big time.  She has a lot of fans.  It was hard to get close.

Maybe next time we will push our way through the paparazzi and her groupies to catch Mona Lisa’s attention.

 

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