Happy Halloween

October 31, 2009

Matt and Bailey left for the city. They were dressed as ghouls. Fake blood. Matt had made fake intestines out of Saran Wrap and condoms and packed them with some unmentionable stuff that looked very real but it wasn’t--I think. He pinned his fake "guts" to the front of his torn dress shirt. He covered himself with theatrical blood and grime and yelled at me to “get the camera” while he pulled on his suit jacket. Bailey was wearing a dress/gown a la Carrie. Both of them sporting tattoos all over the place, eyes rolled back when the flash went off. Really creepy.

While we were taking the photos out on the front porch the mail lady pulled up to the mailbox and Matt, so proud of his get up, couldn’t help himself, yelled out to her “Happy Halloween” and she yell the same back up to him. She did a quick double take from down on the road as she pulled away and saw the two of them like bride and groom from hell, mugging up on the porch. I am sure they will have a good time on the train to Grand Central. I am sure the train will be packed with the youth of America dressed up for the medieval resurrection of the dead. Matt will fit right in.

I am sitting outside right now in my Sweet Construction jacket, in my green, canvas camp chair, sipping the cider we bought two weeks ago when we visited Jake and Ting Ting up in Ithaca. It has gone hard and is not for the feint of heart. The fermentation gases had built up in the plastic jug and when I opened it up the top nearly blew my hand off. It is kind of sweet and bubbly with a kick. When I got up to get the radio from the tool room my knees were decidedly rubbery. Anyhow…I’m in my chair under the overhang of the metal roofed carport. A determined rain has begun where all day it had just been impenetrable clouds and mist. I have my feet up on the rock wall and a basket full of candy sits on the drivers side fender of the VW next to me. The radio is playing Jonathon Schwartz’s show- Mandy Potemkin, who I hate. He sounds like some one cut his nuts off and took his shirt and put him in a meat locker. A castrato with stiff nipples.

Just your normal Halloween. Sip of cider. I don’t suppose too many kids will be coming up the driveway today. It is only three thirty now but I thought a lot of the parents would take their little ones out early because of the weather. The weather is so lousy. We never get to many kids anyway, even in good weather. The long, dark driveway is just too forbidding. The house is usually dark and uninviting from the street-at least for kids. And then there are the tall, winding, wooden steps up to the porch…even if candy is waiting up top. (Oh cripes! Mel Torme! This guy is picking the worst of the worst!) Sip of cider. I thought if I sat downstairs it would make the place look a lot less forbidding but the rain and Mel Torme will surely keep everybody away.

Sitting out here I feel like I’m out on a camping trip. Cool. At least I get that out of it. That and a giant cider/ sugar headache. I’m gonna give it an hour. By then the sun will have set and I will have run out of cider and Halloween will be a happening thing or it won’t. Then I’ll go inside and have a slice of pizza and watch Halloween Rockin’ Eve with Dick Clark. They still have that on, don't they? I'll watch until the pumpkin drops from the tower in Notre Dame at midnight, No?

Cool Halloween.

Happy Halloween.