Thursday, October 31, 2013
Hal-0-ween-io!!
Working on the front entrance steps today. Stopped after a couple of hours to get the
porch lights working and strung around the perimeter of the deck. Swept the driveway and erected a sign that
says “Happy Halloween! Honk for Treats”.
I hung a bicycle horn from a rope just above the sign and have a rawhide
work glove tacked to the sign pointing at the horn.
But, probably no kids will come up the drive to get any candy
here. This house looks too forbidding
perched on the hillside, the driveway steep and up hill, and long and dark, and there are no
blow-up sculptures from Party
City or Walmart on the
lawn to soften the blackness of the silhouettes of the bare trees or the stark
pinpoints of the stars and the cycle moon.
When it gets dark in our community it is really dark. No
street lights or nearby cities to light the
sky. The glow from Peekskill two and a half miles away is orange
and dim and offers no comfort to the foot traveler on our roads. The roads are padded with deep leaves,
slightly soggy from the misting rain.
The breeze is damp. The overall
effect is chilling. I would not walk
around here and knock on doors (or honk on horns) for candy on a night like
this. A scary night with a sweet
tooth. This is a good night to remember
the dead too.
I lit a memorial (Yerseit) candle for Mom. Put it on the railing so I can see it from
the bay window in the living room. Folks
can see it from the driveway as they walk up too. Probably won’t know that the candle is far
spookier than the sign or the glove or the old F*#ker up on the deck throwing
candy down on them. It is a token of my
love for a woman who died in a car accident over thirty years ago. It is a token of the power of a person to
make an indelible and lasting impression on another person for ever and
always. I don’t know if it is actually
her Yerseit tonight, I just know that she died on Halloween. I use the milestone of a pagan holiday to
keep track of the years since she died.
I don’t think she would mind.
