Halloween Thoughts

So Tuesday night was Halloween. When the boys were young, we were effusive in our decorations; in addition to cobwebs and fog, over the years we’ve featured “creatures” crawling about our fountain, staged a car accident in the driveway and one year had a smoke-breathing dragon and troll. It took days to weeks for us to plan, build (if necessary) and install the various spooky things to delight our trick-or-treaters. Our neighbors would make sure to stop by before the trick-or-treating began so they could marvel at the work that we did.

But the boys have all grown up and either moved away or started families of their own. Consequently, from year to year Steve and I don’t know if we’ll even be home to hand out candy much less decorate the house. Trick-or-treating with our granddaughters takes priority.

This year, though, we ended up being home for trick-or-treat. Some last minutes changes meant that we didn’t go out with the granddaughters and instead I made a last minute stop at the store to get candy and a pumpkin. I didn’t even carve the pumpkin but instead put it outside on a side table with a votive candle burning. Steve took the dogs upstairs so they wouldn’t go nuts with the ringing of the doorbell and knocking on the door.

Though the offering was sad (to me), I shouldn’t have worried. We had four trick-or-treaters. Not four groups but four kids. It did mean that I was super generous in my candy distribution.

What a change from years past when we had hundreds of kids (and parents) stop by. But between the Spooktacular event in Montrose and the fantastic house decorations around town (you can see photos of the Fun & Frights in the Foothills winners and runners up on pages 12 and 13 of this paper) our little pumpkin – even with a candle – was not very appealing.

I’m grateful to the many homeowners and business owners who decorated their spaces for Fun & Frights in the Foothills. Thanks to our sponsors, too, who made sure this community favorite continued.

This year was one of the best ever and I look forward to our Merry & Bright holiday home tour.

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I wanted to give a shout out to those who wrote to me in response to my column last week. Though I try to keep my mouth shut instead of commenting on the current events that are happening around town, I just couldn’t keep quiet last week. When I put the final touches on the piece I was a little reluctant to send it off to the printer. But in the end my comments garnered a couple of “thumbs up.”

Thank you to those who took the time to send over an email; I really appreciate it.