HAPPY? HALLOWEEN? Bah, Humbug!

So, what's my problem with halloween? Well first of all my parents never reconciled their Pentecostal beliefs with "celebrating" halloween; so, I didn't trick -or-treat. This time of year underscored the differences between me and my peers.  I still cringe as I recall my Dad yelling at trick-or-treaters (kids I knew), "NO TREATS!" My five siblings and I were always able to get obscene amounts of candy, one way or another. Sometimes it was my Mum buying the clearance "holiday" candy at 75% off on November 1, but most times it was a Fall Festival at a local church.

As an adult, I don't "celebrate" halloween partly because I'm a cheapskate (& maybe a little stingy) -- why should I buy candy or allow my children to take candy from people I barely know (Gramma Minnie called it begging).  My military community lacks the sense of community one would expect, mainly because of the high turnover rate in the neighborhood. Once I introduce myself to someone, it seems they're gone soon after. Besides, Christmas is close and I have money to spend on people I actually know {as I type that I cringe--that sounds so mean}

Finally, I have a hard time reconciling the desire for sweet treats and the longing to be terrified.  The two seem like dichotomous forces, in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon she writes of a character who becomes nauseated at the combination of the two because of a childhood trauma. Even without a childhood trauma, I still find sugar and terror a curious marriage...

Goblins, ghouls, and ghosts all parading to collect candy and scare the wits out of their spectators.  I'll just stay home and get terrified by my American history books.