From a demonic bunny ...
A Halloween traditionalist ...
And a truly scary something.
I decided to forgo my usual peace pumpkin this year to make a timely statement. I have a sneaking suspicion that mine isn't the only election-themed Jack-o-Lantern this year.
Mr. Ether has a gig out of town tonight, so I am the official candy hander-outer. I like this job a lot. One of the reasons I like it so much is that I teach at my neighborhood school, so it is a given that I'll see at least one of my students at my door. They always look a little stunned when I come to the door. Maybe seeing me is a scene from their own worst nightmare -- "Oh my God. She's probably going to tell me to spit my gum out in the wastebasket!" But, being kindergartners, they usually wiggle like puppies when they see me.
A few minutes ago it was Stephanie and her family. A slow smile spread across her face and she kept repeating herself: "Hi, Ms. Grindrod. Hi, Ms. Grindrod." As she walked away, one of the other kids said, "Is that your teacher??"
Here's my neighbor Mary with her son Jacob. Jacob is wearing an amazingly realistic costume depicting a 2-year-old boy. He's really 15.
Cigarette hanging off her lip, she rasps at me, "Yeah, Gramma's got the kid for the night. Honey, grab 2 or 3 candies for Gramma." A few Halloweens ago, she was out in front of her house in her bathrobe, terrorizing trick-or-treaters with a chainsaw. What fun!Former students Lily and Owen have already been by. I didn't get their picture, unfortunately. Lily had the prize costume a few years back, when she was in kindergarten: a skunk! (That was the year she had a skunk infatuation. It was a good day indeed, the morning I got to go to school and tell her about the skunk Mr. Ether had seen waddling out of our garage. Unfortunately, I suspect the skunk may actually still be living under our garage ...)
Sparkly Seacow, aged 12, is out trick-or-treating with my cell phone. Her friends that we usually go with are at their dad's house this year, and Sparkly begged me to let her go alone. Since I'm the only parent home tonight, I relented and said yes. My baby is growing up! In a little while I'm taking her over to the Quaker Meeting House for a middle school retreat.
Speaking of scary things, I was doing carpool duty for Sparkly's play rehearsal and got pulled over by the police: "Do you want to tell me why you still have the 2007 stickers on your license plate?" Um, because the car was dead in our driveway for a good 5 months, and the stickers are on the kitchen counter? He was nice about it, and let me go with a warning to "Put the sticker on when you get home." Yeah, but first I have to find it.
Doorbell ringing slowing down. The last person to ring it turned out to be Sparkly Seacow, back with her haul of tooth rot.
There is a dentist in Madison -- the dad of former students of mine, for whom I have very little respect but that's a different story -- who makes a big deal of advertising that he will buy back kids' Halloween candy and send it to "the troops." What a guy.
My dentist, who happens to be a former union shipyard steamfitter from Duluth as well as a good leftist, just laughed when I asked him about Halloween candy and said he gives out as much candy as the next guy.
Here is Sparkly Seacow, dressed as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland (a contemporary Mad Hatter.)
Wow, I just had visits from a bishop, a baby, and an Incredible Hulk-like guy. And another little girl who said, "Don't you teach at Emerson?" The little kids are tapering off, and now it's the older kids. In another half hour or so it will be the big kids in garbage bags, or no costumes at all.Oh, I almost forgot! Joe the Halliburton Employee is here with me this evening! Stand up, Joe! Joe, are you here ... ? Well, uh, we're all Joe the Halliburton Employees so everybody stand up! You too, sir. And wipe that sneer off your face.
Let's get a close-up of your shirt. Nice!
I hope you had a good one!
9 comments:
Nice photos!
Thanks to your brother Paul for finding the Halliburton shirt at a thrift store in Utah and sending it to me. I'm sorry to say that in Lake Mills, WI, where we had the gig this evening, when when I was asked about my costume and I explained that I was a Halliburton employee, very few people understood the concept. I received a lot of dazed and confused expressions. I find it hard to believe that there are people in this country who don't know about Halliburton.
Dig the Mad Hatter costume, and especially those pumpkins (especially that third one; awesomely creepy). Glad to see you had a nice Halloween!
Looks like a good and a tad CRAZY Halloween to me!
Ed -- Unbelievable. Does that say something about how Lake Mills will vote on Tuesday? Or just about how irrelevant Mr. Bunker-hider has become?
Hi, Samurai -- Glad to hear from you. I thought she made a cute Hatter. Mr Ether will be so happy that you liked his pumpkin; he dashed it off in just a few minutes.
Suzie -- Crazy actually happens a few miles away from us on the main drag that goes from the university campus to the state capitol. For years now, people in costume would spontaneously gather for a giant street party. It got a reputation, and tens of thousands of people started to descend on the city for Halloween weekend. For a few years it was out of hand drunken revelry and rioting: store windows smashed, a lot of fights, a death when a drunk student fell off a balcony ... so the city took it in hand and now they cordon off a large part of the downtown and sell tickets to "Freakfest." It was always fun to see the costumes, but not worth the headache of trying to get there!
We had two stinking trick or treaters.
Dr. Monkey -- Wow, were they also dressed like skunks? Joking aside, that's disappointing. We've had years like that. Our street is one block long and doesn't have streetlights (?!) so if people don't know that nice people like me live there, they might not come down. Lately though, more and more neighbors have been turning on their porch lights, which really helps.
Suzy,
What a fun post! Thanks for the smiles and chuckles.
I love the Jack O Lantern pics!
Pagan
Is the Mad Hatter you and Ed's girl? Adorable and I detect a resemblance to her dad? :-)
Pagan, yes. That's our 12 year old daughter. Ed will be so glad to hear that she looks like him to an unbiased eye. Our other daughter looks very much like me (though she also looks almost identical to Ed's mother at 19. Hmmmm.)
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