A Hell Of A Thing To Do

(Some Halloween lights hanging above our kitchen table.)

Our holiday tree is up for the season and it shall remain until right after Christmas. We dig Halloween, my wife and I. We met at a theatre audition in college and are drawn to the playacting involved with Halloween – the dressing up, the fantasy, the story telling, the play pretend. We love Halloween.

(The Halloween tree.)

A few years ago we started putting up a Halloween tree. It’s taken us a while to acquire the decorations. Some of them we’ve made and some have been given to us. Some of the ornaments are scary, some are folk art and some are handcrafted. We also have a flickering “Bates Motel” sign. Oh yeah.

For a very long time, Kathy and I have enjoyed taking youngsters to the haunted houses. It started with some kids with a church youth group and grew from there. For the past several years my cousin, Austin, has been visiting the House of Jack during October for a fright-filled weekend of haunted houses, corn maizes, and scary movies. His younger brother, Evan, has decided he’s ready this year. Other cousins, nieces and nephews are interested this year as well. And if you’re wondering, I bloody well dress up on Halloween.