Sunday, November 1, 2015

Halloween Fright.

Well it's over for another year, people ask me if we get any children because I live out in the country and I always answer yes we do, we usually get one or two every eighteen to nineteen years. That is the true fright about life around here, it's dying out. Every now and then a young family will move in but once the children reach school age, the parents realize their kids will not have access to the type of education that schools in the city offer and so they leave. Very sad actually, many of the small villages around here have no children, like some sci-fi movie where all the children have been taken away. ............................................ The other scary thing for me is that Halloween marks the beginning of the pre drab grey days before winter. Gone are the colourful leaves, the bright orange pumpkins, the ripe red apples, the cool nights with warm days. No, now it rains and rains and everything looks grey, the sky, the trees and the cold air runs down the back of your neck like ice water. .......................................... Scary as well, Halloween has become political, some places ban it so that people won't be offended or left out because they choose not to take part. I can't help feeling nostalgic about Halloween, it was a fun evening for us, back in the day when kids were constantly reminded to be seen and not heard, compared to today where they are expected to be spoiled and catered to. When did Halloween become a symbol, once upon a time it was just a fun activity for kids, to dress up, to meet their neighbours, to get treats, end of story. There is no great conspiracy behind the tradition. ...........................................I wanted to post yesterday but internet goblins prevented me, so more annoying than scary. Speaking of annoying, I was getting candy yesterday afternoon just in case some little lost child did show up at my door and I had to duck and weave around all the store employees putting up the Christmas decorations, too soon, too soon.

5 comments:

Ur-spo said...

I rather hoped Canadians (being more sensible) would not bother with halloween as a political hangup.
I hope too you all don't turn Christmas into a battles as we do; saying merry christmas vs. happy holidays as a gauntlet to a fight.

Sooo-this-is-me said...

Actually Michael we started the Christmas wars here first, the battle has been going on for years, stores, malls, schools, businesses and government offices will not even allow the word Christmas. There is now pressure to ban it in and around religious schools or outside of churches in case someone should walk by and be offended. Even my work celebrates the "winter holiday party" instead of a Christmas party.

Ur-spo said...

I find it ironic the devout Protestants who are for lashing Merry Christmas like a whip are the decedents of devout Protestants who wanted the christmas holiday banned completely.

Sooo-this-is-me said...

True and it's embarrassing the number of so called Christians who run up to people of other faiths and wish them merry Christmas, using it as a confrontational point. Back in the day when I was a good church going little fellow, we never wished strangers merry Christmas, just people we knew because the truth is the second you step away from that stranger, you don't really care, now I think it's kind of phony the way some people push it.

larrymuffin said...

I never liked Office parties around the holidays so I stayed away. Find an excuse call in sick that day that was Ottawa. On Posting abroad we had Christmas parties everywhere including Muslim countries, I played Santa Claus in Egypt and discovered all the Muslim kids knew Baba Noel and expected gifts and thought it was such a great holiday.
We make-invent problems here because we have nothing to worry about, like real life problems.