Halloween 2018

A trend I've noticed for several years is homes that set a table up outside their homes to hand out Halloween candy to the trick-or-treaters. I see the advantages of this setup. Seeing the groups come up to your house. Not having to continuously open and close your door. And in the case of this home, they invited other neighbors to come over and spend the evening. They served dinner and sat around in a circle for good conversation. A great way to make new memories.

How has your Halloween changed through the years?

Welcome!

Now, this is my kind of welcome...broom parking...an acknowledgment that the "Witch is in"...and an invitation to trick or treating! I know where I will be visiting tomorrow night.

Ring around a...

These ghostly figures are celebrating the season around this tree. If it looks like there are more fallen leaves than you'd expect, you're right. I was away this weekend to an area where they actually have fall colors!

Humpty Dumpty

I came across these fun pumpkins sitting on a back wall along an alley. Seeing them somehow reminded me of the children's poem Humpty Dumpty—hopefully these pumpkins will be able to stay on the wall.

"Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love — that makes life and nature harmonise... Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."
~ George Eliot

Beware of magic!

This yard was decorated to the hilt. It was such a fun conglomeration of fall color and Halloween decoration. For me, a part of the fun of Halloween is the buildup, seeing yards all over the town dressing up for Halloween and fall.

Be afraid, be very afraid!

Another example of some really creative yard art for Halloween. A little creepy for small kids, but pretty fun!

Are you scared yet?

More and more houses are adding Halloween decorations as Halloween draws near. The skulls on this entryway make a foreboding mixed message...do you really want to approach? I'm not so sure...

Scaredy-cat

It is October and the time when more and more houses are adding pumpkins and Halloweeny decorations on front porches and on lawns.

Itsy bitsy spider

It's not just individuals who are decorating for Halloween. It seems that every business I enter these days, such as this Pizza Hut, is already getting into the scary Halloween spirit.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself...and spiders."
~ Anonymous

Haunted

It's that time again. Ghouls and ghosties are popping up around town.

Trick or treat at the mall

Looking back, what strikes me most about Halloween when I was a kid was the level of participation. I grew up on a block of seven houses. Once around the block, both sides of the street, and the total went to 30 houses. And every one of them had their porch light on, welcoming the neighborhood kids.

On my current street of 40 houses, there were four porch lights on. (I think this explains why trick-or-treating seems to be such a car-bound experience anymore.) No wonder community events, such as Trick or Treat! at Stonewood Center, are so popular! With great participation from all the stores, kids could have the excitement of running from place to place in a warm and dry environment. And safe, too, especially under the watchful eye of the security storm troopers.

It almost felt like the old neighborhood.

Hawaiian Halloween

I missed Halloween in Downey this year. But, I certainly had my fill of seeing people in a variety of creative costumes. People were wandering around Waikiki enjoying the evening and showing off their often scary Halloween disguises.



"From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-legged beasties
And things that go bump in the night
Good Lord, deliver us!"
~ Old Scottish saying

Another spooky spider

Keeping with the October holiday theme, I spotted this guy building his web in my backyard the other night. It was very scary to try and get close enough for a decent picture that would show you just how big this spider is. His abdomen was as fat as the end of my thumb. Spooky!

Spookiness lives here

In addition to the spiders crawling all over (Spooky spiders), this house is a temporary home to Count Dracula and a couple of ghosts.

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you."
~ Dracula

Spooky ghost

It is always interesting to find how people decorate their yards and houses in preparation for Halloween. This skeletal ghost was pretty spooky even in daylight with the wind breathing life into his ghostly form.

"The lawn 
Is pressed by unseen feet, and ghosts return
Gently at twilight, gently go at dawn, 
The sad intangible who grieve and yearn . . . " 
~ T.S. Elliot

Spooky spiders

We've posted about the fun yard art at this house before (Sunsets and yard art and His bark is worse than his bite...), but we've never seen it this time of year. It turns out that this family really does it up for Halloween. It's spooky enough during the day. I can't wait to see it on Halloween night.

"Remember when you threw a shoe at me and I fell somewhere behind the bed? 

"I remember too."
~ The spider

Honor and Halloween

Pumpkins, scarecrows, spiders and skeletons—all bring attention to the main attraction at this home, that an honor student lives here.

Sentinels of Halloween

These sentinels of Halloween are popping up all over lawns in Downey. This little one just popped up a few days ago. A little worn from his travels but with a big smile to greet me.

The stragglers

Maybe I just haven't noticed before. But this year, I'm very aware of the Halloween decorations that are still up in these first days of November. (Not that I really expect anyone to jump up early Tuesday morning and pack the stuff away!) But with Halloween and summer weather infringing into the first days of November, and knowing that Christmas decorations are going to start popping up any day now even though it's not yet Thanksgiving, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic for the good ol' days. What's happened to fall?

All at once...

"And all at once summer collapsed into fall."
~ Oscar Wilde

It seems like I had just passed this house only a week before, but this day it was transformed into a field of "fall" and Halloween all at once.