Reflections on the Sixth Week of Fall – Halloween Transformed

    Halloween has changed.  

   When we'd lived in Cleveland Heights, I'd hung decorations in windows and set glowing jack-'o-lanterns on the front steps. Inside, we chuckled at one-liners from the Ghostbusters movie. Outside the patter of footsteps, swish of customs, and laughter of children echoed under glowing street lights. The doorbell rang, our cats peered from a safe distance, and Spence welcomed children. “Who do we have here? A ghost? A princess?” He dropped Reese's peanut butter cups and Scooby-Doo graham crackers into their bags. “Watch yourselves on the steps,” he said, and a sigh rose from the moms and dads hovering at the bottom of the driveway.

    Moving to rural Western Pennsylvania ended those traditions. Instead of carving pumpkins, we set out intact honey boat squashes and Jack Be Little pumpkins with plans to cook them later.

    I did buy Reese's peanut butter cups . . . but not for children.

    With houses spaced a quarter mile or more apart, no children traipsed down West Creek Road. Instead they attended Trunk or Treat. Families drove their cars to church parking lots, opened decorated trunks, and passed out treats to giggling, costumed youngsters.

    How could I celebrate without a ringing doorbell and “Trick or treat” shouts?

    Last year, Spence and I ambled through the Milledgeville graveyard and read headstones in day light. This year I invited neighbors Kathy and Tammy to the Homespun Treasurers Quilt Shoppe Halloween party and sale.

    Through a dark tunnel of trees, Kathy drove slowly to watch for running deer. We deposited the Reese's peanut butter cups in a plastic jack-'o-lantern by the door for 35% discount tickets on our purchases. Dressed in pajamas, slippers, and hair rollers, Joy, a friend from the quilt guild and volunteer at the quilt shoppe that night, helped me select fabrics. We matched the triangles I'd cut from my late mom's house coats with blue-green fabric for sashing to sew around quilt blocks formed with the triangles and dark green fabric for the back of Mom's memorial quilt. I sipped fresh apple cider and watched Tammy then Kathy win door prizes by stepping on the lucky number when a bell rang in the store. Girl-chatter filled the car on our drive home.

    Adjusting to their own new traditions, the cats assumed the role of trick-or-treaters.

    George played the Halloween prank. He padded through the corn starch Spence had accidentally spilled on the kitchen floor, walked out into the rain, and scratched on the sliding glass door to signal he wanted to come inside. His paws had streaked the glass as if defacing it with soap.

    Emma preferred treats. Because she had a dry cough, we'd driven her to the vet Tuesday afternoon. He gave her shots and two kinds of pills to take over the next eighteen days. I hid the medicine in Pill Pockets which she considered treats. For five days, she's swallowed the medicine inside the Pill Pockets, reared back on her hind legs, and mewed for more.

    One change I don't want this Halloween is for Emma to discover I'm giving her a trick not a treat.