Halloween

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Gotta go, gotta go, gotta crawl,

To the ugly bug ball,

To the ball, to the ball,

And a good time we'll have there,

One and all,

At the ugly bug ball.

It's funny how Haloween always conjures up childhood for me. Do you remember Burl Ives? I don't know why I associate him with Halloween, except maybe for that sly twinkle in his eye as he began to sing. He played a great bad-guy in old movies, like in "How The West Was Won", but mostly he just sang in the easiest style anyone could imagine. I liked him for that. Too bad the screamers and the rappers and the bangers don't leave room today for such talent.

Well, gotta go. Tonight's the big one, you know. I saw Lon Frankenstien earlier, getting his chainsaw tuned up. You might say he lives for Halloween, if he was actually alive, that is, and who really knows? Just don't open your windows tonight, after the moon sets below the bayou mists, and the vapors of long-drowned men still glow with green starlight under the ancient moss-shrouded oaks.

NEAH-HA-HA!

-- Spooky Ole Lon (lgal@exp.net), October 31, 2003

Answers

a BUMP in the night...........

-- Lon (gal@exp.net), October 31, 2003.

What a night! Soft fall weather, neither muggy nor cold nor rainy, like it is so often. Half a ragged moon, riding among wisps of clouds in a blue and sparkling sky, and just enough breeze to make the shadows dance under the trees where I have lights hanging.

One group of goblins so far; it might be all we get. So many people don't let the kids trick-or-treat anymore, especially in a dark neighborhood like this. But some of the neighbors (they're all mostly related) have started having hay rides for the kids, with little trailers pulled behind yard tractors or golf carts. The big kids help their younger cousins, and still get to dress up themselves, which is always fun when you're a teen.

The group which just stopped had two girls in it that are friends of mine. I call them the "Bayou Rats", because they are always fishing, and I mean ALWAYS! They are about 14 and 15, best friends, and both named Britney. I let them use my dock to fish from, and to keep their little boat tied up in the summer. They always make the effort to show me their catch, and sometimes it's impressive. I remember one blustery day last winter, January or February, I got up and thought I'd go out to the bayou. But, after sticking my nose out, decided it was too raw and grey to even dock fish. About 15 minutes later, I looked out to see the two Britneys, with their poles and wearing what looked like every stitch of clothing they owned. I've loved them ever since!

Anyway, they brought a passle of littler kids up on the porch for a ransom of Milk Duds and Ju-jus. The younger one of the two was dressed as a French maid, all rouge and fish-net stockings, and I was stunned to realize that they will soon be a real live young women, and quite beautiful at that. I hope it doesn't interfere with their fishing.

I hope you each get to spook and giggle and generally be a kid again this night. I bet Helen even howls at the moon, but then some of us do that regularly, anyway.

Ain't it fun?

-- Lon (lgal@exp.net), October 31, 2003.


aaaaaiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooo...< /I>

-- wolf-helen (da@moon.da.moon!), October 31, 2003.

I had to work :-( So I only got to see two gaggles of witches and a chain-saw carting LF relative.

But I got to give the patients at the lab the thrill of being set up by a witch, all in black with the peaky hat to match :-)

Lon, your Britneys sound like they're quite the fishers - betcha SonofDust would love to meet them!

-- Tricia the Cancuk (jayles@telusplanet.net), November 01, 2003.




-- Fixer (did@it.work), November 01, 2003.


Speaking of howling at the moon--reminds me of an old Mason Williams, the good guitarist ("Classical Gas") and bad poet (Reading Matter, etc.--his particular "hit" among the scurvy knaves on my campus in years of yore was "The Moose Goosers"), set that went something like this: "She: What a lovely night. He: Yes. And isn't that a moon?" Ah, it's the classics that stick with you through the years.

Also, I have an old mixed pop CD that has 3 songs I like on it. One is "Werewolves of London," whose author, I read somewhere, recently died. Best line: "I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vick's. And his hair was perfect!" I think of my own son (Yeah, I know, "what a thing to say!" but I do!) in a flowing yellow slicker, a hulking, wildly bearded presence with electric blue eyes at the first of that song where it talks about a werewolf walking the streets of Soho in the rain with a Chinese menu in his hand. What a picture!

Which also reminds me, in this stream of consciousness mood, of a beautiful night in our neighborhood a few years ago. I was driving somewhere with the windows down and Sam the Sham's "Little Red Riding Hood" turned up loud when I made a corner where there were a bunch of people sitting out in the yard on lawn chairs just as the song came to the right spot. Everybody in the yard stood up and howled with Sam as I went on by. Cool! (I mean "baaa.")

Aarooo. (As you see, I'm not in Helen's league when it comes to howlin'.)

-- J (jsnider@hal-pc.org), November 05, 2003.


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