Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Holloween

I got two messages about Halloween this morning and so I feel compelled to write about our Halloween when our four children were growing up. One family asked if they could call at dinner time so I could laugh like a witch for their two grown boys. I assured them that I need more developed abdominal muscles in order to be effective. When we moved from Diablo to Laguna Beach our good friends called on Halloween morning and told us they were coming South that afternoon, for they didn't want their four children going through a Halloween without hearing my witches laugh. (I had abdominal muscles in those days) I remember that as one of the happiest weekends in Laguna Beach.

When the children were older than toddlers I used to dress all in black, and go out and wait for their friends to arrive. I stood under our bridge and when they were directly above me, I would give forth with a thunderous laugh. Think of now being an almost ninety year old woman and hearing that that laugh made me memorable. It is wonderful. But I would rather be remembered for ending hunger in the world or something meaningful.

One year when Anna was in high school I heard two boys whose voices I recognized, coming down the street after having been at the Greer's house, saying, Let's go to Anna's house. It's right here over the bridge. When they were directly above me, I let forth with one of my best ones. They turned around and ran as fast as their little feet would carry them. Anna was told next day in school how scared they had been.

When I grew up in Sweden we had no similar holiday. We did have a spring festival called Valborg's masso afton. It was almost the opposite kind of festival. It happened on the evening before the First of May. People got dressed up but not with anything scary. We had picked little twigs of our birch trees and even though the trees had not yet turned green, our twigs had because of the warmth in the house.

There is a description of Valborg's Masso Afton in a previous blog. If you don't feel like looking it up, I will go into further details about it next time I write.

Happy Holloween

10 comments:

musingegret said...

So wonderful to see a post from you again and the Halloween memories and witch's laugh made me grin! Do kids come to your door up there? Have a great weekend and do some tummy crunches for those abdominals! (hee hee)

June said...

Having ended hunger in the world would have been nice, but having people remember you for having added fun moments to their lives is an admirable second!

Unknown said...

I guess I am one of the fortunate ones, who having lived next door heard that remarkable laugh often and remember it well. Every Halloween I think of you and that black hat and that laugh. To tell you the truth it gave me the creeps when I was high school age. Happy Halloween and thanks for the memories.

Jodie said...

So good to hear from you! It had been awhile. I tried to be a bit scary last night but my witches' hat didn't do it. The kids weren't too scary either. The scariest was a grim reaper along with a warrior with a big plastic sword. They were bigger guys, so one scary word from them and I would have given up all the candy. My dog Seamus was in costume helping me greet the small number of people to come out. Not many lights on, on our street. Door to door halloween is dying out. Too much fear of strangers. It's kind of sad... I used to relish going down my street with my mom and friends. The pecan guy was the worst... what kid wants pecans for halloween?

Beth said...

How scary but what a good memory! We would have run for our lives too. We had a neighbor who worked at a bakery and gave out miniature loaves of bread for trick or treat. He got tricked more than once for that.

Melissa T said...

I think that having a witch's laugh that 1) gets repeat requests, and 2) can frighten small children is the best possible reason to extra tummy crunches. I'm now inspired.

Jodie said...

Dear Mrs. G,
Please post again. Missing you!
Jodie

Charlene said...

I don't always comment on every post but I check daily to see if you've written anything new. It's been a while now. Please let us know how you are.

Anonymous said...

Hope all is well. Missing your posts!

Anne said...

Dearest Svensto ~ I'm worrying about you since you haven't posted for such a long time. I hope all is well with you and that the reason you've been away is because you've been having too much fun doing something else.
Love,
Anne ~ gsolfot