BWAHAHA!!

          Halloween is here. Or some ragtag semblance of it.

We’ve usually been away when it arrives, but neighbors assured me that no one ever ventures into our complex to trick or treat. Personally, I think that’s a strategical error for any ambitious trick or treater.

 Back during the golden age of trick or treating, we stormed out alone into the pitch dark clutching our brown paper grocery store bags (or if you were living large, maybe a paper shopping bag with actual handles) as ghosts or cowboys. Kids wearing store costumes were kind of sad; these were almost always cheap, flimsy things. Funny, I have no memory of my parents ever walking alongside, although I do have an older sister; maybe she always got this assignment.

Anyway,  instead of wide front yards to cut across, I’d have welcomed an apartment complex like the promised land. All those doors, right next to each other! Here, it’s almost the next best thing, with our buildings all grouped conveniently together.

But now in the Plague Times, I imagine no one will be out, and if they are they’ll likely find darkened front porches.

On today’s walk Mamie had her own fright night, even if it was 2 in the afternoon. We were steaming along fine until I felt my arm yanked back as she screeched to a halt.

Visitors had built a snowman on a neighbor’s front lawn and Mamie bolted for the road and refused to walk past it.

I think it’s fascinating that a round ball with two dots for eyes and a carrot nose translates into a life form – and a creepy life form – for her.

 

She had the same reaction a couple of years ago to my old Patsy Ann doll,

 

 

 

although they did reach a truce.