Happy Halloween!

Trick r treat!





Halloween: It's No Joke

For nearly 50 years I have associated Halloween with spooky decorations on lawns that are still green, stately elms and oaks showering golden leaves onto the sidewalks where costumed children wander door to door just after sunset with little plastic pails shaped like pumpkins. Just a few short weeks ago riding home on the bike trails from work I smelled the dried leaves crunching under my tires and immediately thought of Snickers bars.

Yesterday it was fifteen degrees and sunny. If there were any Halloween decorations we wouldn't have seen them under the snow that fell a few days ago. We went shopping in town--along with the rest of Fairbanks--and found ourselves jockeying for parking spaces whose lane markers are mostly hidden under packed snow. Everyone here has been saying the snow normally comes in early October, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.

At sunset a beautiful moon rose and threw long black shadows onto the snow. Joe and I walked over to our neighborhood pub, Ivory Jacks, to watch Game 3 of the World Series. We didn't see any trick or treaters, except for the children of parents who came in for a bite before taking their kids to a nearby Halloween party at our local park district. Apparently it's easier for kids to get together at these events rather than brave the elements door to door (imagine Spiderman wearing snow shoes--that's just wrong!) Some of the bar staff were dressed up as the undead, but the elderly gentleman I sat next to at the bar seemed to be more interested in the undressed living: he was telling me about a local strip club that he was on his way to. Walking home we were passed by someone dressed in a snow suit pulled by nine huskies. Now that was a GREAT costume!