2024, Art, Family, holidays, Kids, Uncategorized

Bah! Humbug!

26 Comments

Continuing with a Halloween theme today. I notice that the people around town who are really into Halloween have their yards decorated, their inflatables inflated, and their pumpkins carved. Then there are the houses like ours that sport no pumpkins or decorations of any kind, We typically don’t do much for Halloween. In any event, I will be away in Dallas on the 31st, Husband will be home with the dog, and we have decided that he will close the blinds, leave the lights off, and not hand out any candy. It would be too hard with only one person at home to hand out candy and manage a hysterical terrier whenever someone came to the door. We will be Halloween Scrooges. This weekend I plan to bake frosted pumpkin cookies and brown-butter maple muffins for the children next door. They always come over to trick or treat, and we will give them the goodies on Sunday.

Last weekend we saw the most gruesome, yet remarkable Halloween decoration in the parking lot at the grocery store. A really rugged looking guy drove up in a red pickup with an enormous skeleton taking up the whole bed of the vehicle. The skeleton was seated, and yet its head and shoulders towered at least five feet over the roof of the truck. The feet stuck out over the back gate of the pickup bed, and there were dog skeletons lying across the main figure’s ankles, looking as though they were leaping. A smaller, human skeleton lay draped over the big skeleton’s arms. The whole tableau was held in place by thick orange straps. The guy was driving all around town with this. It could have been a float in a parade, if there was a Halloween parade in town. I would love to know what prompted him to do this.

What sorts of Halloween decorations are you seeing? Do you decorate for Halloween? What kind of tableau would you imagine constructing in the back of a pickup?

26 thoughts on “Bah! Humbug!”

  1. Given that Halloween supplies have been on sale at varied emporia for 8 to 10 weeks, and that candy is already being discounted, even a week ahead of “the night”, I guess that, if I had a pickup truck into which to construct a tableau, it would be filled with pilgrims & turkeys, or a manager scene.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  2. people who drive pick up trucks are a special breed to begin with when I was a kid. My best friend was a plaster and stucco guy and he was a truck connoisseur. The cheap truck was a Ford F150 and sold for about $3000. the good one was the double door four-wheel-drive with the heavy duty suspension a 350 in a Ford or 3500 in a Chevy, kind of does their own thing for Dodge but they have the same set up just with different numbers that I’m not familiar with today the opening price point for pick up truck sales for about $45,000 with the top-of-the-line selling for more like 85 to 100,000. The new electric trucks start at about 50 and go to more than 100,000 for the pick up truck I think they realize that they have a market available to them or guys feel like they need to have a pick up truck in order to be a real man and in doing so they were able to increase the price and offer promotions so that people feel like they’re getting a deal similar to what’s going on in colleges right now secondly, if you have a North Dakota guy holding a pick up truck that’s another special breed of cat I have spent lots of time in Costco and Walmart and Sam’s Club and see the reaction that those giant skeletons and Wolfman get from the little kids and it’s amazing. The kids are , often scared to death of the large figures. The reason the guy put that in the back of his truck is the same reason that you’re cooking pumpkin bars for your neighbor. It is way to celebrate the season what I put in the back of my pick up truck Menards or Home Depot filled with two by fours .

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  3. My housemate loves to decorate for Halloween! The street-facing windows are in her room, so she puts up a display which often includes hand-drawn cartoons (Addams Family, the Beetlejuice kids’ cartoon). This year because of the sequel movie the display is mostly Beetlejuice, but other years she’s used classic light-up plastic lawn decorations. We also decorate the living room and put out seasonal dishtowels in the kitchen. An old treasure is a Hallmark pop-up haunted house (which I think is from the 60s), and a new treasure is a “Halloween advent calendar,” a banner with a haunted house and a little stuffed ghost that moves from window to window (really, pocket to pocket) all month. Our landlady, who lives in the lower duplex, has some lawn decorations out too, and presumably will be carving or at least displaying the pumpkins she grew in the backyard. There are 3, one still green and two orange.

    –Crow Girl

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  4. Would love to see a picture of that truck, Renee…

    There are some pretty good lawn displays around here.
    I just remembered to get out the autumn-scene dishtowels, I have a wood pumpkin decoration on the mantle, and a harvest scene (slate) plaque on the front steps, since there’s no hook to hang it anywhere. May or may not get a real pumpkin… Oh, and a fold-up skeleton (Hallmark card) I hang in the window.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    We are Halloween Scrooges. We have found that the number of kids T or T-ing has dwindled, as well as become unpredictable. So I don’t decorate much or distribute candy on the big day because I don’t want leftover candy that I will eat!

    Three neighbors have the big inflatables and lots of decor which is really fun. As dusk descends and the lighted inflatables go up, Phoebe the Corgi loses her mind. She barks and paces until we close the blinds so she cannot see any of it.

    There is a Baptist minister on our street. Sunday his one (conservative) political sign came down and two signs went up. “Choose Peace” and “Choose Jesus.” Ii am unsure what has inspired this. I interact with this family a lot and feel great affection for them. My guess is their kids won’t be T or T-ing, but we will see. Maybe I will do something special for them like Renee is doing. But I am not asking about those signs.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  6. There are a few families in town that go bat-crap crazy with Halloween decorations in their yards. Many others get into the spirit with less ostentatious displays. The big thing this year seems to be giant skeletons–10-15 feet tall. Bigger is better, right?

    We haven’t participated in Halloween for at least 10 years. I’m not a fan of encouraging diabetes in impressionable children. Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins don’t scare me much. I don’t care to dress up in costumes. Like most other holidays, it has been over-commercialized for the sake of profit.

    Isn’t there a better use for all that money, energy, and effort? Perhaps working on adapting to climate change? Helping the poorest and most unfortunate among us? Lobbying for peace around the world? Lobbying Congress to pass laws that will remove the money from politics? A billion dollars to run for president? You’re kidding, right? And with no guarantee of a win. I guess it’s a form of spreading the wealth (trickle-down economics) if billionaires fund campaigns and hire hundreds of minions to work for a few years on a campaign.

    Don’t get me started on pickup trucks. Like tim, I think men who buy bigger and bigger pickups are compensating for their “shortcomings.” (if you know what I mean. *wink wink.”

    No tableaus come to mind. I’ve got better things to worry about today–like getting my shopping list ready for Costco. 😉

    Chris in Owatonna

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  7. You see a lot of ranch women driving pickups out here. Husband has a Toyota Tacoma that we use a lot for garden tasks like hauling composted manure from the local cattle auction feedlot and taking garden detritus to the landfill.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  8. I am so far removed from being able to imagine myself even owning a pick-up truck that any tableau is beyond me.

    I am a middle-of-the-road Halloween decorator. I have a cute moon/bat house flag that will go up in a couple of days and I usually do a cornstalk and a pumpkin. But I have to wait a bit on the pumpkin or the squirrels will have dessimated it before the big night.

    Indoors, I have some decor that doubles as halloween and then fall/thanksgiving. Much less than in the past – I’ve been downsizing my indoor decor for a few years now.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  9. There’s a couple across the street a few houses west of us who used to go all out for Halloween. The husband, Tim, is the Halloween enthusiast, it’s his favorite holiday. This year, nothing, at least not yet, which is really unusual. I hope there’s nothing wrong.

    Their neighbor has plastic flowers in their window boxes on their front porch; same flowers all year long. This year they have decorated their front fence with lots of fake cobwebs. Our next door neighbor

    We have no Halloween or fall decorations, either. I like to have some mums in my planters, but since I can’t manage it myself, and I’d have to rely on Hans to water them, they remain empty. I may try to find someone to make a nice arrangement with some sprucetops or other hardy winter greens for our front entrance sometime after Halloween.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    1. Oops, I didn’t finish the last sentence in the second paragraph: Our next door neighbor has his enclosed front porch filled with huge inflatable figures.

      There are no kids on our block, on either side of the street, yet, we still get lots of trick-or-treaters. Where do they all come from?

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  11. I can take or leave Halloween. I have a few witch/black cat/bat decorations that I may put up, but I’m not driven to decorate for Halloween.

    I won’t be home. anyway.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment