A Happy Place: Happy Halloween!

Me as a bee

I love Halloween! The air is crisp, the leaves are changing, and pumpkins are on every doorstep. It reminds me of my childhood and the many wonderful memories I have of Halloween at the Davis household.

My sister Brandy as a mime, yes a mime.
She was a mime more than one year!

Every year my dad would come home from work with 2 big pumpkins ready to be carved. My sister Brandy and I would each sketch our jack-o-lantern designs on paper and inevitably, 2 very different pumpkin faces would emerge: Brandy's would be scary and mine would be silly. Then my dad would meticulously draw the faces on our pumpkins, carve the tops, and we would all dig in, getting our hands slimy and covered in seeds. My mom would take the seeds and bake them in the oven, while we carved the faces. Once the pumpkins were jack-o-lanterns, we would quickly put a candle inside and turn off the lights to admire our handiwork.

Decorating the front porch and yard was another big deal at our house. I always wanted to have the spookiest, not to mention coolest house in the neighborhood. We would put cobwebs in the bushes, blacklights in the porchlights, and play a tape of screaming voices on the boombox. By far the scariest part of visiting the Davis house on Halloween was the cyclops who answered the door (aka my dad) and the the ghost he rigged to land on trick or treaters. Thankfully my mom was there to make him remove the mask and ghost when the really little kids came by.

Just like the jack-o-lanterns, Brandy and my costume choices were very different. Traditionally I was something silly or cute and Brandy was something scary or strange. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.