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The Eeriest Halloween
For the first time since I was a child, this year I was spooked by Halloween.
We had eerie music and decorated our porch, on a main street in Old Town Warrenton, but it was obvious even from the beginning of the night how few trick-or-treaters were out. Our large bowl of treats is still here (hungry? come on by). We estimate we only saw about 30 costumed children the whole evening. This was about a quarter of the numbers we usually see. The street was quiet: it didn't feel or sound like Halloween.
At about seven, our little band of marauders, kids from 5-10 years-old, set out for a nearby neighborhood known for lively decorations and crowds of children going door-to-door. On the way I noticed how few Old Town porch lights were on - we passed house after house to arrive at the development to see... only a few groups of kids, and only about one fifth of the households with lights on.
My son, who watches too many classic TV shows and movies, suggested soaping windows and throwing eggs. I nixed that idea with alarm, but at the same time recognized that there used to be a social taboo on not participating in Halloween - and that seems to be gone. In fact, Halloween is almost the last thing our whole society shares as a holiday - the one time we see our neighbors and have fun interactions with total strangers - giving and receiving. The contrast to last year, to the last twelve years here in Fauquier - including the Halloween just weeks after 9/11/2001 - was startling. Scary.
The weather was fine. It wasn't a school night. We parents looked at each other in wonder, and worry.
The fall of the stock market, economic downturn, the ugliness of the Presidential campaign - none of these have spooked me quite the way this seemingly simultaneous withdrawal of normality has: as if Halloween was cancelled and the memo didn't reach us.
I have no answers. Trick, or treat?
It was definitely eerie, as if the children of Warrenton had simply vanished.
Even Culpeper Street was unusually quiet, with only a handful of costumed children quietly walking the sidewalks, though perhaps this had something to do with the cannibalistic village and the roasting skeleton staked out on the lawn. The natives must have feasted well that night!
But the missing crowd did not stop my beastly boys from racing through the darkened lanes searching for households brave enough to leave a porch light on.
Many thanks to the hidden house just off Lee Street, which was thrilled to welcome their first and only trick-or-treaters of the night (we promise to return next year), and to the little boy on Green Street, who was willing to share his Halloween bounty with a group of rowdy boys dressed in black.
Posted by B_Elizabeth_Tierney
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