So what’s the weather generally like in your town on Halloween?
Here in Spokane, Washington, USA, it’s usually cold, most of the time it’s rainy, and there’s a very good chance that we will get our first snow flurries that night.
I always remind my daughter when she’s deciding on her costume that even though early October is fairly nice and can even be warm, she’d better dress warm for Halloween.
The official forecast from NOAA for tomorrow:
Monday: Rain in the morning…then a chance of rain in the afternoon. Breezy. Highs in the mid 50s. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph in the morning shifting to the south 15 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation 100 percent.
Monday night: Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of rain in the evening…then an increasing chance of rain overnight. Lows around 40. Southwest wind 10 to 15 mph in the evening shifting to the southeast overnight. Chance of precipitation 50 percent.
Here we had a high of 65 degress with a low of 48. Sunny skies. I love these Autumn days. The leaves on the maple trees are bright yellow and orange. I walked around a small lake this afternoon, mainly because I couldn’t stand to be inside. The snow is not far away, though. That is what makes these bright days all the more precious.
We’re usually in the middle of Indian Summer around Halloween (kids
can wear their costumes without coats), but I think it will get a bit
autumnal this year, clear with lows in the 40s. It should be a beautiful
night for kids to come around!
Halloween has been a bit of a bust for years now, anyway. There is such a fear of tampering that the kiddies don’t really TrT any more.
They may be driven to their grandparents’, or to a friend’s party, or to the shopping mall (where stores have a clerk sitting in the door to hand out candy). It’s all very sterile.
And I’m really annoyed today. We had this no-costumes policy instituted here after 9/11 . . . trrr*st fears, and besides, it’s unprofessional . . . blah, blah, blah.
Well, all morning people have been parading their costume-swathed selves in here to show off. And here I am dressed in my usual. Well, at least it’s mostly black.
Sad that it’s still like that in FL. I’ve noticed a general lessoning of
those fears since when I was a kid (80’s). We had tons of kids from
our neighborhood trick-or-treating last year (and the kids only came
out on Sunday night despite rumblings of chaning it to Saturday.. take
that, city council!). Maybe it depends on the neighborhood/town in
question.
Just yesterday, I was wondering (in a tongue-in-cheek manner) if the
candy companies started the tampering rumors so people would buy
more candy instead of making treats, or passing out fruit.
Well, there were some unfortunate incidents, but I remember there being a good bit of “urban legend” to it. You know, those flyers school principals handed out because they got them from a mother whose friend got them from the chief of police in another state, who was a friend of a distant relative, who got them from a minister in Oregon, who got them from the Pope, who got them from the CIA, who had them on the authority of the FBI . . . a lot of stuff about LSD on dots of stickers and so forth.
I’ve often wondered if most of this fuss wasn’t orchestrated by religious anti-pagan-fun groups.
And then, this all fed right into the desires of parents who hated the holiday. What a convenient excuse.
Honestly, I’ve had neighbors knock on my door a few days before to ask me if I’d take their kids out TnT’ing. Why me? These people hardly knew me, except to see me going out to my car every morning in a green suit. “Well, you’re in the Army, so you don’t mind being out in the dark. I hate it. It’s creepy.” Ooooookay . . .
And I’d do it. I LOVE TRICK OR TREATING. Absolutely adore it. (I love anything that involves running around outside in the dark.) Usually, I’d go as a ballet dancer, since I had lots of costume parts, but one year it was too cold, so I ripped up old bedsheets and dressed up as a nun, herded along a load of children, and held out a UNICEF canister. Absolutely cleaned up. I’ve never in my life had such a haul. People were forcing money on me. The check I wrote UNICEF for it was huge. What fun!
The only actual incidents of pins and razors in the candy here occurred on my street. No, it wasn’t me, but that’s the sort of neighbourhood I live in. So yes, it does happen, and no, not necessarily by the first person you might suspect.
My daughter is going as the Purple People Eater this year. She’s wearing purple jeans, a purple sweater, a purple vest, a purple hat, purple wings, and has purple spray-in temporary hair color. She took a purple pipe cleaner and twisted it around a purple headband to make the horn, and I had an old eye made with the Mattel “Creepy Crawlers” toy that had a purple iris, so she will tie that around her head. That’s pretty much what she wore to school today, minus the wings, horn, and eye.
Noon weather: 51F, wind about 15 mph from the SW, and now a 30% chance of rain.
Well, it’s been dark now for about an hour. How pathetic is that?
Look at this:
October 31, 2005
Actual Time Rise: 6:41 AM EST Set: 5:47 PM EST Length Of Visible Light: 11h 54m
Length of Day 11h 06m Tomorrow will be 1m 27s shorter.
There were some large groups of . . . persons . . . roaming the streets in costume. Carrying sacks, yes, but these persons were large enough to be looters. I mean, HUGE children. If they were children. I was glad to be in a sturdy vehicle of the sort that discourages tipping.
Our community police were out in force, as well, stopping party-goers as they flew down our main drag. It’s a couple of miles of 4-lane sleek curves . . . without cross streets to speak of . . . the kind that just inspire speeding. Only, the speed limit is 35. Hahahahaha!
And we’re serious about it. We keep our own police rather than use the county sheriff because it lets us host our own speed traps. Tonight, they had flashing red and blue lights all over. It was very festive.
There were sociopaths lined up on the side of the road waiting for their tickets.
