The Power of Halloween or Lack of

It started Sunday when I visited the mall. I had been locked up in our house with out of town relatives and the storm hit. Maybe I was a bit unprepared but granted it was October and I was not expecting snow.  Without power, trees down and an unforeseen amount of snow expected, it was like camping! Yet, we had a kitchen with an electric stove, a living room with a plasma TV, a bedroom with an extra thick queen bed, and nothing to do but play monopoly. Shall I teach the kids “Greed is good,” or “play fair?” I gobbled up properties with every move, trying to get three consecutive colors. My kids’ luck seemed to alternate between them as they hoarded every third color of the property I tried to acquire. The game continued for four hours until the sun set and our light was dim. Their bank accounts reflected the fading sun as they landed on my properties and paid their rent.

This is not the point of my story, I digress. We were at the mall, partly because relatives had to shop and partly because we had a bit of cabin fever. As you may have noticed in recent blogs, I do not get out of my studio much, nor do I like to. I did not realize that the mall does not follow the Gregorian calendar and celebrate the established day of Halloween. It was Sunday the 30^th of October and the mall was packed with: cute babies dressed as peas, and teenagers in ripped jeans, striped shirts and spiked hair, and  excessive fake piercings. Excuse me, but that is not a costume! That is how we dressed when we rebelled in the 80’s. Maybe it was fashion and sold to us. But it didn’t hang on a hook and come in a sealed bag ready to wear. It originated as an expression of creativity. So I weaved my way through Transformers, Harry Potters, and Bratz Doll look-a-likes while thinking of my first high school dance and hearing Depeche Mode in my head. I wondered if the negotiating and deal making we experienced in Monopoly earlier would resonate with my kids. Maybe they would be creative in making a decent life for themselves. I yearned for the days of 100 Grand Bars and Payday as I watched the mall walkers happily take handfuls of Sweet Tarts.