Little Halloween this Friday.

[Murfreesboro]

You are such a great dad, helping to make so many lovely memories for your kids and even their friends.

I didn't see many Christmas parades as a kid. I remember several from my preschool years, but by the time I was in grade school they were stopped. That's because I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, at the height of the Civil Rights era. The authorities didn't want trouble with extremist organizations like the KKK, so they just decided thete would be no parade permits issued, period.

[Andybev01]

My childhood hometown has never missed putting on their Christmas parade, even during lockdown, and in any PNW weather.

It's tragically funny to watch parade characters in fabric character costumes soaked to the bone, waving and acting cheerful.

Murf, the multicultural trees sound delightful.

The writer, David Sedaris, wrote one of the funniest essays on American vs Dutch Santa mythology, 'Six to Eight Black Men.'

https://youtu.be/KEJto6kN6Qo?feature=shared

I've probably shared this before but I think it should be enjoyed by everyone during this season of yule

[Murfreesboro]

Yes, you have posted that before, and yes, I laughed until I cried this morning listening to it again.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

You are such a great dad, helping to make so many lovely memories for your kids and even their friends.

Thanks Murf, I try.

[Andybev01]

I agree.

I'm certain that when the time comes they will pick out a first rate retirement home for you.

[Andybev01]

Yes, you have posted that before, and yes, I laughed until I cried this morning listening to it again.

It's part of a collection of his short stories and essays entitled 'Holidays on Ice' .

It has been around for many years so you can probably find a used copy relatively easy and inexpensively.

Perhaps the most famous piece out of the whole thing is called the 'Santaland Diaries', In which
the author regales us with his true life story of when he worked as an elf at Macy's in manhattan during the holiday season.

NPR plays it every year. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/23/11449572 ... id-sedaris

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Looking ahead at the calendar it looks like there's going to be a Little Halloween next month, so I just wanted to let everybody know. I'm going to have a party for the kids, and since Valentines day is the next day I'm thinking of making it a scary Valentines themed party like My Bloody Valentine or something. That's the name of a old horror movie if you didn't know that already.

[Murfreesboro]

What a fun idea! I knew there'd be a Friday the 13th this month, since it starts on a Sunday.

[Andybev01]

We get 3 this year.

February, March and, November.

Our cups runneth over.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I didn't look that far ahead, but now I know I've got more parties coming up.

[Murfreesboro]

Yes, if Feb starts on a Sunday, March will start on a Sunday.

And if November also starts on Sunday, that means Halloween falls on Saturday.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Oh man, that means that Halloween is going to be on a Sunday next year. You know what that means right? Like last year, we celebrated for the whole Halloweekend with parties, sleepovers, and going to events, and I'm going to have to do that again this year and next year too... I don't know if I'll be able to survive that much fun.

[Murfreesboro]

That's true, I guess. In the South, historically, Sunday ToT has been moved to Saturday. However, in recent years Sundsy ToT has become a thing. There was one year, the first time the authorities left it up to the community to decide, I took my kids both nights. We went to two different parts of town and had a blast.

[Andybev01]

HH, I think that you get more energized when you have more activities piled up, like regenerative braking systems charge the battery in non plug-in hybrid cars.

Murf, what kind of commie-pinko town would dictate what day kids could ToT?!

[Murfreesboro]

Lol! I think it was very common in the Bible Belt to shove Sunday Halloweens off to Saturday. I grew up with that in Mississippi. Even during my kids' childhood, it was common to encounter folks of an evangelical bent who were extremely uncomfortable with the whole thing. Churches around here started doing fall festivals as counter-activities. Lots of conservative religious types view Halloween as the "Devil's holiday," and communities as a whole were uncomfortable with celebrating it on the Lord's day. The fact that things have loosened up in this part of the country indicates a creeping secularism that is probably more in keeping with Marxism than the prior attitude was.

I'm always irked to hear about places, mostly up North or on the West Coast, where they specify hours for ToT, or insist that it happen in daylight. I think that's more of an interference than substituting Saturday ToT for Sunday. I don't want to see a permanent push for Saturday ToT, though. I know some wish it were always on the Saturday closest to the 31st.

I do think there's a tendency now to spread ToT out over the last couple of weeks of Oct. I've seen Trunk or Treats in supermarket parking lots during that time frame. Last year, an elementary school a couple of blocks from me did a trunk or treat on the 30th. Hundreds of neighborhood kids attended. The next night, which was actually Halloween, on a pleasant Friday night, I got hardly any ToTers. I think our local kids had done it all the night before and were doing something else on the big night, either going to different neighborhoods or having parties. Halloween isn't going away, but it is evolving.