BOO!

Happy October! We will soon be surrounded by pumpkins, goblins, ghosts, super heroes, bats, and cats. Halloween has become such a huge holiday in this country. It is now the second largest commercial holiday after Christmas. Wow! 

I wonder if part of the attraction of Halloween has to do with being able to dress up in costumes and become someone else for a night. Or is it having an excuse to get a little crazy and act like a kid again? Maybe it is so popular because of the fun of purposely doing things just to scare us out of our wits. There are lots of choices for haunted houses and scary movies. If you wanted to, you could go to a different haunted house or scary movie every weekend!

I have a confession to make. I have never been to a haunted house (except in Disney World!), and I haven’t been to a horror movie in decades. The last one I saw was Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, which hit theaters in 1980. Like I said…decades! That year, I had a girlfriend treat me to dinner and a movie for my birthday. I have never been so stinkin’ scared in all my life! That is when I swore off horror movies and haunted houses.

I think part of my resistance to scary movies goes all the way back to when I was just a little girl. Every year, our whole family would sit around the black and white television and watch The Wizard of Oz. I hated it…especially those flying monkeys! I would hide behind the chairs. My parents and siblings would tease me and tell me to come out. It was scary and terrible.

I was sharing these memories with my husband, and Manny suggested we watch it again. I thought it over and agreed. Face my fears! Tackle my demons! Move on! So we will put it on the schedule. 

Those memories of my fear with The Wizard of Oz smacked me right in the face recently. Manny and I went to the movies. On the way in to our movie, I saw a mother come out of a theater holding her crying 4-year-old. They were seeing Disney’s Haunted Mansion. He was SO SCARED! My heart went out to him. I bet if I met him 20 years from now, he would still hate getting scared!

Whether you love being scared or feel the way I do about it probably depends on your childhood memories. Either way, have fun this month! Enjoy the goblins and candy, and make it a good Halloween! We will see you next month.