Halloween Learned Mississippi Christiansen's Comments...Hinds County Gazette

Jacqueline preparing for the trick or treaters

Margret Sue on her front porch....learned Mississippi

Good morning, I wasn’t here last week, because my computer got sick, very sick, a virus….it had to have a new hard drive to bring it back into the world of cyberspace, of face book, Google, map quest, email and online banking.

I missed being online, to the point of having symptoms of withdrawal….nervous and anxious wondering what was happening on face book, having to go to a real cookbooks to find recipes, and the worst was having to look up phone numbers in that big heavy book…what a pain that was…..

But I must say, it was not all bad…In fact, it was an eye opener, to see how much time I actually spent on this computer….. And even more amazing, to see how much I could accomplish…. When I wasn’t being tempted by the all the distractions out there in cyberspace. My shop is de-cluttered and straight, and the shed, it is a sight to behold!….I got rid of the junk that lived under it….most of the junk….some of the junk….well, I tidied up the junk….and now there is much more room for the lawn mower.

I saw somewhere that Halloween is becoming one of the year’s more popular celebrations…more folks are decorating and taking part every year…. I have always like Halloween….I have grand childhood memories of running from house to house to get treats.

But why now? The children are far more sophisticated now then when I was a kid….their toys have lots of bells and whistles…much too complicated for old Brain. A pile of rocks and bucket of sand would not hold their interest long…..Back in the day, we would spend hours in a pile of dirt and sand building forts, and towns …we even had dams and running streams.

Many of the children around this area go to Learned to do their trick or treating….for sometime, I have wanted to go to Learned to see the kids all dressed up…So this year, Jacqueline and I packed up treats and headed over…Margret Sue graciously allowed us to set up on her front porch. (What a treat Margret Sue’s house is to see, she lives an old store…it still has the long counter and tin ceilings, she has it decorated so nice, I wish I had taken a picture…Why didn‘t I? I had my camera) Margret Sue lives next door to Gibbs Grocery/ restaurant…so we were slam in the middle of all the activity.

Passing out candy from Margret Sue’s front porch…it came to me why, the 31 day of October is becoming popular even now….in these complex, modern times.
First of all, it has little to nothing to do with Halloween…in fact if the preacher had not reminded me last week, of the pit falls of celebrating Halloween in the wrong way…I am not sure the dark side of Halloween would crossed my mind….

I have come to believe, Trick Or Treat Day has become so popular because it is truly a family day, with out the stresses of some of the other widely celebrated days. It is not a day that you are commanded to or feel obligated to spend time with the all grandmas, cousins and old aunties.
Halloween requires no long distance traveling, nobody asks, …“Where are you going for Halloween?” There is no mandatory shopping for gifts.
Halloween is not expensive…the homemade costumes are as cute or cuter then the purchased ones….

Halloween!… is not busy! Not like Christmas has become…Back when I was a kid, we had a Christmas program and a draw name gift exchange at school …then Santa Claus lead a parade to town….Santa Claus came in a cattle truck ….he stopped at the lumber yard and passed out bags of goodies; candy, peanuts and there was always an orange in the bag…..That was it. Everything else for Christmas took place at home, making fudge, baking cookies stringing cranberries and popcorn to decorate the tree, etc, or church related, practicing carols for the church celebration and my favorite, walking through the streets caroling, stopping at the homes of the elderly and the shut ins….ending with hot chocolate and cookies. Christmas is crazy now…

Halloween is simple…uncomplicated…October 31 is a day that even the dads can enthusiastically take part in…showing off their knife skills by carving the pumpkins, children are impressed with dad… watching him turn a pumpkin into in to a jack o lantern. Dad doesn’t have to get dressed up for Halloween… he can go straight from deer hunting, still wearing his camouflage garb and work boots right to the Halloween festivities…..

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