HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!!
Halloween was different when I was growing up. It wasn’t so commercialized ~ it wasn’t “big business” back then. Decorations, costumes and candy went on sale a couple weeks beforehand. At the store, there was a special Halloween display set up at the end of an aisle. This display did not take over multiple aisles in the store for months ahead of time. It was a much simpler time.
It was here that you could by your decorations which mainly consisted of printed cardboard jack-o-lanterns, witches and ghosts that got thumb-tacked to the wall or taped on the window. The main decoration was your hand carved jack-o-lantern – carved with a sharp knife and the pumpkin guts were scooped out by hand – no fancy sawing tools or scrapers. It took a lot of skill to scrap the bottom of the pumpkin flat so the (real) candle would stand up straight with the help of the pile of melted wax dripped in from the opening. I used to love the smell of the pumpkin while the candle was burning. There was always a big black burn mark on the lid. Continue reading
