Kintropy In Action

I grew up reading Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allen Poe.  My overactive imagination bred monsters in shadows and kept me awake at night.  I loved and trembled at scary radio plays.  Suffice to say, Halloween is my kind of holiday.

The kids, either of their own interest or mirrors of mine (or maybe it's the candy), seem to love it as well.  Both kids sopped up recent Halloween happenings with me.

Saturday, Hannah and I headed out (way out) into rural Hillsboro to attend a Halloween party:  her first party invite from a friend at school.  We dressed her as a punk-pop princess.  Multicolored ribbons sparkled in her hair, brushing at her black t-shirt.  Janette even bought her a checkered mini-skirt to complete the ensemble.

We arrived painfully early at the party, and we were the first and only ones there for awhile.  On top of everything else, we could only stay for about a half-hour before running back to Hillsboro city limits to pick up Gabriel and Janette from an overlapping birthday party.

Still, Hannah and I made the most of it.  The house, of course, had plentiful stairs, so Hannah and I abandoned her wheelchair early.  For the better part of a half-hour, I carried her around the house, visiting rooms with spooky house miniatures, animatronic skeletons, and like decorations.  When her friends showed up, we greeted them, but departed soon after.  Hannah, however, beamed with all the attention and activity.  As I flexed my sore muscles, she smiled and laughed.  We loaded ourselves back in the car for the long trip back into our city.

Sunday, it was Gabriel's turn.  He, my sister, and I headed out to Shocktober:  a Halloween themed celebration at the local fairgrounds.  This event used to be called Frightlites, and it used to be filled with kid appropriate activities and games.  Each year, though, they've been moving the ticket prices up and the theming toward more adult scares.   Although he enjoyed the glow-in-the-dark miniature golf and tube/hay slide, Gabriel shunned the supposedly all-ages haunted crypts nearby.  Maybe it was the screams coming from inside or the sound of a buzzing chainsaw from the adult-only haunt attraction nearby. 

Gabriel did earn an elephant ear (a flat, fried doughnut w/ sugar sprinkled all over), and we had fun watching my sister go off to try the adult haunts.  She came back hoarse from screaming.  Still, this was probably the last year we'll go:  the kid-friendly attractions and leisurely walk from prior years are gone, and it doesn't look like they're coming back.

In the end, we found our best scare in a Disney "Scary Stories" book.  I read Gabriel one of my favorite scary stories:  a Disney version of the Sleepy Hollow/Headless Horseman story.  Gabriel looked on as I read the story, moving from whisper to tense tone and words.  He flipped ahead a little bit as I read one page, checking the pictures for indications on where this was all going.

At the end of the story, which allowed for the possibility that Ichabod had run off to places unknown rather than falling prey to the Headless Horseman, I asked Gabriel what he thought.  He quickly requested another story, maybe one with a happy ending.

Maybe Poe and others will wait a little longer.

-- Dad