HALLOWEEN 10

We had just the right day for Halloween, between several days of nippy cold---the skies were sunny all day, and lent a golden light to all the orange and gold and pumpkin colors of the decorations.

Caro had been hitting candy sales since September, and had quite a stockpile of candy bars, popcorn balls, and other smaller candies wrapped in funny or colorful or ghoulish foil. She did the decorating, with a black cloth on the candy-bar table, and all the bars neatly in wire baskets.

The cases of popcorn balls were snugged neatly beneath the tablecloth until time to refill the punchbowls, and old cigar boxes made little treasure chests for the small wrapped goodies. She provided 237 portions, as we’d had to turn off the porchlight and retreat last year when # 220 left the lawn.

Pumpkin globes and a big candleholder served out ears, skulls, and eyeballs---guarded by Hay Bolger and two of her Harry Potter wands.

Our Sweetpea had a lovely Tinkerbell costume, but opted to dress as a pumpkin this year---a very KEWL pumpkin, with snazzy glasses, and a shape much more like a butternut squash, due to her upward growth-spurt.

She took in all the costumes and fairies and ghosts and super-heroes with great wonder and interest, but her delight knew no bounds when one of her longtime TV friends---Violet from Fifi and the Flowertots---walked up onto the lawn. They seemed rather in awe of each other.

And I think the profusion of tables and stuff and people served to confuse a few of the little ones, as well---one child told his Daddy, "Look!! It's a buffet!"

And another could be heard shouting as they started up the drive, "Hey! They're having a Yard Sale! Let's check it out!"

We always fold our tents and come into the house at 7:30, coming down the stairs to a good dinner that’s been in the oven getting ready and sending out savory scents through the house. This year, I had not been well for a couple of weeks, and so I got Chris to put a ham on the grill about three o’clock.

The house was an absolute wreck (I HAD been doing the laundry all week, though I had not tended the kitchen very well, and the loads of clothes, piled clean onto the dining table in hope of folding, actually TOUCHED the dangling grapes-and-leaves from the chandelier).

All those were scooped onto our bed til after supper, and we sat down to the messiest table setting I think we’ve ever had. Everything was just piled and strewn higgledy-piggledy all up and down the table, and we ate from paper plates. We were passing things in containers and swapping knives, and even before we sat down, as soon as she got back from washing her hands, Sweetpea undertook to distribute a roll onto every plate (taking a little bite out here and there as a carrying charge).

The burnished, savory glory that is a ham from Chris' grill:

Rosy slices awaiting a bite---after everyone had made sandwiches, I think the overly-casual atmosphere led everyone to just reach for the ham platter again and again, finger-nabbing another slice and another, like potato chips.

We had several kinds of good rolls and buns from the bakery, lots of good mustards and condiments, and I made some of that tiny-baby-green-bean salad and five of those lovely salt-baked potatoes, steaming and crusty and perfect, ready for the butter and sour cream and chives.

Our Table-Scapegrace: Miss Martha would disown us, and Miss Sandra would cry. (Til they tasted that HAM, that is).

Caro’s corn relish and macaroni salad (the old-fashioned Mammaw kind, with elbows and minced pickles and stuff---yum) made up the rest of supper, with tee-ninecy cupcakes with sprinkles, peeled and eaten right over the debris of our dinnerplates.

I hope I got most of the details right---a lot of it passed me by in a bit of a blur, for I didn’t get all that medicine out of my system til about Tuesday.

This is late, but it was fun, and it was a good family time together.

And I learned after supper that Dear Neighbor had made and eaten a sandwich with a teensy notch out of one side, with not a word said, Bless her Heart.