'Tis the season

I could be mistaken, yet, as a kid I do not remember folks decorating their homes for Halloween in as outlandish and elaborate ways as they do today. I recall the standard pumpkins and corn stalks and some fake tombstones and a few ghosties hanging around.

However, today, people who track these things say that following Christmas, decorating for Halloween ranks a close second. People go all out this time of year. There are orange lights in trees and bushes, fog machines, webs, lifesize ghouls, blownup ghosts and frankensteins, and entire productions of full cemeteries with accompanying hands that rise from the earth and zombies that stalk the lawn.

In case your wondering, and based on zero scientific research, I believe the popular decoration for this Halloween season is a huge spider web neon, slime green in color that features a gigantic purple spider. I have seen this decorative theme featured on several homes.

So, what's up with all this time, money, and effort to decorate ghoulishly and garishly?

I for one don't understand why folks would want a giant, inflated Winnie-the-Pooh in a green and red hat and riding a sled in their front yard; so I am totally clueless as to why people would want to have skulls, creepers, and horrors taking up space on their front yards and porches for several weeks.

To be honest, there are some homes that frighten me so much I pass by on the other side of the street. Maybe, that's part of the fun to go out of our way to shock or scare.

For me, I still like the standard pumpkin (traditional orange) and cornstalks and am alwasy entertained by the decoration that looks as if a witch flew into a tree, pole, post, etc.

sj;