WHEN CEMETERIES ARE FUN

This year, we celebrated our first Halloween in our new neighborhood. We had heard talk, for months, that Halloween night in Twelve Oaks was an event not to be missed. And, indeed, we found this to be quite true. To be perfectly honest, Halloween has always been my least favorite event of the year, and I would just …. go through … the motions of buying the candy, waiting for the doorbell to ring, and being relieved when I felt the appropriate time had come to turn off the porch light. It was one night that I paid very special attention to my little family members (some refer to as pets) when they went out to … well … survey the land. I mostly thought of all the bad things that I’ve heard that people do during the evening, the animals that are harmed … and how many just seem to use this night as an excuse to put their morbid imagination to use and to bring out the worst in themselves as people.

The “Spirit” of Twelve Oaks has redeemed me.

To say that Twelve Oaks celebrates Halloween is an understatement. Many of the homes were elaborately decorated. Neighbors brought out tables and chairs and sat by the road, eagerly anticipating the little ghosts and goblins and the excited screams of “trick or treat.” And, in between … candy dispensing … the adults would walk up and down the street and talk with the other neighbors. “Happy Halloween” could be heard all during the evening.

Cars were lined up and down the street, and all were driving extremely slow and were so cautious. Children were running up and down the said streets, all acting “in character” of their costume. And, to my amazement, a tractor, pulling a cart (4 or 5 rows deep with children), pulled onto our street and stopped. Paul and I just looked wide-eyed at each other, and I jumped up and went in to open some more bags of candy. We also had a truck drive by that was so decorated, it looked more like a Halloween parade float. I am hoping that I wasn’t the only person standing by the side of the road, clapping and screaming with glee …. surely not.

And then there was the Halloween …. “Hollywood style” … production, just three houses down from us. They had a cemetery in the front yard, with blinking blue lights … strobe lights in one of the top front windows, a creepy looking “form” looking out another window, the fog, strobe lights outside, a mummy, and a few Zombies whose sole job it was to “greet” the visitors. There were visions of Ghosts floating in thin air, witches …. and, it just goes on and on! And … they even had a live band at the side of the house (the band was incredibly good). One of the neighbors even volunteered to cook and pass out hot dogs. This was not like anything Paul nor I had seen before. In fact, I found out the next day that one of the assisted living communities had actually bussed in their group, just to see this extravaganza.

My point, aside from the sheer fun of sharing this with my readers, is that there really are spirits that come out on Halloween. In this case, it was the spirit of the people of Twelve Oaks who are dedicated to make sure that the children in this area, young and old, get to experience the harmless fun …. and true magic of a community Halloween. And yes, they did prove, last Halloween night … that even cemeteries can be fun.