Behold "The Witch"!!!!!....for the last twenty to thirty years this is what awaited anyone daring to approach the door at "the scary house"...the one with the strobe lights and all the spider webs and the horrible loud scary noises streaming from the open windows...the one with the dead man slumped in a chair on the front porch...was he really dead?..or would he spring to life as he did one year..or maybe two..
...sometimes there would be extraneous ghouls (kids, friends of kids),,roaming around the yard, one sticking a knife in the ground as she squatted there with a hideous grin..(remember, boogs?)..or chasing young trick or treaters down the street...(remember jase?, jen?..) and the youngens would run in panic..screaming in delicious horror...they loved it!!..and over the years, the little ones..who could barely get off the front sidewalk to walk up to the house one year..as the years went by, would get braver and braver..closer and closer, eventually venturing all the way up to the door..to have the witch throw it open with a howling screech..."welcome children!!!!...would you like some candy?..or would you like to become my soup????"...what fun!!
..cars would drive in from all over..who knows where..drop the kids off at our house and wait for them to get back in the car and drive off..more then once, the witch was greeted at the door by a group of kids..or maybe even just one..with the parents in tow..filming the whole encounter!..often the witch would have to take off some of her scary stuff to soothe the really young or the super scared..
..and of course the witch had some very scary sidekicks..two canine and one human..usually dressed in hospital gown with a horrific mask..sometimes there would be fog..sometimes not..(lots of work, that fog machine..)..the first year the witch and her cohort had to be out of town for the holiday, they left a poem on the front porch and a big bag of candy..exhorting the little goblins to take a few pieces and leave some for the next guy..and we found one candy bar in the bottom of the bag when we got home!!
...over the years it's gotten harder and harder to get this all accomplished..we sort of created a monster, so to speak...but tradition will out..even though most of the little ones have grown and some are getting married..and some have grown up never having been brave enough to meet the witch..(and you know who you are!!)...there are always new little ones..last year it was a bit easier..i decided to use a mask..that green and black makeup was a beast to get off!..this year..in lieu of the loud noises that admittedly drove the dogs mad..we opted for a few new ghouls to hang on the front porch..all motion sensitive so there was plenty of noise!!..scary noise..and we had the strobe light out and the dead guy and plenty of spiders and spider webs..a few realisitic looking huge vampire bats as well...but the best part...the VERY best part...we opted to have a stay-cation!!..we left a huge pumpkin full of candy and a note saying the witch was not home ..(a wee bit of a Halloween tale admittedly..)..it was great!! no rushing to the door, affixing the mask or putting in the bad teeth, ready to howl..we simply had a great spheghetti dinner (the sidekick ghoul is also the best cook in the world..)..relaxed, quiet..and the kids still got a good scare!!..most of the candy was gone and the witch and her sidekick live to rise another year...or not!!
