One of the best things about Halloween is getting scared silly. These days, scary is really scary, as many people can apply makeup with ease and look deader than usual. I suppose that many a zombie, flesh-eater, nightwalker and wannabe dead person will be the big costume hit for this year. The appeal of being dead has its merits I suppose – no taxes, no alimony, no insurance policies to pay for, no real problems except for tons of air fresheners and perhaps some embalming fluid to maintain your youthful appearance.
Back in the day, just having the sun go down was scary enough. True stories of real monsters would keep most folks indoors for much of the year, except when everyone was out for Halloween or New Year’s. There was safety in number on those occasions. No ghouls would dare show off their real looks against the amateurish lipstick blood and someone’s Sunday suit for fear of actually winning a contest by mistake. That, fortunately, hasn’t happened yet, to my knowledge.
But scary stories, when told against the howling winds of an upcoming winter, seem more real when you’re out on the land, alone, save for a few family members and a crackling HF bush radio to keep everyone up on the news. Last year, the bush radio declared that there were lights in the night skies, visibly moving on their own, rather low and unusually quickly. The miles that separated the camps were reached within minutes by that strange light, which then sped off to parts unknown.
Of course, the repeated sightings of Bigfoot tend to make things a little scarier when you discover that the creature is real and in some abundance, given that man hasn’t really ventured beyond aircraft range and most of the north is extremely isolated from the internet and from the world in general. Oh well, another new species waiting to be officially discovered and protected from the prying eyes of the modern sensational news addicts. I wonder if one were to be caught on someone’s iPod then posted on Facebook, would that go viral? Only time will tell, which I hope will be soon. Just think of what we could learn from them.
But, scarier still, is what is passing for costumes. Breaking Bad costumes, complete with meth bags and even a toy doll sold at Toys “R” Us can be made available. Now that’s scary. I’m hoping for a Rob Ford mask myself, but that could change if he loses his election bid for Toronto city councillor.
Topping it all off is that people seem to think that life is not important and either take someone’s life or their own. This is not restricted to Halloween, but tends to make Halloween a more dangerous scenario if you’re not careful. Now at the top of the ice cream sundae of horror, is the Senate scandal, which makes me feel right at home, as it seems like no one is safe from the searing scary scenes of scandals.
For me, the sweet kids decked out in Mickey Mouse outfits and little fairy princesses with their magic wands is the side of Halloween I enjoy the most, especially when they get scared witless when the skeleton jumps out of the closet and nabs their treats away!
Trick or treat folks!
