I am feeling a bit like Ebenezer Scrooge lately. Remember him? Being visited by ghosts as he was and all? Of course those were Christmas ghosts. Not my ghosts. My ghosts are holiday appropriate ghosts, as ghosts more correctly belong to the Halloween holiday. And my ghosts are most assuredly Halloween ghosts.
Now I confess – my alleged ghosts are in truth, memories of Halloweens past. Memories that have been keeping me company today – this beautiful fall day, a day full of vibrant color against the blue of an October sky. I look at the pumpkin sitting on my kitchen table and memories fill the house.
They come unsolicited, these flashbacks, but they are welcome here, nonetheless. These ghosts are little ghosts. They are memories of power rangers and of princesses engaged in a quest for candy – oh the candy! Plastic pumpkins full of glorious candy!
Costumed figures ringing doorbells, running purposefully from house to house, slipping silently through the fall night air, stifled laughter breaking out, revealing the whereabouts of superheroes and cartoon characters running freely, collecting candy in the allotted hours till the Halloween moon should retire for the night and little trick or treaters should cease from the labors of their candy quest, again becoming ordinary girls and boys.
These ghosts of sweet memory keep me company on these fresh fall days, that I might not grieve the absence of my costumed candy seekers, now conventionally dressed vegetarians, seeking treasures other than candy from this world.
Memories, fleeting ghost-like, of three jack-o-lanterns, fully flaming candles inside, light up the front porch, beacons of welcome to all the would-be candy collectors that run rampant through the night – float through my mind. Too soon departed, I wonder where they’ve gone to and when they will return.
For now, three tiny pumpkins on my kitchen windowsill stand watch with me as I entertain ghosts of Halloweens past, memories the years outlast.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells me, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:”
that could include a time to remember and a time to forget . . .
today I will spend some time with memories held close and dear . . .
sincerely, Grace Day
m to the 5th 
You’ve captured a beautiful fond memory of years gone by when our children were little and where it where did that time go? I have a 3 month old granddaughter now who I have the blessing and privilege of getting to babysit. Your writing emphasizes the importance of treasuring every day with our loved ones.
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So sad they virus will almost eliminate trick or treating this year. My son has his house all decorated and has a long tube that reaches from his porch to the front sidewalk. He will ,with gloved hands slip a wrapped treat into the tube and down it goes to tjhe3 little goblin or princess. I think all should do something like that . I well remember my own days of running through the neighborhood looking for treats. I can’t imagine the disappointment of not being able to celebrate this holiday as a child. .
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This warmed my heart as I remember such times gone by from my own childhood and my kids’ childhood. I also feel a sense of grief that the seasonal fun you mention and I remember is no more … it too has suffered the result of having been hijacked.
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