Boys things sure have gotten quiet here all of a sudden. Wonder what everyone is doing? Can't believe it's already October. Seems like 2007 just started and one of my daughters was asking what I wanted for Christmas. Christmas? I was just thinking about putting the boxes away from the last one! They say the older you get the faster the days go by and it sure seems true.
So what can we talk about that is more interesting than this?
I love October. Tennessee is beautiful this month. Our weather is also really perfect this time of year. We get lots of days like today where it was clear and in the upper 80s. Then at night, it will soon start to get that wonderful crispness in the air.
I'm not the world's biggest sports fan, but what a great month for sports--World Series, college football at its peak, and basketball just around the corner.
Plus I love Halloween. Always was a fun time during my childhood and I still enjoy it today.
Only thing I don't like about this time of year is the days are getting real short and I don't like coming home from work and it being dark outside. But this year, we don't go back on standard time until November.
I feel like Christmas was yesterday. I can't believe how fast the year goes by once you hit 40. I can't believe that whole Bush-Gore mess was SEVEN years ago.
I grew up in North Carolina where I think Octobers were much like there in Tennessee- beautiful with all the leaves turning- and falling. I even remember the aroma of them burning back when people use to rake them up an a pile and burn them. One of those many things you can't do anymore.
But it was a sad time for me too because I knew what was to come was months of cold gray skys and bare dead-looking trees. I found winter very depressing which is why I escaped it here to Florida as soon as it became feasible.
I'm surprised you like Halloween so- most religious people I know are dubious of Halloween as it's a pagan holiday of anti-Christian origin. I'm not too fond of it myself as it's an excuse for a lot of mischief- as if kids need an excuse these days.
And it's becoming bigger every year. Back when I was a kid Halloween was a one-day thing- little kids would dress up in simple costumes- sometimes just a sheet- and go trick or treating. Now stores and even houses are decorated for days almost like a mini-Christmas.
October is a stunning month. I will take a ride up to Vermont in a week or so. Nat is right, the only problem with Fall is that it is followed by winter.
The biggest change is that Halloween used to be a holiday for kids and kids only. Now I think after New Year's and Super Bowl Sunday, it is the 3rd biggest adult party day.
I think Halloween for children is harmless fun, but you are correct about many conservative religious people not liking it.
This is another thing that has changed since I was a kid in the 1970s. My Baptist church co sponsored the local haunted house with one of the top 40 radio stations from 1972 to 1979. They would not do that today.
I went to a Baptist school and we always celebrated Halloween with scary costumes and decorations. Now they have something like a Harvest festival and no horror aspects are allowed.
So Nat, more than just guys showing less skin has changed over the last 28 years.
>"So Nat, more than just guys showing less skin has changed over the last 28 years."<
Goodness Brandon, there are a thousand things that have changed in the last 28 years- mostly for the worse!
The stores have made Halloween so commercialized now like everything- you're suppose to buy expensive costumes and decorations for your house and candy and even Halloween cards to send your friends. In short they milk it for all the money they can squeeze out of you.
But what I hate most is the hoards of teenagers who come by now- they just put on a mask and drive around town and you are suppose to give them candy like little kids (and who knows what 'trick' they will do if you don't). My security staff is at full alert on Halloween nights- that's for sure.
I just luv halloween with fun dress-up (and dress-down) parties and lots of good times. I read on another forum about a dude who came to a party wearing nothing but a potato taped to his penis. He said he was a DICK-TATOR. That probably should have gone unspoken -- but are any of you attending halloween parties dressed in costume. I think I will dress as Hillery and Ronnie said he'd go as Obama. This is to his law firm's party.
Leave it to a church to prevent even children from having fun. Par for the course for organized religion...a boil on the buttocks of civilization as far as I am concerned.
I hear a lot of people say how much they "love" Fall, because the colors of the leaves changing, the relief from summer heat and then the holidays are right around the corner.
Not me. Nothing against Fall (I like the colors and football season), but my favorite season is Spring. Even though it can be rainy in April and May, I like how things start to bloom and green out. I like how the daylight hours keep getting longer, I like planning for my vegetable garden, I like knowing that winter cold is behind me and I have months of warm weather ahead that is conducive to cook-outs and all sorts of outdoor activities. Fall, on the other hand, brings more gray skies, shorter daylight, rain that is often cold rather than refreshing . . . and while I like the holidays, it gets closer to all that Christmas shopping that tires me out and stresses my wallet.
Every season has its plusses and minusses. Just enjoy the cool crisp weather and the fall colors and playing barefoot in the fallen leafs and take the gray skies along with it. Then there will be winter with the beautiful white snow -- forget about the dirty slush and the slipery roads. Then the beautiful green and flowers of spring which wouldn't happen without the rain. Then the warm sun and tanning and swimming and beaches of summer forgetting about the heat, humidity and insects.
