It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
“Just Thinking”
There I was last night, working on my newsletter and struggling to come up with a topic for this week’s “Just Thinking”, when there was a knock at the door, followed by another and another. It’s Halloween, Superheroes, Villains, Ghouls, Ghosts and Goblins knocking at the door for this year’s treat. Our number of visitors is way down when compared to our old neighborhood, where traffic jams of cars, vans and buses dropping of their excited bounty hunter starting at dusk and culminated with teens in hoodies and masks carrying 7/11 plastic bags traveling in packs, knocking loudly and begrudgingly mumbling out “Trick or Treat”. This was typically followed by a turning out of the porch light and blowing out the candles in the jack-o-lanterns.
What a great time to get into character as Charles Dicken’s Ghost of Halloweens past, thoughts of a simpler time when Dad would take us the 2 streets on either direction to get our buckets filled by neighbors and friends that were excited to see what costumes we were wearing this year. Mom would be in charge of making our costumes, getting us ready to go out and then saying home to give out candy. We would sit anxiously waiting for it to get dark enough and for Dad to be ready, while begrudgingly answering the door for some early bird trick or treaters who, obviously, didn’t adhere to the after dark trick or treating protocols.
The prep for Halloween was very different then it is today, there were no Spirit Stores, so decorating and making costumes required a bit more imagination and prep. Carving pumpkins using kitchen utensils while listening to The Monster Mash and I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Watching scary movies on Creature Features or with Elvira that included Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy, The Wax Museum, and Boris Karloff in The Mummy or The Bride of Frankenstein.
Then there was the Halloween classic, Charles Schulz’s, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which always left me feeling a bit melancholy, Linus believes in The Great Pumpkin and spends the night in a pumpkin patch waiting for The Great Pumpkin to appear and bring him presents, Sally feels bad for Linus so spends the night with him but later gets upset that she wasted a good night of trick or treating. Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang go trick-or-treating. As they collect their loot, Charlie Brown repeatedly laments, “I got a rock,” while the other children receive candy, gum, and toys. In the end The Great Pumpkin doesn’t come, Charlie Brown and Linus take the slow walk home and quietly discuss the events of Halloween night, Linus undeterred and knowing that next Halloween he will see The Great Pumpkin with Charlie Brown’s support.
Speaking of Charlie Brown, the kids stop by to show off their costumes before heading out trick or treating, Beau’s first Halloween and he made the perfect little Charlie Brown, later changing into a Bennie Baby and Ashland a pretty little Pebbles. I couldn’t help but have a flashback to the boys when they were young all of the thought that they would put into deciding what they wanted to be for Halloween and then the work that it would take to make sure that they were proud of their costumes.
All in all, it was a good night, some family, some friends some good memories, a “just thinking” and no rocks in our buckets.
Let me know what you think.
@ChuckBarberini - #ChuckBarberiniRealEstate - @ChuckBarberiniRealEstate
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