"The Night Is Moonstruck"

Halloween

by Phyllis McGinley

The night is moonstruck, the night is merry.

Haunted by shades abroad together...

They cast long shadows, or roly-poly.

They tamper with doorbells. They chalk the stairs…

Swarming past hedges like sparrow flocking,

The gravel cracking beneath their feet,

Flutter the children. When they come knocking,

Open the door to them, Trick or Treat.

Open the door to phantom and vagrant,

Whistle them in from the wild outside…

Comfort them quickly with candied apples.

Stay them with pennies and lollypops.

Or they may forget how their beds are standing--

Sheets turned down, and a light in the hall--

Coax them, wheedle them, call to them fonder

Than ever you did on an evening yet…

Treat them or trick them. But bar the door

Till the Shade is bewitched to a child once more.

A Happy & Safe Halloween to Each of You!

We hope you enjoyed these old photographs of our children when they were young--and the two new ones of granddaughter Nora enjoying Trunk or Treat at church as Tinker Bell. She had so much fun!

R.H. & I hope you'll return here to Across the Way tomorrow for our
First-Year Blog Anniversary post!

Hallowe'en Mantel

"At first cock-crow the ghosts must go

Back to their quiet graves below."

Theodosia Garrison

"Hark 'Tis the night, they say,

When all souls come back from the far away--

The dead, forgotten this many a day!"

Virna Sheard

"First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys."

Ray Bradbury

"The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn't real.

I know that, and I also know that if I'm careful

to keep my foot under the covers,

it will never be able to grab my ankle."

Stephen King

"Where there is no imagination there is no horror."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"Die, my dear?

Why that's the last thing I'll do!"

Groucho Marx

"Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with 'scary,'

'spooky,' 'haunted,' or 'forbidden'

in the title."

Shaggy in Scooby-Doo

This is about as creepy as Hallowe'en will ever get here at Across the Way, but I couldn't resist putting this together on our old mantel in the office. (And yes, that's a fire extinguisher at the bottom. Oh, well.)

These are pictures of family members from long ago, not ancestors bought on eBay! They came down from an aunt to my mother and she passed them along to me a few years ago. When I found them this summer I knew I had to try this slightly creepy Hallowe'en vignette. (Forgive me, dear relatives?) 

I meant to buy black tulle to drape across the mantel but never got around to it. I used an owl decoy, another china owl from Goodwill, two black and white plates--Copeland-Spode's Sieur de Monts Spring, Bar Harbor, Maine and Grindley's Salisbury Cathedral. There are tarnished silver pieces, old dried hydrangeas, candles and white pumpkins. 

It was kind of fun. I hope you think so too. And I don't know why that 3rd picture looks blue. It was not that way in my file. Spooky, huh? I don't know about you but I'm not going to hang my ankle over the edge of the bed tonight.

Happy Birthday to Zack!

This little boy, our third child, changed our lives forever when he entered our family more than a decade after his big brother and sister. It's a wonder he wasn't spoiled rotten, what with all the attention he got. But he wasn't, and that smile lit up our lives.

All you parents out there understand how it goes. Before we knew it, he was a kindergarten graduate.

The next thing we knew, he was buying his first car.

Getting ready for a date.

Smashing into older thugs in soccer and basketball while his mama hid her eyes

 and his daddy grinned with pride. 

Next he was graduating again. Where did those years go?

A few years later he finally became a daddy--to a big dog named Bentley.

He became Nora's Uncle Zack.

And he became a health nut/workout fiend!

I'll end this birthday wish to you with a quote from one of your favorite authors...

"So we shall let the reader answer the question for himself:

who is the happier man,

he who has braved the storm of life and lived

or he who has stayed securely on the shore

and merely existed?"

Hunter S. Thompson

And with this quote from one of your favorite television shows...

"Bran thought about it.

'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?'

'That is the only time a man can be brave'

his father told him."

from A Game of Thrones

With much love,

Mom & Dad

No Words, Just Orange Love

October Evening

"October evening drowses at the door."

from "Cider Pressing" by Robert P. Tristram Coffin