A Scary Halloween Story...

Artwork courtesy of The Vintage Cottage

… At least if you're five or six.

Like most little tykes, we had a parent accompany us around the neighborhood on Halloween. It usually was my mother. This particular year the last house we visited was that of our neighbors, the Cranes, where we performed our annual "Trick or Treat" ritual. We always had to do a trick (like sing a song) for Mrs. Crane then she would give us our treat. We were heading up the street to our house, and were passing the vacant lot between the Crane’s and our home. Of course it was very dark. The vacant lot was full of lots of tall bushes and small stand of alder trees. It was particularly spooky looking on a night like Halloween. I was happily dancing along in front of my mother swinging my bag of Halloween candy, when I noticed this white blob in front of the alder trees that wasn’t normally there. Then started to move! Of course, I hightailed it back to my mom and hid behind her because now the white blob was moving towards us. And it was making these high-pitched ghostlike noises. Yeah, I was scared. Real scared.

All of a sudden from under the white blob emerged my dad laughing his head off. It was one of his practical jokes. He had taken a white shower curtain from the house and used it as his "ghost costume." I eventually recovered from my fright and we all had a good laugh. To this day every year on Halloween I fondly think of my dad and his ghost costume.

Have a safe and maybe a little scary Halloween.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum