The colors of autumn are in full force this week. The third week of October is my favorite week of the year. I always look forward to it. Not sure why…there is just something I trust about it.
So many great things are going on this time of the year. Football season is going strong and what a good one we are enjoying thus far. The Mississippi college teams alone will make this a year to remember.
There is also the great phenomena that is Halloween and people going to “nightmares’ and ‘haunted houses” and “fear farms” and I don’t know what all. Personally, I think that stuff is a bunch of hooey. I never did get the whole lets have fun being scared thing. Horror movies made me laugh…what I could manage to get through. I thought Freddie Kruger was a weenie. I just never bought in enough to be scared by a movie.
Did I have some movies that I enjoyed that were of a scary nature? Yes. They weren’t the Nightmares on Elm Street or the Friday the 13th saga. As corny as it may sound, I liked the film version…may have even been made for tv…of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. I thought that was a pretty cool movie. I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw it. It must not be very popular. Everything but Salem’s Lot is on television.
I also enjoyed the third Exorcist movie…but I doubt I would look at it again.
As a kid I did the trick or treat thing. I had costumes that I have forgotten totally. I went to a few parties when I was a kid. The classic bobbing for apples…is that even allowed these days? We carved pumpkins. Spit pumpkin seeds. We ate a great deal of candy. And of course, we played hide and go seek. We did all this at the Baptist Church I was a member of when I was a kid growing up in Brownstown, Indiana.
Some churches and other groups have made it their priority to denounce Halloween. I get what they are saying. I respect their beliefs. I just wish they were as interested in helping people understand the evils of drunk driving instead. How we let so many people behind the wheel of autos when they have had more than a snoot full is beyond me. Priorities and targets. Halloween is not a moving target.
It was Halloween week thirty years ago. My buddies Mick and Marc and I were rolling down Highway 62 west of Corydon. We were just cruising around…buying some time before some youthful indiscretions that were to follow.
We were riding in Marc’s blue Ford pick-up. I had an awful habit of chewing Big Red gum when I wasn’t chewing Levi Garrett. Marc asked for a piece of gum and I handed it to him. Mind you, he was driving. As he was removing the gum from the wrapper he crossed the center line a couple of times. Just then he looked in his rear-view mirror and asked if that was an LTD behind us. Police officers were driving Ford LTDs in this day and age. Mick told him he didn’t think so. About that time…red lights were flashing like crazy behind us. I was sixteen at the time. So was Mick. Marc was 17.
Marc rolled his eyes and started digging for this registration and his driver’s license.
The officer asked why he was crossing the center line. He shined his government issue flashlight solidly in the face of each of us one at a time. He then asked the obligatory question:
“Have you boys been drinking?”
“Yes, officer” I said. I then reached down to the truck’s floor board and produced a half gallon of milk. “Two percent, sir. You want a swig?”
I thought Marc was going to faint. We were sharing a jug of milk along with a large bag of powdered doughnuts.
The officer let Marc go with a warning. The three of us were really just glad he did not look under the tarp that was covering enough toilet paper to supply the state of Wyoming for three days. We had some work to do that night. I can report we were successful.
Right now I wish I was in New Hampshire at a Dunkin Donuts drinking some Pumpkin Coffee. For whatever reason it just tastes better there.
Speaking the rights…
Oh…by the way…I am picking the Royals in 6 games to win the World Series.
Football picks tomorrow.
Danny Johnson