Health & Fitness
Baby Boomer Halloween Parties
When did Halloween rival Christmas in economic importance? The Baby Boomer quest to prolong their youth is reported on at three Halloween parties.
Halloween has its roots in "All Hallow's Even(ing)", a Celtic celebration of summer's end. The Catholic Church grafted the dead and saints onto this tradition with All Souls Day (November 1) and All Saints Day (November 2). The Irish, an especially Catholic and superstitious people, added "turnip carving" on these days; this morphed into pumpkin carving in North America.
The blogger attended three Halloween parties with different flavors. The first took the "high road" for Hispanic culture at Kuhs Farm and Estate. Dubbed "Dias de los Muertos", it was ostensibly an outdoor memorial service for sculptor-genius, Bob Cassilly (The City Museum's creator). It was complete with "ofrendas" (altars for the deceased with relics, candles, and candy), bonfires, hay wagon ride, skeletons, and wine. Some of the costumed participants included pirates, zombies, a gypsy fortune teller, a truly frightful clown, and more. Of course everyone enjoyed s'mores!
The second party was staged by a retired math professor. The invitation for date, time, and place was printed on a black napkin with gold lettering. Costumes were encouraged, but not mandatory. One participant showed up dressed in Rally Squirrel tee shirt and squirrel skin cap (think Davy Crockett's coon skin cap). One couple had on theoretical matching costumes: his street clothes had a post-it note which read "The 1%" and his beautiful and ample wife had a post-it note which read "The other 99%". Plenty of red wine washed down golden trout fillets, hummus and crackers, olives, dolmades, artichoke hearts, cherry pie, and pumpkin cake.
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The third party was the traditional "trick or treat". Laurie builds a bonfire in her driveway and sits next to it at a table dressed like a tarot card reader complete with turban and crystal ball. The parents linger at the table to get a quick fortune told while the children have to trudge up the looong driveway. They pass by the blogger dressed as a Kirkwood pizza man handing out slices of pizza. The blogger's name tag always startles the parents. The children continue up the driveway to retrieve their candy from the witch's cauldron inside the garage. The six foot animatronic butler nods and intones, "Happy Halloween!"