{"id":2169,"date":"2014-10-31T23:09:50","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T03:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=2169"},"modified":"2014-10-31T23:40:57","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T03:40:57","slug":"2169","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=2169","title":{"rendered":"Otherworldly open doors."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"spidey\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It only comes once a year.\u00a0 Halloween.\u00a0 And I like it.\u00a0 I always have…. for as long as I can remember.<\/p>\n

But why?\u00a0 Back then, I wasn’t all that crazy about the costume part of it.\u00a0 I never wanted to be a princess, or anything close.\u00a0 Most of the times, it was a sheet with two holes, or the go-to “Bum” outfit.<\/p>\n

And I certainly was not a huge proponent of being scared, frightened or spooked.\u00a0 My first haunted house turned out to be my last.<\/p>\n

The gathering of the candy was a bonus.\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 But it wasn’t key.<\/p>\n

However, there were two things I liked.\u00a0 All of that in good time.<\/p>\n

So….\u00a0 how did all this business start… of little ruffians dressing up as ghosts, and princesses, and pirates and such?<\/p>\n

A long-dang-time ago is when it began.\u00a0 Halloween\u2019s origins date back 2000 years to good old Ireland.\u00a0\u00a0 Those Celts, who lived there long ago believed there was one day in particular, when the front door was wide open into THAT…..\u00a0 of the otherworldly.<\/p>\n

And, on THAT day….. the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.\u00a0\u00a0 On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain.\u00a0 They believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.<\/p>\n

There are droves of details. … about their harvest, and New Year, and Druids, and such.\u00a0\u00a0 But basically…. this Celtic Tradition is at the very beginning of the long, long history of Halloween.<\/p>\n

Now.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How it morphed into plastic grocery bags filled with bite-sized Snickers, and Smarties…. all at the hands of little hooligans dressed as Chain Saw Murderers….\u00a0\u00a0 is quite another story.\u00a0 Tune in next year at this time.\u00a0 Same Bat Time.\u00a0\u00a0 Same Bat Channel.<\/p>\n

But the reason I loved Halloween was two fold.
\nIt was mysterious.\u00a0 There was a huge element of the unknown, the eerie, the unexplained.\u00a0 (And you know me….and the unexplained!)
\nAnd then there was the other thing.
\nI began to realize that some people were kind, and good.\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0\u00a0 The Lady who lived on Merimac Avenue.\u00a0 The one who handed out the popcorn balls.\u00a0 I LOVED THOSE POPCORN BALLS.\u00a0\u00a0 They were epic.<\/p>\n

We would always try to go early, and get one.\u00a0 Then later in the evening, we would split up…. so that she wouldn’t recognize the whole group, and attempt to get another one.<\/p>\n

They were so delicious.\u00a0 She wrapped them in wax paper and twisted the tops tight.\u00a0 I would trade my whole bag of candy for another one of those popcorn balls.\u00a0 I can’t even tell you the lady’s name… or even remember what she looked like.\u00a0 That’s a shame.\u00a0 Because I KNEW it was special for her to do this.<\/p>\n

I should have knocked on her door during any old month, and told her how much I loved her treats.\u00a0 How I looked forward to them all year long.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And how I would grow up….. and make a point of telling the masses about those goodies, some 40 years later, on Social Media.<\/p>\n

I should have thanked her.<\/p>\n

So.\u00a0 This goes out to the Lady on Merimac…. whoever you were… and where ever you may be.\u00a0\u00a0 I thank you now.\u00a0\u00a0 For giving me one of my fondest childhood memories.\u00a0\u00a0 For giving of yourself.\u00a0 For the sweetness.<\/p>\n

And that is why I love Halloween.
\nIt reminds me that people go out of their way to do good things.\u00a0 It reminds me that we should try to keep treats in our hearts…. and to give them out… all year long.\u00a0 No matter what costume we are wearing.<\/p>\n

\n

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”\u00a0 – Leo Buscaglia<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It only comes once a year.\u00a0 Halloween.\u00a0 And I like it.\u00a0 I always have…. for as long as I can remember. But why?\u00a0 Back then, I wasn’t all that crazy about the costume part of it.\u00a0 I never wanted to be a princess, or anything close.\u00a0 Most of the times, it was a sheet with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nowyouseeit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2169"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2176,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169\/revisions\/2176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}