Sunday, October 28, 2018

There Will Be Some Kids

Halloween is a stressful day for me because I so want it to go well but it pretty much never goes well.

I want to live in that neighborhood from the movies where all of the kids are out in traditional Halloween costumes, marching up leaf-fallen pathways to Victorian brick houses, adorned with intricate pumpkin carvings and emitting smells of hot cider. That's all I want. Not much to ask for.

But that's not how it goes on my street.

The houses are dark, almost comically so. Windows are practically boarded. My first Halloween in my home I had about 4 trick-or-treaters.

It's gotten slightly better since then, probably only because I have aggressively shouted children down as I've seen them passing my street to move on to friendlier territory, convincing them to come over.

I never planned to be a man in his thirties screaming at kids to come to his house for candy, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Last year, thanks largely to my Halloween advocacy, I had nearly 30 trick-or-treaters. At least two of those were full-fledged adults, out without any children, but they were wearing costumes so I rewarded their commitment to sugar.

I talked Lynne into passing out candy last year as well so we would at least have two houses on the street participating in just doing our basic duties as citizens of the world. But at about 5:30 she came over to my house with her bucket of candy and said she was going to pass it out from my place because it was too lonely over at hers, effectively defeating the whole point of my lift-where-you-stand plan.

Yesterday I decided that part of the low turnout might just be from my failure to really lean in. Sure, I put two carved pumpkins on the porch, but there are houses in town with 12-foot witches towering over the sidewalk. Maybe if I made my place a little more flashy, kids would be drawn to it.

So I did my favorite activity: wandering around a store until standing in an aisle and just purchasing the thing I want from Amazon through my phone.

I bought four strands of orange lights.

I would have bought them from actual brick and mortar but every place I visited had only Christmas decorations out, and an absurd amount at that.

My lights will come tomorrow. Skylar and I will spend Tuesday evening trying to figure out how to tape several battery-powered candles with string to the ceiling so it looks like there are floating candles in the entryway. We'll carve two pumpkins. And we'll sit in our living room on Wednesday evening, alone, hoping that one day, even if not right then, there will be some kids.

And now, please enjoy some Strangerville:


This time in Strangerville, Meg and Eli mock an annoying person on the internet, because that’s all they have. And a woman finds herself in the middle of a real-life horror story overseas.
Story
Trapped in Thailand, by Annette Thacker
Production by Eli McCann and Preg Walter


~It Just Gets Stranger

16 comments:

  1. That story is terrifying. And I thought it was bad when I puked quietly through Miss Saigon in London as a teenager. Yikes! Also, I see your Preg Walter use again, and I appreciate it. Lastly, I totally feel you on the Gryffindor pride. My bestie is a Hufflepuff so I have to keep down my courage and bravery when I’m around her so as to not rub it in.

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  2. 1. I live on Halloween street and I used to be like you... But now I get 1,000+ kids a year. We don't close our door for three hours. I regret wishing for trick or treaters all this years when I had nary a one.
    2. Seven rounds of IVF later and I now have two of my own. It'll happen. And then will come the fights over costumes, the candy highs,the late night out and way more than just orange lights

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  3. Just came here to say that you and Meg have really hit your stride this year on Strangerville. I laugh to the point of tears from your banter every week and I always feel sad when the closing music starts up. Good work especially this week!

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    1. You just made our day! Do us a solid and leave a review on iTunes (you can do it through the podcasts app). The reviews help us exponentially.

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  4. Two things:

    1. While serving as a missionary in the Philippines, I also got dengue fever. And Annette gives the most accurate description I've ever heard. Of the pain starting in the bones and working through the rest of the body. I have never been in so much pain or so sick in my entire life. I can't imagine starting law school while having dengue!

    2. Take it from Eddie Redmayne that us Hufflepuffs are pretty great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56g1N-_e3Ng

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    1. Cheers to Eddie Redmayne, from this proud Hufflepuff! I have been waiting on pins and needles for the "Crimes of Grindelwald" to come out, and it's almost here!

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  5. What is the name of the Harry Potter podcast you mentioned?

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    Replies
    1. Binge Mode: Harry Potter. It's fantastic, if you can handle bad language (NOT THAT WE KNOW WHAT THAT IS) and pretty annoying hosts. But their content is so good that I don't even care that they're obnoxious.

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  6. Annette's story is going to give me travel nightmares. The imagery of lying on the floor in the hallway and crawling back to the room sobbing! Too much!

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  7. So - I hate to complain because I usually love all things Strangerville. But I feel like I have to . . . . since you've moved to the weekly format there have been a lot of repeated stories.

    I get it - it takes a long time to do these recordings and I'm empathetic.

    And I really enjoy the commentary beforehand (because the description of that Day-in-the-life was magnificent) (but not as magnificent as Eli's hair).

    However - it'd be great to have warning before I get on the treadmill that the main story itself is a repeat so I don't have to try to find something else to listen to while attempting to not break my momentum . . . .

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    1. You spelled "Strangerville's stories are worth listening to multiple times" wrong.

      But, noted.

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    2. I should have explained this better - I do love listening to the stories multiple times! Just not while I'm treadmilling. When engaged in this activity I need maximum distraction to stop my body from realizing I'm exercising - and if it's a story I've heard before my mind has time to realize what I'm doing . . . .

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  8. I don't want to listen to this podcast since I have solo trips to Jamaica and Indonesia planned between now and the end of January and I don't want to have something extra to freak out about. I've traveled internationally alone before and always been fine but there's always that little edge of fear "what if...". I'll listen to this episode in three months if I make it back alive and well from my trips.

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    Replies
    1. Look. Just wear bug spray. That's the moral of the story.

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    2. You could have led with that.

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  9. You should move to Daybreak. That's the neighborhood of your Halloween dreams. People bus their kids in wearing all the traditional costumes, and neighbors literally have cotton candy and cider stations in their front yards.

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