Thursday, October 31, 2019

Reflections on Halloween 2019

So another Halloween has come and gone. 

Once again, The Great Pumpkin never came to visit me, and I wasn't bestowed with gifts and treats. 

This Halloween was different this year.  I'm not talking about the weather or the four inches of snow we got.  I'm not talking about the cold and the lack of leaves on the ground. 

This October, the whole month leading up to Halloween, was different.  It felt like stores put out Halloween items later, and put out less, than in previous years.  The selection wasn't as good and honestly the things I wanted just weren't available. 

I wanted Halloween dishes.  I wanted brightly colored bowls and plates with Halloween drawings on them for my ice cream channel.  I found them online but not in any of the stores around here. 

Also, the movie selection this year was terrible.  Hocus Pocus was re-played almost nightly.  The Halloween franchise seemed to have been run and re-run all week.  None of the classic black and white films were on.  Even the channel line-up for TCM left much to be desired.  In fact, I was going to get a one-month subscription just for October but after seeing what they had, changed my mind. 

Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy. 

There were hundreds of classic horror films made in the 30's, 40's, and 50's and it used to be we could watch them at night all through October.  Hell, those movies used to be on during the week all throughout the year, too.  It used to be a thing to watch old horror movies on a Friday night. 

But not one of the classics were aired. 

Sure, I understand that the original Friday the 13th and Halloween were from the 70's and are now 40 years old.  I get that.  But they aren't the classics often associated with Halloween. 

Worse, it seems like these movies have been tucked away, never to be seen again.  Just a few years ago, DVDs could be bought with dozens of these old forgotten movies on them. 

This year?  I wasn't able to find a single one. 

To add to the destruction of Halloween were the various news stories of schools cancelling any Halloween celebrations because they weren't "inclusive" or some gibberish like that.  There have been some great essays written about why this is bullshit.  People who are far better at writing than myself and who are much better at battling the PC horseshit that seems to be infiltrating our culture. 

The bottom line here is this--we're going to have to fight for our Halloween.  We're going to have to work to save it. 

Remember when Fox news was posting those fake stories about how Christmas was under attack?  Yeah, we're going to have to fight for our Halloween, on our fight is real. 

How do we do this? 

By celebrating it, of course!  By decorating and making as big of a deal as we can.  By working hard to keep our horror movies and Halloween programming.  By demanding our Halloweens never fade away. 

I'm not sure who is behind this but they're evil.  Soulless, even. 

I've been seeing Christmas movies being played for the last month.  How horrible is that?  Christmas movies in October and we can't even get Dracula at least once! 

A part of me things it's time we come together.  It's time we, as Americans, who want to preserve our holiday, come together so our voices can be combined into one booming, defiant roar that says "We will fight to protect and defend our holiday and we will not let you take it from us!" 

We have to fight, people.  We have to fight to defend our holiday.  Halloween is too precious for us.  It's the one holiday of the year when those of us who are maybe a bit dark, who don't find the canned happiness of the other holidays sincere or fulfilling, who love the shadows can look forward to that one night when we are able to celebrate with our own kind. 

We can't let the soulless and the generic take this from us.  It's time to fight!