As I walked around Capitol Hill last year I took pics of all of the Halloween yard stuff I saw. It was lots of fun, and some people are so inventive. These are a couple of the photos I posted on Facebook.
But a couple weeks ago I noticed tons of ready-made Halloween paraphernalia (for lack of a better word) at Costco, and also at two different garden shops. I realized that Halloween is the new Xmas. Something to spend more money on. To put time into. Commercialized. I haven't checked, but I'm sure there is a whole line of Hallmark greeting cards for the occasion.
I know, I'm really slow on this. Obviously it's already a thing.
Sure, in our culture, haunted houses and trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving are longstanding traditions. I myself have put together a costume and hosted a front-steps Halloween party for the last dozen years or so.
But what I realized is that decorating the yard or the outside of the house for Halloween is a commercial growth industry and not simply the work of clever and quirky people. Granted, the phenomenon is probably contributing to the GDP in some positive way (and if we could only have the strings of little pumpkin lights made in the U.S. it would even create jobs!).
But I didn't want to abet the noncreative aspect of this trend, so I vowed to resist the urge to take pictures of all of the decorations as I take walks around the neighborhood. I would not include these fuzzy spiders or huge blown-up pumpkins in my regular Facebook postings of front-yard sculptures.
But then I saw this yard, and it was so cute I had to break my own pledge. I mean, they even put a basket in the dog's mouth. Makes me smile even now.
My weakness in sticking to what I already decided reminds me of an interview I heard. A veterinarian was asked if dogs really need those little coats that some dog owners put on them in the winter. You know the ones--the poodle with the red plaid vest, the chihuahua with the tiny fleece jacket.
The vet said absolutely not. She said that dogs have appropriate metabolism and fur that keeps them warm. She pointed out that when humans think their dog needs a jacket to keep warm it is just a projection of the owner.
So the interviewer started naming some breeds that he thought might need coats.
"What about beagles?"
"No."
"Dalmatians?"
"No."
"Westies?"
"No."
"Dachshunds?"
"Well," the vet laughed a little bit. "They really are so cute in those little coats. . . ."
So, there it is.
But they really are a cute pair of skeletons, don't you think?
