October 31st, Samhain, All Hallows’ Eve, Allhallowtide, Hop-tu-Naa, Día de Muertos Eve, they all lie on the calendar, like spiders waiting for their, only five days away. Given my penchant for over-florid writing I guess I should spell out what I mean by that. What I’m saying is, it’s spooky season. I didn’t write about Halloween last year – it’s still a little crazy to me that I’ve been doing this for over a year and have yet to make one million dollars off of this – and that was a mistake. October rules. It’s a great month. I apologize to my readers for this serious oversight, and will spend the rest of this missive working to correct my mistake.
Before I get started, I should explain what “spooky season” means. It means being able to buy pumpkins out of weird empty lots. It means that watching horror movies at seven A.M. on a Saturday is more socially acceptable. It means a 40% increase in fake spiderwebs in your neighborhood. It means the return of pumpkin spice, and pumpkin spice memes. It means the universe itself putting out far more goth vibes than usual.
I’m not really making up the goth thing either. At least when it comes to the Western Hemisphere. Newton didn’t discover a fourth law of goth thermodynamics or anything, but something does happen come October. Night comes earlier, a time that, at least in American culture, brings out the monsters. So too does October often mark death. Things have been harvested, plants are either rotting in the ground, or hidden underneath the earth until spring. Trees are shedding their dead leaves, pumpkins decay on stoops. The cold starts creeping in. Death surrounds us during October. The goth vibes don’t just appear because of Halloween, Halloween comes because of the vibes.
Why do I like this time of year then? All this death and horror talk does not sound appealing. Good question imaginary reader. I like this time of year for several reasons. Let’s go through them. First off, October, at least in Chicago, generally means light jacket season. Sartorial-wise I shine brightest in various fall jackets. As a bigger guy who sweats a lot, summer doesn’t really do it for me. The amount of shirts I’ve pitted out is truly incredible. Winter, is too cold and requires a heavy coat. But a light jacket, and a crew neck sweater? Give me that all year. Comfortable, weather-appropriate, and generally non-sweatstained clothing? That’s the good stuff. Also, I think I look pretty good in a knit cap and a jean jacket. I might be lying to myself, and I’m sure everyone reading this is rolling their eyes and thinking “basic-ass bitch,” to themselves. Just try to think about it this way, what if you just let me have this one thing for myself?
Personal comfort isn’t the only reason why I enjoy this time of year. It’s also the last month that Chicago is livable until late April. As such, I feel the need appreciate it as much as possible. Once November comes Chicago turns into a walk-in fridge, suitable only for polar bears and tourists who couldn’t make it in the summer. The authorities have, rightfully, cancelled drinking in bars, and Christkindlmarket, the only two activities worth doing during the Chicago winter. Not until late March, early April does the city unfreeze, allowing once again for the city to bloom, its various denizens blinking in the bright light of spring. So, I appreciate October, and spooky season in general for the last moments of outdoor time it offers.
There are various other reasons I like spooky season: the colors, the food, the iconography, the drinks. Clearly, I could wax rhapsodic for an interminable number of paragraphs. But I won’t subject my dear readers to that. Instead, I’ll subject them to aa few paragraphs on the main reason why I like spooky season, the decorations.
I like Halloween decorations. Especially ones that go really big. Cobwebs, motion-sensing werewolves, blow-up Brides of Frankensteins, they’re all great. This isn’t coming from some weird place of loving all holiday-themed decorations either, I generally don’t like most Christmas displays for example. But Halloween ones, even the tackiest ones, are cool to me. The more all out the better.
Since getting a dog, I’ve been going on walks more, giving me a better chance to explore my neighborhood. A fair amount of houses around where I live have some sort of decoration. Usually it’s just a pumpkin or three sitting on the stoop, and maybe a “Happy Halloween” sign on the door. A few drape their fences in fake cobwebs, replete with black spiders. One has two giant plastic creatures with mood lighting underneath them. One house, painted all black, has a creepy clown, a moving werewolf and a creepy little girl. My girlfriend hates it, but in my opinion, that house rules.
I like all of these for aesthetic reasons, but also for a more political one. I think it really builds community. More than once, we’ve stopped and talked with other families that are looking at the house with the creepy clown house. We’ve heard other people mentioning the house and hared knowing looks with them. We talked with some people putting up cobwebs, and learned a little about them. It gives the neighborhood a lived-in feeling, a happy little secret. Our own landmarks. A place to take your friends and family when they visit. In a world where people are less and less inclined to know and meet their neighbors, these are good things. And hey, if it gets your heart rate going a little bit, all the better. Nothing like a little jolt of adrenaline to start or end your day.
I thought about trying to make this post exactly six hundred and sixty-six words long, but I, like a lot of white guys my age, had too much to say. So I’ll keep it to the usual one thousand. I’m sure not everyone agrees with me about the use of Halloween decorations as a tool for urban cohesion, or the idea of a “spooky season” being a good thing. That’s fine, people can have their own, wrong, opinions. What I think is true however, is that paying attention to your neighborhood, and meeting those strangers who live around is a good thing. Something we should all do more. And hey, if they have a giant werewolf up in their yard, they’re probably not going to be boring.