Cue The Music …

It does not take long for my wife to get into the Christmas Spirit. Longtime readers of this blog know that she listens to Christmas music all year round. Once November is here, the season is “officially” underway according to her.

I took advantage of a semi-warm day over the weekend and took down all of the Halloween decorations. I hadn’t planned on putting up Christmas stuff, but there is this big archway we have and I figured I would get that out of the way. Once it was up, that was the last I really thought of doing anything more.

Then, we woke up to the first snow of the season.

When the kids saw snow on the ground they went crazy! They HAD to go out and play in it!

They played outside for a little while in the morning and came back in for breakfast. As the morning changed to afternoon, the sun took care of what snow was left on the ground. It actually wound up being a bit mild the rest of the day, so I decided to put the rest of the outdoor lights and decorations up.

Our Christmas tree was given to my wife when she moved into the house a few years before we got together. It was old and on its last legs last year. We had talked about getting a new tree last year after the holiday and just never got around to it. We really didn’t want to spend more than about $100 on a new tree and most are a lot more than that.

My wife heard that Home Depot was having their Black Friday sales until the 26th of this month. One of the deals was a 7.5 foot tree that was pre-lit with LED lights. It was on sale for $99. I went and checked it out and decided to bring it home. What is really nice about it is that because of the LED lights, you can make it all solid white or multi-colored if you wish. It’s actually very nice.

It was a pretty good deal and I’m glad that we won’t have to look for a new tree for some time.

Perhaps this year we can put the ornaments on the tree. So far, the cats have stayed out of the middle of it. I may wait a week or so before deciding for sure ….

My Family Hit the Streets

The entire family was home Friday night. We took advantage of a mild Halloween night and went trick or treating.

Andrew was a SWAT team member, while Ella was a unicorn fairy. She wore a hat, so the unicorn horn stayed home.

We walked the entire neighborhood (a little over a mile) and had a nice night. It’s always great running into other neighbors and their kids out and about.

One thing I noticed was that neighbors were giving kids a choice this year. “You can take two pieces from each bowl,” or “We have potato chips, popsicles, or candy. Pick one.” Well, wait just one cotton picking minute….

We never got a choice as a kid! We took what they handed to us. Then we’d go home and create a “keep” pile, a “garbage” pile and a “mom or dad” pile. None of my kids like Almond Joy. I always had a ton of them after Halloween. This year, they picked their favorites, so zero for me this year.

By the end of the night, they were pooped. But both were in awe of our neighbor’s huge pumpkin, so they had to get a picture in front of it.

Yesterday was a lazy day. We stayed home and I took down the Halloween stuff. I probably should have taken advantage of the mild weather and put up the outdoor Christmas stuff, but I didn’t.

Instead, I began to rake the leaves. I wound up with a big pile, but no leaf bags. I apparently used them earlier in the year. The kids didn’t mind at all.

Well, I know what I’ll be doing later today.

Unexpected Halloween Twist

Every once in a while my kids will do something that just amazes me. That happened last night on Halloween.

I took the day off so I could be with the kids yesterday. However, I wound up going to work for a few hours. I need to bank a few extra hours for upcoming stuff. My daughter decided that she wanted to come to work with me. She was welcomed by a big box of donuts in the break room!

After I sorted through things to get my coworkers ready for the night, we drove home. We had about an hour before it was time to trick or treat, so we all enjoyed dinner together.

The temperatures were not too cold, unlike the last couple years. It was windy, which made it feel chillier than it was. As you know, the kids have been on the mend, so we made sure to dress them warm.

My wife is all about matching. This year, we “coupled” based on their costumes. Andrew was a fireman. Naturally, the fireman had to have a Dalmatian dog. Mommy was happy to help.

Ella was Wonder Woman, and needed someone to help her fight off the candy stealing criminals. I was happy to step in as “Bat-Dad!”

This year we opted not to take the wagon with us, so that meant we were all walking. We got one half of our street done and made our way to the next one over. About halfway down, Ella decided that she wanted to go home. We completely understood, and it was decided that Andrew and I would keep going.

A few minutes later, my phone rang. I had told the folks at work to call if they had any questions about the night. It wasn’t work. It was Sam.

“You locked the door.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“You have the key!”

“Uh, yeah, I do.”

So Andrew and I walked back home to let them in the house. When we got back home, he said he wanted to stay home. I was surprised. I thought for sure he’d want to go back out, but he didn’t.

We had a big bowl of candy from past trunk or treats. Sam thought it would be a good idea to pass it out to the kids walking. So we went on the porch and passed out candy. They kids LOVED being able to give candy to the kids. Now here is the unexpected twist…

As we were getting to the bottom of the candy bowl, we said we’d have to go inside. The kids both grabbed their candy buckets and dumped them into the bowl. We asked if they were sure they wanted to do that, and they said they were.

Every time someone walked up to our house, they’d run over to them and hand them sweets. The joy and excitement on their faces and those who were receiving the candy was worth it. When we finally ran out of candy and went inside, we asked they why they gave away their candy. Ella said, “I like sharing.”

Sam and I couldn’t be more proud of them!

Friday Photo Flashback

The timing on this photo find is almost perfect. We’re less than two weeks away from Halloween and I stumbled on this photo of my folks.

This photo made me laugh out loud! My mom is wearing one of my dad’s old band outfits. They used to wear these blue tuxes when they played weddings as I recall. That is definitely one of his tux shirts, too. Those ruffles were something!! If I had to guess, that is an old hat from a New Year’s Eve party, but I can’t say for certain.

Next to mom is dad, ever the clown! I love this picture of them. My dad is never one to shy away from dressing in something silly. I have NO idea where that polka dot shirt came from! I cannot begin to imagine where anyone would wear it that was NOT a Halloween party! The make up he is wearing was probably the makeup that they used on my brother and I the year we went out as “vampires.” The buttons on the coat are my Three Stooges buttons. I had quite a few of them as a teen. Obviously, the perfect things for his ensemble.

What I don’t know is whether he wore this outfit first, or if I did. Our high school band had a Halloween party my sophomore year. That party would have taken place in October of 1985. I don’t recall much about it. I know it was in a barn or at a cider mill maybe. We had to pile onto a bus to get there. At any rate, I wore most of this same outfit!

If I had to guess, I wore it first. I am sure my dad didn’t wear the yellow pajama pants (more on why in a minute). There are also no buttons on the coat. I would think that if my dad wore the coat first, then I would have kept the buttons on it. Then there is the horn. Man, that horn was hilarious. It was your typical Harpo Marx horn that was loud and annoying. I can see why I made sure to bring it to the party. Missing from my dad’s take on the costume are the hat and giant scissors. Maybe I lost them at the party?

Back to the yellow pajama pants. There is another photo of me before the party. My mom, always happy to ham it up, had the perfect pose.

Look closely at the back of the left leg. I remember my dad grabbing a magic marker that night. He wrote “Band Reject” on there! This is totally my dad! Great stuff.

That Halloween costume may have been responsible for my three year reign as “Band Clown” in the mock elections! What an honor!

Back to the original photo for a minute as I wrap this up. It makes me smile. My mom looks young and healthy here. Nine or ten years later, she’d get the initial diagnosis of breast cancer. There would be a lot of changes from that point on. In this photo, though, she and my dad are happy and it reminds me of some great days.

Happy Hallo-Christmas?

In Michigan you never know what Trick or Treating will be like. Most of the time, it is cold or rainy. I can only remember one or two times where it was mild. Yesterday was just crazy!

Sam realized that the kids hadn’t carved pumpkins that afternoon. So we sat on the kitchen floor cleaning out the pumpkin guts. That was pretty much when both kids said, “I’m done!” Ella said, “Daddy, make mine a cat!” I had no stencil or anything, so I did my best. She was happy with this terrible carving….

Andrew wanted a “Monster Pumpkin.” This was a better effort from me … still ridiculous.

We ventured out with our neighbor and their two little ones. It was chilly, but not freezing. The kids wore their winter coats under their costumes and Sam and I had on hats and coats. It was a good thing we were dressed that way! After 30 minutes in the neighborhood, the wind kicked up in an instant and the snow was blowing hard. Suddenly, it was bitterly cold and wet!

We were halfway through the neighborhood, so we had no choice but to finish. I felt bad for our neighbor, as her little girl looked like she was frozen. Ella was like a mail carrier – snow wasn’t going to stop her from nabbing candy!! Andrew was kind of done when the snow kicked up. I wound up putting him up on my shoulders for the last few minutes.

Ella was struggling a bit because her dress was a bit long. She kept tripping on it. So Sam and I took turns holding up the “hoop” so that she could walk from house to house. Bending down to hold that up and out of the way led to some back pain for both of us!

We were all soaked when we got back home. Sam made the kids hot chocolate and we ordered out for dinner. The snow fell for quite awhile and we got a decent coat. It wasn’t a solid coating, but still pretty as the sun rose this morning.

Why was I watching the sun rise? Well, the puppy decided that she had to go outside. Of course, she’d never seen snow before and it took her forever to finally go out onto the grass!

We realized this morning that we were so busy holding dresses, waiting for the neighbors to catch up to us, and carrying kids, that we didn’t get one picture of them outside that night!! I’m glad that we got those professional pictures done. At least we have some in their costumes!

Halloween Recap

Halloween 2022 is now behind us. The day started with me and the kids getting our flu shots. I, of course, waited until the last possible minute to get mine for work.

As we drove home, one of the neighbors had put up a HUGE inflatable pumpkin. Ella saw it from the window, and despite the fact that it was raining, insisted that we go down to look at it. Thankfully, it was only a couple houses away. When she got up close to it, she couldn’t believe how big it was!

Sam took last night off from work and we were all able to walk the neighborhood to trick or treat last night. Trick or Treating in our city started at 5pm. We had napped late in the afternoon and by the time we had dinner, we didn’t get out in the neighborhood until around 5:30.

Despite it being a bit misty, the temperatures weren’t too bad. Last year, it was SO cold I brought Ella home early. This year, she was gung ho to do the whole neighborhood – and she had a BLAST!

This was the busiest Halloween I’ve seen in our neighborhood. There were kids of all ages, too! I loved seeing the families who dressed up together. One of our neighborhood families dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz. It was awesome.

Ella wanted to go to every house! She loved seeing the pumpkins lit up and all of the costumes. What was really sweet was that there were neighbors who recognized us from our daily walks and they would give her extra candy.

We did let Andrew venture out on foot once or twice, but he was running all over the place, so we wound up having to put in back in the stroller. He didn’t seem to mind, however, as that is where much of the candy was …

I was impressed that the kids did the entire neighborhood! When we got home, we took Andrew’s costume off because it had chocolate all over it!! We got in the car and drove to Sam’s mom and dad’s. They had special treats for them when we arrived.

It was almost 8 when we got there and on the drive we talked about how foggy it was! It was truly spooky. It wasn’t that foggy by our house, but it was crazy foggy on the way to her folks. Perfect for Halloween. The fog lasted well into the morning, as a friend posted this picture of downtown Detroit:

When we finally left Sam’s folks to head home, we both decided we were hungry. I veered off the diet as the only thing open was McDonalds. The kids had chicken nuggets, Sam had a Big Mac, and I grabbed a Filet of Fish Sandwich. It was probably not the best thing to eat that late, and probably explains the weird dreams I had, but overall, the day was a great one with the family!

Throwback Thursday

I promised my buddy Max a “happy” post, since the last few were sad in nature. When I opened up the Blog “Reader,” I saw a prompt from Maggie at From Cave Walls. I thought this would be a good way to feature a “happier” topic.

This week’s prompt is: Costumes

1. Did you celebrate Halloween? If so, what was your most memorable costume?

Yes, as kids we certainly did. As I recently blogged about here (https://nostalgicitalian.com/2022/10/23/ghosts-of-halloween-past/), I found myself having issues remembering many of the costumes I wore. I have a few that I recall from some parties – doctor, Caesar, 80’s rocker, monk, but nothing out of the ordinary.

2. As a child, did you like pretending you were someone else? Did you create costumes with things around the house?

As a child, I remember pretending to be many people: Batman, Random Spy Guy, Rosco P. Coltrane from the Dukes of Hazzard and so many more! Rosco was the only one I had a “costume” for – I had a cowboy hat and a badge.

My brother and I were creative. One time we took these old boxes and made hats out of them. They are insanely stupid.

3. When was the last time you dressed in a costume? What was the reason?

The last time I dressed in a true “costume” was a few years ago. Sam and I went to a Halloween party as Popeye and Olive Oyl!

I love that picture of us. Sam’s mom made her Olive Oyl outfit.

4. Did you ever attend Mardi Gras, Carnival or any other festival with masks or costumes? Did you wear a mask or costume?

No – Maybe someday.

5. Were you ever in a play (school or otherwise) that required a costume? If so, who were you?

I’ve mentioned it in passing before, but yes, I was in a play in Elementary School called The Runaway Snowman. I was the snowman. His name may have been Happy or something, I can’t recall. There was a costume that I pulled over my head and stuffed with pillows. They painted my face and gave me a hat. The photos still make me laugh because I look so ridiculous.

6. Do you participate in cosplay or go to Comic Conventions?

I have a few friends who do cosplay stuff, but I never have. I have never been to a Comic Convention either, but it seems like they always seem to have cool celebrities there that you can meet and take pictures with. I might go if there was a chance to see someone like that.

7. What character from movies, comics, or plays has the best costume?

I always thought Zorro had a cool costume.

8. Think of scary or horror movies. Which character’s costume and/or make up was the most frightening? Was it the costume alone, or the movie itself which made it frightening?

I don’t watch a lot of scary movies, at least modern ones. It’s really hard for me to say. I remember Darth Vader freaking me out as a kid. I couldn’t sleep for a few days because he was so scary to me.

9. Have you ever visited historic places where the staff wears period costumes? If so, where was it?

Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI has many people dressed in period costumes, as does the fort at Mackinac Island. I’m hoping to visit Philadelphia, Gettysburg, or some of the towns connected with the country’s independence and perhaps see some reenactments.

10. Have you ever attended a Broadway or Off Broadway or Community Theatre production with great costumes? Leave a clip or photo here of your favorite.

Yes. One time I saw a Chorus Line (which I hated). My dad took my wife and I to see the Phantom of the Opera, which was fantastic. The one I was most impressed with, though was Wicked. I took my wife to see it in Detroit. It was really a good story with good music. It is one of my favorite date nights.

Ghosts of Halloween Past

A few years back, I wrote a blog about those terrible Halloween costumes we used to wear as kids. You know, the one with the plastic masks with the holes in them? The masks with that cheap rubber band that always broke? Remember those? Here is a link to that blog as a refresher for you:

Halloween Dress Up

There was a Trunk or Treat close to our house recently and I could see all the kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes. I tried to remember what I had dressed up as for Halloween as a kid and I really cannot remember. So I pulled out a hard drive which contains a bunch of photo scans from my dad. I figured if my folks had taken any pictures of us in costumes, they’d be on that drive.

What I found was that there were next to none on this drive. There were a couple, which I will share, but nothing from when we were really young. I guess my parents must have thought those costumes with the cheap masks and slits for eyes were not photo worthy. The only ones they took pictures of were when we did something out of the ordinary.

One year my brother and I wanted to be vampires or something. So my dad bought the make up and such and the result was … less than steller.

We don’t even have capes! I dunno, this get up stumps me. My dad tried to make me look like Sir Graves Ghastly, who was a local horror movie host on TV. I think that he did a good job, but without the rest of the vampire ensemble, people had to wonder who they heck we were!

Sir Graves Ghastly. We met him once at a mall appearance. He was very cool and everyone asked him to do his “laugh.”

Another year I went out as Oliver Hardy of Laurel and Hardy.

I’m sure this also made no sense to people answering the door because my brother dressed up as a woman. Perhaps Mr. Hardy had a date? I suppose I could have been mistaken for Charlie Chaplin, but my body shape was more Hardy than Chaplin!

The only other Halloween picture I have is from my Sophomore year of high school. The band had a Halloween party at some barn as I recall and we all went to it. I didn’t know what to go as, and decided on going as a clown. I threw on a pair of pajama pants over my jeans, one of my dad’s old shirts, an awful sport coat, clown wig, hat and tie, and added a huge horn. It was ridiculous!

This is just a guess, but that year at the annual Band Banquet, I won the Mock Elections for “Band Clown.” I am sure that this outfit played a part in that win. It was cool to win that award every year I was in band.

While this wasn’t necessarily Halloween, one of the other photos of my “in costume” that came up was one that I used when I worked at 94.5 The Moose. I used to take song lyrics and read them behind some classical music and called it a “Dramatic Reading.” It was a silly chance to “overact.”

The first reading I did was Gretchen Wilson’s Redneck Woman. Imagine classical music playing with me dramatically saying, “Victoria Secret. There’s stuff’s real nice. But I can buy the same damn thing on a Walmart shelf – half price!” It was utter stupidity. To promote it on the website, they took this picture:

HA! I’m such an idiot!

I suppose it is probably better that there are no pictures of me in those cheap costumes. I remember I was always overweight and the pants always seemed to rip before we were done Trick or Treating. And half the time, the thing that held the mask on broke after three or four blocks and wound up in the bottom of the Trick or Treat bag or pillowcase anyway.

As silly as these are, they are fun to look back at!

Chicken Heart

I was driving home from work this morning and I was listening to some old time radio shows. Suspense has always been a favorite of mine. Around Halloween, Radio Classics on Sirius XM starts playing some classic “spooky” radio shows. One of the shows that almost always gets played is from Arch Obler’s “Lights Out” – Chicken Heart.

I became familiar with the Chicken Heart as a kid, but it wasn’t because of the show. I knew it as a classic comedy bit from Bill Cosby’s 1966 Wonderfulness Album.

This, along with many other Cosby albums, was something that my dad and I used to listen to all the time. In Cosby’s bit, he talks about being left home while his parents went out. He was supposed to stay in his room, but he would leave the room and listen to scary shows on the radio. He used the Chicken Heart as his example.

The original bit from Lights Out is only about 8 minutes long. Honestly, it’s not that scary. It’s actually kind of silly. Cosby, however, takes the bit and makes it hilarious. As someone who was more familiar with the Cosby version, when I heard the original on Sirius XM, I remember thinking, “Wow! That was really the premise for a show!!”

There is some uncertainty as to the date of the original broadcast, some say 1937 and some say 1938. Here for your listening pleasure is Chicken Heart from Lights Out ….

https://youtu.be/XuSzhsuofik

Now, compare it with the much funnier version as presented by Bill Cosby…

As I listened back to this bit before writing this post, it made me think of all the great comedy albums we used to listen to growing up. So many laughs ….

Zoo Boo ’22

Yesterday was the perfect fall day, although chilly. We have a membership to the Children’s Zoo and knew that around Halloween they did Zoo Boo. Originally, we had planned to take the kids up one weekend. However, with all that’s gone on in the past week, and with the colder temperatures, Sam suggested just taking Ella for some one-on-one time. It was going to be too cold for me to take Andrew.

I packed up the stroller and put it in the car. Packed a bag for her and I, and we took the short trip up I 75 to the zoo. The colder temperatures kept some of the animals indoors and not out on exhibit, but that didn’t seem to matter. The zoo was bustling with all kinds of parents and children- some in costume and some not.

All along the walkways of the zoo are little areas that people can decorate for various seasons and such. There were so many wonderful little Halloween displays. There were many pumpkins, ghosts, mums, sunflowers, all dressed up in Fall colors.

When we walked in, Ella was handed a trick or treat bag for a lot of the various stops and games throughout the zoo that day. We were only a few feet into the zoo and she heard the trains whistle and took off because she wanted to go and ride the train.

The train was already out riding along the tracks, and the line for the next train ride had already started to form. Very close to the train depot was a little traveling coffee truck. I decided to go over and get a coffee to warm me up, and Ella asked for some lemonade.

After our train ride, LOL wanted to go and play on the little playground. She wanted to go down the slide, and wanted me to as well! I joked and said that I didn’t think that my butt would fit on the slide. (Earlier last week we had stopped at a park, and Sam got on a swing and Ella had told her she was proud that her butt fit into the swing!) When I slid down she was at the bottom of the slide to greet me saying, “Yay, daddy! Your butt fitted the slide!” Then she asked to go down again!!

After visiting the prairie dogs, the otters, the wolves, and the alligator, Ella wanted to ride the carousel. She was talking about in on the ride there. She was going to ride on the bunny (there are actually 2 of them, thank goodness). As soon as the opened the gate for us to get on the ride, she was looking for the bunny. No other kid was on it yet, so she claimed it for her ow.

After riding the carousel twice, she asked to go home. On my way out, she said, “I wanna see the animals again.” Thankfully, we hadn’t walked out yet. We walked back through and she played a few games that were set up along the way and in one of the tents. She won some stuffed pumpkin looking guy and a lamb, which she loves.

After walking through again, I was glad she didn’t fight me when I said it was time to go home and warm up. As we walked outside, we once again passed by two bear sculptures that were donated to the zoo. They are pretty awesome. The won awards at ArtPrize. You can read about them here:

https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2022/10/1000-pound-artprize-bear-sculptures-donated-to-saginaw-childrens-zoo.html

Ella wanted to stand by the big brown bear and she started roaring like a bear! It was so cute!

There has been so much going on in our lives that getting away for a bit to share some fun with Ella was nice. I missed having the rest of the family there, though.

I hope to get the whole family out together for an outing before fall gives way to winter.