Blame It On Mom

I blame my mother. I know it was unintentional but I blame her just the same.

Our entire family enjoyed the Halloween season but aside from a few disposable decorations like crepe paper, honeycomb pieces, die-cuts, etc we really didn't have much to display. We always carved pumpkins and we made the corn stalk tee pee but that was about it. With one exception. My mother always placed a plastic light-up in the front window. The light-up featured a grinning Jack O' Lantern in a top hat balanced on a hunched back black cat with a skull between his feet. Around the base were several flying witches.



The lighting of the Jack and Cat signaled that Halloween was upon us. Every night from mid October until the 31st the black and orange plastic cast an eerie glow in our window. It was a magical time.

Several years ago my parents were cleaning out their basement. (Thank God because they are pack rats and I would hate to have to have done that after they were gone.) My sister and I showed up to help. Well, we showed up to stake claim to certain things anyway. I told my mom that I wanted the plastic Jack and Cat. I was surprised when she couldn't even recall what I was talking about. After relating the entire story as I have here she still couldn't remember it so I figured it had been tossed out.

We cleaned throughout the day and at one point I looked up in the rafters and... did I mention my parents are pack rats? Thank God they are because there it was! Tucked away and dusty but in great shape.

And so it began. My obsession with those vintage plastic light-ups. My collection now includes 25 of these relics from the 60's and 70's and it's still growing. I blame it on my mother.

Other pieces from the collection:
Vintage Light-Ups 1
Vintage Light-Ups 2
Vintage Light-Ups 3

Freaks

Every so often I get a hold of a word and chew it until all the flavor is gone. My current word is freaks. My neighbor - the inspiration.

About 10 days ago I pulled into our subdivision and what to my wondering eyes did appear? My neighbor had their Christmas trees (yes - that's plural - trees) up and lit. Freaks. 24 hours later the festival of lights had oozed it's way to the exterior in a billion gigawatts of glory. Freaks. There ought to be a law that you can not turn on your holiday lights until Thanksgiving evening. For crying out loud I still have pumpkins in my yard.

Tonight as I passed the freak show that was akin to a landing beacon welcoming extraterrestrials I thought "thank God they don't live right across the street". But as I crossed town I found, to my dismay, that the freakiness was contagious. I lost count of the number of houses displaying Christmas lights. What? They can't wait another 48 hours??

During my drive of lights I flipped through my XM Radio (which reminds me - send complaint to XM/Sirius. I mean really - Octane over SquiZZ ? It's 6pm where the hell is Grant Random? The execs need an ID check!) and found that freaks were taking up arms nationwide. There were now [gasp] holiday channels playing nothing but Christmas music 24/7.

Just when I thought I couldn't take another Hallmark moment I pulled up to the stop light and saw the most beautiful sight. A tiny house with one of those huge, hideous airblown turkeys and orange icicle lights. Hallelujah! The world had not gone mad! I was not alone in holding on to the last vestige of Autumn!

As the light turned green I took one last look and felt a bit less Grinchy. After all, I was on my way to meet the hubby and buy new Christmas lights. Freaks.