Halloween 2009

Although I am well beyond my trick or treating days, I celebrated Halloween this year at a variety of venues this year. It started last weekend when Deborah and I checked out the Field of Screams on Sauvie Island. We thought this haunted corn field was more effective than a haunted house. It seemed that the thick corn stalks gave the various monsters better hiding places than the restrictive walls found in a building.

On Friday I left my tie at home and at work as I dressed up as a Lumberjack. I could not help to whistle the tune to Monty Python's Lumberjack song as I shouldered my axe. In my mind's eye I imagined myself leaping from tree to tree as they floated down the mighty rivers of British Columbia.

On Halloween itself we toured the Lone Fir Cemetery in Southeast Portland. As we were led around the cemetery we 'met' several of the inhabitants of this graveyard, who shared with us their stories. This included a woman caught up in a love triangle/double-murder suicide, a business man who shanghaied his own son and a prostitute whose gravestone was paid for by her clients. My neighbor Michael, who helped organize the event, later told me that 2400 people took this tour that evening.

To top it off we watched the film Shaun of the Dead, which was quite amusing. If zombies invade my hometown, I hope I would not be as oblivious to them as the movie's hero. I will confess that I covered my eyes during the really gory part.