10 November 2003

All that Life Can Be

Here it is November and this is our first gloomy day of rain.  The computer is playing Garrison Kellor’s “Prairie Home Companion” Show and my hot cup of tea is making me think of long ago when I was young…days when I thought the way it was then would always be.  Maybe it is the American stories of life in a small town, or my own memories of spending the afternoon with my grandmother…but I’m feeling nostalgic.

This has been Halloween week.   Cat loves this “holiday”, as she calls it.  She’s was sadly disappointed in France’s observance of All Hallow’s Eve.  The British did a little better

After spending a long day volunteering at Oxfam,  I raced home to put make up on Cat and her friend Charlotte.  Cat was a gypsy and Charlotte a very sophisticated witch.  Cat was an expert at trick or treating, but this was Charlotte’s first time.  She said her mom had never allowed her to go before.

The night air was pleasant so the kids didn’t have to cover up their costumes to stay warm.  Jay stayed behind to hand out candy.

We found a few houses giving out treats but mostly people seem to think Halloween is a bad import from the US.  In fact All Hallow's Eve started with the pagans in Britain over a thousand years ago,  and was adopted by the Catholics as a celebration of those who had passed on to another life. 

The neighbors on the other side of the garden answered the door because they saw it was us and gave the girls part of their "tea";  peanuts and potato chips that the girls scooped out of a bowl.   After about 30 minutes I could see we would have to walk a long way for the girls to feel fulfilled.  We did manage to visit a few houses with jack-o-lanterns smiling from their windows.  The girls decided that they had plenty of candy after a man answered the door with a black hood and screen over his face.

Probably the real problem with Halloween is that if fall just before Guy Fawkes Day, or the Bonfire night. 

We had a fun day yesterday.  Jay and I walked up to get groceries and then brought it all home.  We walked back up to High St. to visit the St. Mary's Church bazarre.  There were used books, cookies and tea, yard sale type items too.  I did some Christmas shopping for my neighbor and her two kids.

Then Catlyn and I walked up to meet her friend Anna and her dad at the park.  We walked over to the school for "ice skating".  The ice is actually a kind of waxed tile that they put down on the gym floor and the kids used real ice skates.  I just watched.  They had a ball!  Then Anna came to play for awhile.

At 5 we drove up to get a pizza and on to Boxford to see the Guy Fawkes Day procession.  Guy sacrificed his life to gain freedom for Britian a few hundred years ago so each year they pile up wood and put a scarecrow type guy on top and set it on fire.  The procession left from the White Hart Pub with hundreds of people carrying lighted torches.  Then they walk down the main street to the soccer field to light the bonfire.  Afterwards there are magnificent fireworks.

We didn't stay for the fireworks because we wanted to get back to go to Sabrina's Halloween party.  On the way we stopped to try to see the Aurora Boriallas, because it was a clear sky.  We didn't see the Aurora but we did see, far off in the distance 5 different fireworks displays.

Catlyn dressed up as a gypsy and I wore my Voodoo queen outfit with lots of makeup and gold dangling earrings.  Jay dressed up in his New Zealand wax coat and hat saying he was a cowboy.  He just looked like himself, but it made him happy.  The party was fun with some people I knew already, including an American, plus others I met for the first time.  Jay left within 5 minutes but Catlyn and I stayed for 2 hours. 

The weather has been warmer, which is good but it is windy and overcast so it feels like one of those days to stay in and do nothing.  I walked down to the newspaper store before it closed (at noon) and bought a big fat paper.  There are probably 15 national newspapers and they never have the liberal one I like to read so I am relegated to reading the conservative version of the news.