Halloween is an excuse for women to show off a lot of skin, men to act creepier than usual hidden behind masks and everyone to eat too many sweets. It's not even the 31st and I have already had my fill of candy corn. The last time I "dressed up" was six years ago for a co-workers Halloween party and I was a very demure 50's girl complete with poodle skirt, cardigan sweater, pigtails and Keds. Clearly, I have never been a big fan of this holiday. I am, however, looking forward to creating new traditions for and with Lucas and this year will be his first time trick-or-treating. Pictures on Monday!
One thing about Halloween that is very intriguing to me are haunted houses, ghost stories, witches and fortune tellers. Like most, I'm not overly comfortable with the macabre, but there is a large part of me that believes strongly in the afterlife, mediums and those who can communicate with the dead and not a Halloween goes by that I don't think about a story my grandmother and then mother used to tell me.
I didn't know my grandmother (my mom's mother) very well. We always lived very far away from my grandparents and we only saw them once a year. What I do recall is that she was a heavy smoker, very loud, collected owl figurines and loved to sew. The story she told made chills run up and down my spine.
My grandmother was 15 and out shopping with a girlfriend and stumbled upon a fortune teller. For kicks, they decided to go in. My grandmother went first and the psychic told her the "standard", you'll marry someone tall, dark and handsome, to which my grandmother giggled and then promptly forgot.
When it was her friend's turn, the fortune teller clammed up and became very jittery. She claimed that she couldn't tell the girl's fortune because nothing was coming to her and instead wrote something on a piece of paper and asked her to put the note in her shoe and read once she got home.
The two girls carried on with their day, had lunch, did more shopping and as they were heading home crossed a busy intersection. My grandmother's friend was hit a car. She was instantly killed.
According to my grandmother, the note tucked in her shoe read, "you'll never live to read this".
I have never heard this story from anyone else so as far as I know, it is true.
Wishing everyone a very happy and safe Halloween!
