“The wise old owl is a curious fellow; he has ears like a cat and his are yellow…” No matter the holiday, secular, religious, or just Patriotic (the old kind, where Communists were NOT cool, IKE (as in Eisenhower, was right,) married couples, at least on black and white television slept in separate beds with a convenient nightstand between them… Back in those days when our public schools not only had scenes of the CRESH, and decorated Christmas Trees with an angel on top in the lobby, along with a Menorah, (our school was most likely 90% Jewish demographic,) with the reciting of a passage from the Bible, and “The Lords” Prayer with ALL hands folded, and of course standing tall for the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag (not the Nazi Swastika nor the Confederate Cross, but the Stars and the Stripes, to begin the day…Miss Marie Cyphers, our Music Teacher (Yep, back then we enjoyed the arts, having Art Class, Music Class, and Instrument Class, and occasional Ball Room Dance lessons…Because a boy needed to grow into a Gentleman, and a girl must never be anything but a respected Lady) Miss Cyphers taught her classes Grade K to 8 all genres of songs, so ALL of us would have a better understanding that the USA was a melting pot, more so for the white kids, and mainly for the Christian kids, but still a place where Immigrants were welcomed (and many of my classmates were only first-generation Americans.) I wish I remembered more of the lyrics of the song “The Wise Old Owl,” and its lyricist, (but age is sneaking its fogyish way into my brain, and little tiny stuff seems to remain hidden. Even for Halloween, Miss Cyphers had music to lighten up the THEN spookiest holiday a young kid could experience.
Many of us lucky enough to go “trick or treating, “ back then, walking in our own SAFE neighborhoods, or if one of the neighbors owned a station wagon (what the hell was an SUV, back then), we would all pile in and drive a few blocks to the really huge homes a few blocks away, and as if we had never seen or eaten candy and would “trick or treat, “ at homes in which that seemed only millionaires lived. (In LA a million might get you a two-bedroom condo on the second floor.) Rain or snow, yep Pittsburgh in October back in the day, could surprise you with an inch or two of snow. These homes had AMAZING decorations, and some had candied apples and even hot dogs. We would return home, and the only candy we could not eat, was anything unwrapped, back then the fruit was not a terrorist piece of ammunition, so that too was on the good list (Razorblade stories had not yet reached anyone’s attention.
As I write this BLOG, I do so for a variety of reasons: of course a trip down memory lane is fun (albeit as does our skin tone, our muscle strength, our joints age, and change, so do memories, sometimes truth-tellers, often time, tellers of a truth we thought was real, and have hung on to and perhaps embellished…But, because we ARE still living in the present, a condition full of an attack on ALL beauties of America, due to Trump and his Crime Syndicate, I write this Halloween BLOG, in respect for the Children STILL DETAINED in TRUMP’S CONCENTRATION CAMPS, and for the innocent victims of gun violence and the TERRORIST’S, who let the murder of innocents permeate into our culture, like the NRA, the insecure folk who have only heard about the Second Amendment (most likely never having read all of I, or even understanding its context, let alone the having read our Constitution, the too well-armed Militias, whose members include, many with no “background checks,” into their mental abilities, and the men and women in Congress who ENABLE death and dying each day in America, thinking that Jesus, if only he had been armed, would have slaughtered the Romans(or the Jews depending on how REALLY anti-Sematic some Evangelicals remain.)
Maybe the Mexicans and those in Central America have a better idea when they celebrate Dia De Los Muertos, on November 1.( Dia de Los Muertos is a celebration of expression in many ways. Not only is it dedicated to remembering and honoring those loved ones who have passed, but it's also centrally focused on the artistic expression of the living through the creation of ofrendas, costumes, cooking, and other tokens and offerings.
