Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for August 28, 2023

Grandma has other ideas on how scary the decorations should be Val.

Growing up, there was a house at the end of the block that didn’t need to decorate for Halloween. Their yard was poorly maintained with the grass and shrubs over grown and the walkway was poorly lit. It had a slight air of being haunted most of the year. For as long as I lived in the neighborhood, there was an absurdly small empty lot right next to it that never sold.

Years later, I came to work at the same place as the guy who used to own the house on the other side of that empty lot. He filled me in on many of the neighborhood controversies over the years that I got a whiff of as a kid. One of those was his troubles with that neighbor and the empty lot between them. Turns out he didn’t think anyone should have to suffer living directly next to the trashy neighbors, so he had been maintaining 10-15 feet of the empty lot to make it look absurdly small so no one would buy it. It was his idea of community service.

just love Evie’s face in panel 3

My Halloween decorations one year were a last minute thing executed in about an hour. Large bowls of candy, plastic jack’o lanterns lined up along the sidewalk with lights in them, black light bulb replacing the porch light, about 20 candles inside arranged on the counter, windows up with speakers in them playing screams and howls, and the piece de’ resisatnce, my costume: a 4x US army poncho minus the winter lining. Scenario: lights out, candles flickering, sounds playing, doorbell rings, I bend over at the waist and pull the poncho way over my head, open the door, and then stand up. I had one very young little girl refused to come to the door, even with her Mom. Even had a friend of the wife’s come to the door and when I went to stand up, she screamed and her teen-aged sons ran!

I think the kids need to toughen up is some little decoration scare them that badly

After 20 years of living on an isolated street with no trick or treaters we moved to a neighborhood in Pismo Beach full of children. We were excited to be somewhere that our Halloween decorations would be appreciated. I can’t remember what I wore other than between me and our animated Grim Reaper a lot of children turned around and left. I had to tone done my costume and remove the Grim Reaper. Now we’ve retired to a rural area and last year we had no kids despite our decorations.

way too early for anything Halloween…..

I know that’s probably supposed to be a hatchet in the last panel, but it looks more like a brush.

The end of August is a little EARLY to start thinking about Halloween isn’t it, Evie ?

But if you look at the date in the first panel, you will see that this one originally ran near the end of October. Many of the “classic” strips don’t match the current date.

Years ago, my parents lived in a neighborhood full of kids. That meant a lot of trick-or-treaters, which my parents really enjoyed. One year, my dad dressed up as a scarecrow and sat motionless in a chair on their small front stoop. When trick-or-treaters approached, he would hold out a bowl of candy and say, “Hi, kids, have some candy” (or something like that). Instead of being startled or frightened, the kids seemed to get a kick out it, and my folks’ house apparently became a Halloween favorite. (I wish I’d been there — I had long since moved out on my own — but my mom told me all about it.)

It’s a fine line. When my son decorates with axes, fake blood and body parts, the teenagers love it but the little kids won’t come to the door. When I decorate with pumpkins, bats and webs the kids come but the teenagers are bored.

Timing is almost there, just two more months.