Boo -- Dammit!

It's Halloween, and for some reason I have Eddie Murphy in my head, playing the grizzled old Jewish man version of Gumby. Maybe it's because he's a native Long Islander, like I am, and on this day my thoughts go back to childhood.

I loved Halloween as a kid, on Charles Lane. Autumn nights seemed truly spooky, and it was great to be scared and scare others. An early bad memory was being sick on Halloween, and one of the neighbor kids carried my plastic pumpkin for me, with the words "David is sick -- trick or treat" and then brought me back the candy.

In about 4th grade, my father bought me a truly chilling rubber mask --it was a darkened green version of a very ugly man, and I loved that thing. Neighbors would open the door and truly gasp. I think I kept it through high school.

My memory also triggered thoughts of the East Broadway Elementary School Music teacher, Mr. Lutri. He was a lovely, kind man, and taught us Saint-Sanse "Danse Macabre." I remember the story behind the sound poem -- on Halloween, all the spirits would be summoned by the death god for a night of dancing and revelry, until the bell of All Saints' Day would send them back to another year of mordant death.

I imagine Mr. Lutri must be long gone. I was in his band, and was the most talented flute player. He really encouraged me. But when I got older, I picked baseball over flute playing. I chose wrong.

We've lived here at Villa Wifey for nearly 18 years. Some Halloweens we get lots of kids trick or treating -- some fewer than 25. Wifey and I enjoy sitting on our front porch with the dogs and watching the kids.

D1 and Joey will have their first Halloween in their new house. They live in a gated development of 18 houses in NE Miami, and I noticed each one has decorations. I told them to be ready for a nice onslaught of trick or treaters...

D2 and Jonathan live in a national capital of Halloween -- Greenwich Village. The gay folks who still make up the foundation of the population there have an enormous parade -- D2 and Jonathan actually have to strategize their commutes so as not to get shut out of their tree lines street. But the costumes will be the best there, I'm sure -- particularly the ones for the many dogs of their 'hood.

When the Ds were little, we'd decorate the house. In our last place, we'd set up a haunted house in the garage. Last weekend, we were reminiscing about some folks -- the first renters we had in my in laws' house -- a place we kept as a rental property after moving back into our restored home following Hurricane Andrew.

Mike lived across the street, and together we set up a great thing for the kids. Our tenants were delightful folks from Texas -- Baptist missionaries. Their kids came dressed as Mary and Joseph, and I remember the Mom, Nell, sort of freaking out at all the satanic displays Mike had created. They sort of quickly left the party -- Mike and I felt bad about not realizing that maybe we went a bit far with the Devil and Witch stuff...

Our decoration the past years has become very lazy -- a 2/3 lifesize Frankenstein monster gets pulled out of storage and posed in a plastic chair by the front gate -- to let kids know we do give out candy.

I remember one year, I guess it must have been '08 or '09, D1 surprised us by driving home from college in Gainesville. She loved giving out candy with us.  This year she gets to do it as her own homeowner.

So may the day and night pass safely, with some laughter. And here's to Mr. Lutri, wherever he is...