Yes I'll Be Here When The Morning Comes...

I'll be right here, I ain't gonna run…
I just moved in my new house today.
Moving was hard but I got squared away.
When bells starting ringing and chains rattled loud,
I knew I'd moved in a haunted house.

Trick or treat! Remember those words? I remember waiting anxiously for the time we could go out and get candy. We’d dress up, nothing elaborate. It might just be face painting, funny clothes or a mask. Halloween. It was a day you got to pretend to be something or someone else. The elementary school a few blocks away, the one that my sister and brother and I all attended, all six years, would host a carnival each year. Back then we didn’t have to call it a fall festival, we called it what it was; a Halloween carnival. There were cakewalks, ball games, floating ducks, candy apples and prizes. It was a fun time for the whole family.

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Halloween to me was just another day except you had permission to ask anyone for candy. It had to be good if that was the case, right? But sometime from then to now the emphasis shifted. Instead of just a fun day it was considered evil and a pagan holiday. So the Halloween carnivals continued but we have to call them Fall Festivals now. There are cakewalks, ball games, floating ducks, candy apples and prizes. It’s still a fun time for the whole family. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking anyone for their opinion of Halloween. It really doesn’t matter to me what you call your Halloween or if you even acknowledge the holiday. It’s a personal preference and if I don’t like your choice I’ll change the channel, just as I’d want you to do should you disagree with my choice.

Lion Brand pattern.

Trick or treat in the small town I live in is different. At least when I first moved here years ago I thought it was different. It doesn’t matter when Halloween is. Trick or treat is the Saturday before. The fire siren rings at 4:30 and again at 6:00. When it rings the first time trick or treat has officially started. When it blows the second time it’s over. The ‘fall festival’ starts at 7:00 or so and at 10:00, when it ends, Halloween is over, even if it hasn’t come yet. After experiencing it for so long, I now think it’s not a bad idea at all. The kids are safe, it’s done and life goes on.

When you get too big to trick or treat or too old to dress up you don’t have much to do on Halloween. Since that’s the case, this Halloween we went out of town. Nobody has ever trick or treated at our house because we live in the country so no child was cheated out of a treat by us leaving town. We decided to spend Halloween Eve watching old horror movies. There were some classics, “The Fly”, the original from 1958, “Frankenstein's Daughter”, and “Return of the Fly”, as well as some that we’d never seen, “Strait- Jacket”, and “The Old Dark House”. Watching these movies now is funnier than it is scary. These aren’t the jump in your face Freddy movies, but just old, circa 1960’s, bizarre movies.

What I found entertaining, or weird, about two movies in particular, is that they both contained knitting. “The Old Dark House” and “Strait-Jacket” both had women knitting. “The Old Dark House” was kind of like clue. It had a very young Tom Posten in it. (He was the gardener on Newhart at the Vermont Inn). Anyway, the movie was one of those where there were a lot of eccentric people in an old, eerie, probably haunted house who were dying one by one and you had to figure out who the killer was. It reminded me of a version of “Clue”.

The mother in the show was named Agatha. Agatha always had her knitting with her. She said knitting is relaxing and knitting is her life. When asked what she was making and she said she just knits from the beginning to the end and it's bound to turn into something! She said she knit 150 miles last year and had a goal of 200 this year! She was never without her knitting. Of course, because this was a horror movie and everyone was murdered she was murdered as well. She was actually the first to go. They found her, knitting needles stuck through her neck, like a skull and crossbones, wrapped in her knitting and smiling. Morbid, yes, but because of her goofy expression we laughed.

The second movie with knitting was “Strait-Jacket”. Joan Crawford (creepy in her own rite), played a crazy lady, (Lucy), who chopped up her husband and his mistress, spent 20 years in an asylum and was reformed and released. She was out to live her life, but there was a crazy in the midst. Copycat axe murders were occurring and Lucy was the prime suspect. In one scene, where she was particularly frazzled, she held up her knitting. She said it was relaxing and she liked knitting. She said, “Remember, they taught me that in therapy.”

Another interesting thing? Both movies had the same director, William Castle. I think I'll look to see what other weird movies he directed...and if they have knitting.

I hope your Halloween was fun. Ours was. We watched the movies, laughed, and I knitted. It was relaxing and productive. And it wasn’t nearly as fattening as candy!

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Still I made up my mind to stay.
Nothing was a-gonna drive me away.
When I seen something that give me the creeps…
Had one big eye and two big feet.

Knityear is going strong. I hate when I get behind, though, because of travel for work. But at least I catch up and keep on knitting I guess. Day 211, October 28, is my parent’s anniversary, 54 years. Wow that’s a long time! I’m driving back from Presidio, late, and don’t have signal so again, I’m the bad daughter and don’t call. Oh well. The work I did made me feel valuable anyway, to Presidio anyway. I think I helped them. They were great to work with, regardless. I had some silver and gold yarn. It reminded me of treasure, and value. On day 212, October 29, I had a day off…sort of. I didn’t have to go to work but I did have to get things ready to head to Ruidoso. But I was so ready to head that way it didn’t matter. We left early enough to get there around 7:30. That’s a first. I felt revived breathing the mountain air. Pine needles, wood smoke and fresh air. I picked a green bulky that reminded me of the trees. October 30, Halloween Eve I guess, was a relaxed day. My sister and her husband came up and we watched silly old movies, went to a crafts fair and just relaxed. It was a good day for day 213. I had some sock yarn, greens, browns and blue, that reminded me of the peacefulness of the mountains. It was a good yarn for that day. Day 214, October 31, I had to use orange and black yarn because it was Halloween. I was reluctant to come down the mountain and go back to reality. But I did.

I stood right there and I did the freeze.
It did the stroll right up to me.
Made a noise with its feet that sounded like a drum.
Said "You gonna be here when the morning comes?"

"Say yes, I'll be here when the morning comes.
I'll be right here, I ain't gonna run…”