The darkness of winter is approaching, and encroaching, and other such words; the pumpkins and plastic skeletons and fake spider webs have gone out in front yards; Halloween is almost here. In the summer of 2020, I thought that the pandemic might be mostly over by Halloween of that year, and, Halloween being on a Saturday, people would use the occasion to release the tension of the previous months with some wild partying . . . but then the pandemic flared up again, and Halloween pretty much didn’t happen. This year though, despite the continuing pandemic, we are, maybe, possibly, having Halloween. And Halloween will be on a Sunday, which, while not quite as good as a Saturday, is better than a Monday.
On Sunday (October 24) I went into the Old Town section of Alexandria. I was surprised to see a number of people, and an even bigger number of dogs, wearing Halloween costumes.
Is the fact that there were people walking around in costumes one week early evidence that Halloween will be super-crazy this year?
Or is it just part of the phenomenon of Halloween taking over the entire month of October?
Or, since I saw many more dogs than people in costumes, is one week before Halloween now Dogoween?
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My Sunday visit also made me think more deeply about the twin topics of Halloween and Old Town.
Halloween awakens my longstanding ambition to write fiction (which, like all my ambitions, remains unfulfilled), and, in this specific case, fantasy-horror fiction. And Old Town, a genuine Colonial setting with narrow alleyways, walled gardens, and half-concealed cellar doors, seems like the perfect environment to fill my mind with visions of the unnatural and terrifying things about which I would want to write.
Yet that never happens.
Maybe it is because I just don’t have the capacity to be inspired toward storytelling. Or maybe it is because Old Town is a thoroughly modernized, well-maintained, touristy city, and not the sort of dilapidated, half-abandoned urban area where there could conceivably be evil fish-men lurking in the shadows.
Of course, if you have seen any evil fish-men lurking in the shadows of Old Town, please let me know in the comment section.
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