Halloween Memories: A Hilarious Wrong Turn

 On Halloween I always think of the Halloweens of the past when my kids were young. I often made their costumes, we went trick or treating in our neighborhood, and put up a few decorations at our house. A couple of Halloweens stand out though.

When my daughter Jamie was 4 or 5 and my son Ben was 7 or 8, we went to the Chicago Botanic Garden for their Halloween festival. The Chicago Botanic Gardens is a wonderful place north of Chicago. We go there often to walk, for art and flower exhibits, a yearly quilt show, and so on. 

The Halloween event included a hay ride, apple cider and donuts, and a choice of two walks: a friendly walk and a scary walk. The friendly walk had adults dressed up a Care Bears, Winnie the Pooh, and so on. The scary walk had typical scary Halloween beings.  Since we had younger children, especially Jamie, we choice the friendly walk. Only we took a wrong turn. And didn't realize it at first.

We walked up the steps (outdoors) to the area with the man-made lily ponds. As we walked by the first pond, the Creature from the Black Lagoon lunged out of the water and grabbed Jamie's ankle. She of course started screaming. 

We got her away from the Creature (my husband and I laughing quietly) though she isn't over her fright yet and who comes down the path but Frankenstein! Jamie completely loses it begins shrieking. Frankenstein sees what's happening (and probably wonders what's wrong with these parents to bring little kids on the scary walk!). He break character, kneels down close to her and says softly, "I'm not really a monster. I'm just a man in a costume." 

When I remember this day, that's what stands out -- that he saw a child in distress and took immediate action. 

Here's to a not too scary Halloween!