on promoting imagination

Today, Sunday October 4th (or 5th?) I went into the Halloween store for the first time. It is tawdry. It is grotesque. It is of the poorest taste. It is over priced. So what was I doing there?

I was shopping for a wizard hat, a wizard wand, a pair of pink horn rimmed glasses, and an orange wig. For my granddaughters. For Halloween when they will go to a Halloween BBQ and trick or treat event in N. Carolina.

I never ever spent money on Halloween when our kids were young. Both Vincent and Rachel remind me that every time Halloween came up I made them be, and I quote, "a homeless person." Or a hockey player.

But to my credit you have to realize that Halloween in Calgary was bitterly cold and whatever costume you had on it was obliterated by the down filled parka, mitts, scarves, not to mention the ice fog.

I remember once I made a spider costume for Ben. It was his idea. We blew up a big round balloon and paper mache'd it into a ball, popped the balloon and painted the ball black. Then we cut a hole in the bottom of it for his head and stuffed women's black hose with newspaper, attaching six of them as legs. We painted on eyes and added long eyelashes - I thought and still think it was a masterpiece of mothering.

But today I went into a store and bought costumes that will end up in the dress up trunk and will get tons of play, considering they are on book five of the Potter series. So there you have it. Not only participation in Halloween but Harry Potter junk. Hell in a handcart my mother in law would say. I did it because this morning on the phone my girls told me their dream of being Harry Potter characters, and they wondered if I had anything around that would help them be that. And I told them I would look. And I did.

I expect that The Girls will add a big dose of imagination to the costumes, and wear them out with fantasies and play games. I am okay with that.