Tuesday, November 01, 2005
On All Saints Day?
Yeah that's my homegrrrl Veronica. She sent me this flick yesterday for Halloween. The funny *ish is that I managed to pull together as much energy as I could and take a 3 generational trip down yonder into town for trick-or-treaing. Now first, let me put out my view on Halloween. Nope, I aint XIAN and not on the far right (nahmean). So, yes based on my experiences as a child, I totally engage in the trick-or-treating and help my youngun make a homemade costume and pimp her get up fo some candy. I wanted to stay home and give out candy this year but were far out in the stix. Did you know that 90% of parents steal their chilluns candy? YES, I am one of them! There is no shame in my game. Halloweens in Savannah were awesome. We always went around out middle class neighborhood but the fun lied in going to Zee’s school neighborhood that was predominately upper class 10 br houses...oops mansion amidst modest homes. All the children from her school (of many socio-economic classes) would come out in the cutest costumes that were very much a reflection of their own ingenuity as well as their parental participation in more cases than not. But being in our new country stix environment we weren’t sure where to go for the goods. So, we went down to town to the historic district (5 miles from the casa) which was very similar to our yearly usual spot in Savannah. I wish I took pictures of some of these plantation style houses in all their Halloween dressings as well as all these kids running around in their erreday attire. Twas type strange to me.
The most bizarre thing was that 85% of the kids (our local population being overwhelmingly predominantly black) had no costume at all. 10% had a mask, wig or face paint. I shit you not, 5% had some kind of something of a costume. I couldn’t help but to stew on the why about it as we made the rounds. I wondered if it were as simple as the kids not being able afford costumes. I could see they really didn’t give a rats ass, really. I remember in some of the poor times of my youth, my brothers and I always managed to get in the closets and make something up, use Ma Dukes make-up and pull it together, with no money for the fancy plastic masks that seemed to be a luxury at the time. I can remember one kid in our 15 floor building putting on dome dark clothes an applejack hat and used borrowed black pace paint to paint a mask on his face, sling a pillow case for his candy over his shoulder, and run around the building calling himself a burglar. Shit, kids poor or not, back then, used some imagination that seems to be terribly lacking today. These kids were out in plain clothes with a plastic bag. Back in the day folks would refuse to give you candy with no costume or give the ones with costumes that were unique more candy. Damnit, the candy had to be earned! On top of all that I saw that all the children in this sleepy little town seemed to be congregated in the predominately white affluent part of town. The surprise of some of the people giving out candy to see my munchkin in here home made "goddess of gold" costume was as bizarre as it was awkward (for lack of better words). Why was her being dressed so unusual? I think what bothered me is that I didn’t know if the children not wearing costumes was a part of circumstance or if it was a part of a type of Halloween that is slowly dying for the now generations. The fun of thinking up what your gonna be and figuring out what you need to drum up around the house to get It "authentic" wasn’t there. A little part of the majik seemed gone. I guess there was an internal reason I didn’t take my camera out with me yesterday, as if I subconsciously knew there wouldn’t be much to document. Not people wise at lease
Seems that adults get more into it than the kids these days. For example the picture above as well as the adults that were giving out the candy. Ill get back to the picture.
To take my observation further. I noticed that the pack of kids were predominately black and the people giving out the candy in town were predominately white. We drove to the more "black" part of town and there were no porch lights on and the place was being patrolled by sherrifs. Yeah, we ain't got's no po-lice, we got's sheriff's! lol. It was a literal ghost town. Ummm, so black get da candy and whitefolk gives da candy?! *shaking head*
So upon opening this email yesterday with my homegrrrl all dressed up I asked myself. What has changed? Then I looked at what she was for Halloween. The dead, driving her car. I found it so appropriate. Watching children runaround like feigned Zombies out not for blood, but candy, totally getting submerged in the consumerist part of Halloween was an enlightening point. She dressed up as something so appropriate for our day and age, a lifeless and spiritless corpse. Funny, I think we observe this everyday and have learned to not recognize the parts of life that are truly majikal in our pursuits, just like driving that car.
I am happy I've been able to share some of the joys I've experienced as a child with my daughter. The sparkle in her eyes describe this life-spark I don't see everywhere, and I'm not saying that because she is my kid. I fear for her generation and the people she will interact with as she grows. What scares me even more is how many living dead actually roam the earth whether its Halloween or not.
boooooooooooo.
Yeah that's my homegrrrl Veronica. She sent me this flick yesterday for Halloween. The funny *ish is that I managed to pull together as much energy as I could and take a 3 generational trip down yonder into town for trick-or-treaing. Now first, let me put out my view on Halloween. Nope, I aint XIAN and not on the far right (nahmean). So, yes based on my experiences as a child, I totally engage in the trick-or-treating and help my youngun make a homemade costume and pimp her get up fo some candy. I wanted to stay home and give out candy this year but were far out in the stix. Did you know that 90% of parents steal their chilluns candy? YES, I am one of them! There is no shame in my game. Halloweens in Savannah were awesome. We always went around out middle class neighborhood but the fun lied in going to Zee’s school neighborhood that was predominately upper class 10 br houses...oops mansion amidst modest homes. All the children from her school (of many socio-economic classes) would come out in the cutest costumes that were very much a reflection of their own ingenuity as well as their parental participation in more cases than not. But being in our new country stix environment we weren’t sure where to go for the goods. So, we went down to town to the historic district (5 miles from the casa) which was very similar to our yearly usual spot in Savannah. I wish I took pictures of some of these plantation style houses in all their Halloween dressings as well as all these kids running around in their erreday attire. Twas type strange to me.
The most bizarre thing was that 85% of the kids (our local population being overwhelmingly predominantly black) had no costume at all. 10% had a mask, wig or face paint. I shit you not, 5% had some kind of something of a costume. I couldn’t help but to stew on the why about it as we made the rounds. I wondered if it were as simple as the kids not being able afford costumes. I could see they really didn’t give a rats ass, really. I remember in some of the poor times of my youth, my brothers and I always managed to get in the closets and make something up, use Ma Dukes make-up and pull it together, with no money for the fancy plastic masks that seemed to be a luxury at the time. I can remember one kid in our 15 floor building putting on dome dark clothes an applejack hat and used borrowed black pace paint to paint a mask on his face, sling a pillow case for his candy over his shoulder, and run around the building calling himself a burglar. Shit, kids poor or not, back then, used some imagination that seems to be terribly lacking today. These kids were out in plain clothes with a plastic bag. Back in the day folks would refuse to give you candy with no costume or give the ones with costumes that were unique more candy. Damnit, the candy had to be earned! On top of all that I saw that all the children in this sleepy little town seemed to be congregated in the predominately white affluent part of town. The surprise of some of the people giving out candy to see my munchkin in here home made "goddess of gold" costume was as bizarre as it was awkward (for lack of better words). Why was her being dressed so unusual? I think what bothered me is that I didn’t know if the children not wearing costumes was a part of circumstance or if it was a part of a type of Halloween that is slowly dying for the now generations. The fun of thinking up what your gonna be and figuring out what you need to drum up around the house to get It "authentic" wasn’t there. A little part of the majik seemed gone. I guess there was an internal reason I didn’t take my camera out with me yesterday, as if I subconsciously knew there wouldn’t be much to document. Not people wise at lease
Seems that adults get more into it than the kids these days. For example the picture above as well as the adults that were giving out the candy. Ill get back to the picture.
To take my observation further. I noticed that the pack of kids were predominately black and the people giving out the candy in town were predominately white. We drove to the more "black" part of town and there were no porch lights on and the place was being patrolled by sherrifs. Yeah, we ain't got's no po-lice, we got's sheriff's! lol. It was a literal ghost town. Ummm, so black get da candy and whitefolk gives da candy?! *shaking head*
So upon opening this email yesterday with my homegrrrl all dressed up I asked myself. What has changed? Then I looked at what she was for Halloween. The dead, driving her car. I found it so appropriate. Watching children runaround like feigned Zombies out not for blood, but candy, totally getting submerged in the consumerist part of Halloween was an enlightening point. She dressed up as something so appropriate for our day and age, a lifeless and spiritless corpse. Funny, I think we observe this everyday and have learned to not recognize the parts of life that are truly majikal in our pursuits, just like driving that car.
I am happy I've been able to share some of the joys I've experienced as a child with my daughter. The sparkle in her eyes describe this life-spark I don't see everywhere, and I'm not saying that because she is my kid. I fear for her generation and the people she will interact with as she grows. What scares me even more is how many living dead actually roam the earth whether its Halloween or not.
boooooooooooo.
