I get very homesick for Klamath Falls at Halloween. Our street when we lived there was THE destination for trick-or-treaters and we always hosted a party for our friends while handing out treats to the 600-1000 kids who traipsed through our neighborhood.
COVID-19 would have changed all that, so it was easier to miss the holiday this year and we hunkered down for an intimate Halloween in Bloomington. Mom brought dinner and we traipsed down two streets in our neighborhood who had tables out for a socially-distanced trick-or-treat. Like my childhood Halloweens, we all piled into the car and visited some dear friends.
The main purpose was to showcase the kids' incredible Halloween costumes. Randal, Milo and I spent several hours working on Dogman and Marian's little stuffed Toto. (Okay, Toto only took one hour and I worked on it by myself, hence the disparity in quality is quite evident.)
While the adults' costumes paled in comparison to the kids, Randal was a chef, I was a bat, and Mom and Dad were presidential candidates (aka old white men). Marian, understandably, was very scared of their costumes and we head repeatedly yesterday, "Grandma scary. Grandpa scary." (Grandparenting done right!). Joan was a cowgirl!
Tomorrow is Election Day and I feel so tense and nervous. Randal and I are going to go to Indianapolis where the voting lines are hours long to deliver snacks and drinks as necessary. I feel angry that it is so easy to vote in rural areas and wealthy areas, but that the polling locations are so limited in urban areas where there are more marginalized communities. A friend of mine who is a person of color told me that her cousin waited 7 hours to vote in Indy last week. That is a travesty. I wish that, as with so many things, that there was equity in voting. But, as so many other things, there is not.
Please feel free to text or call or email tomorrow night to share your Election Day experience. And let us all try to remember why we love our country and believe in it enough to fight for it.
Happy November, dear ones.
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