My dad is to Halloween what Clark Griswold is to Christmas

My dad loves Halloween.

While I was growing up, there were two traditions that he followed for every Halloween.  One was treating himself to a new costume from his favorite shop (where they knew him by name).  The other was turning our front lawn into a graveyard. 

 

The graveyard took some work.  He brought in bags of dirt and sculpted them into people-length mounds.  There were headstones.  A cardboard coffin which I think had some sort of body inside.  A moving hand coming out of the dirt here, a leg there.  And of course the cobwebs and scary music coming from the bushes.  His costumes varied, but one that stands out in my mind was the Headless Horseman.  The mask that went over his head looked like a bloody, uncleanly cut neck, and a long black cape tied around it.  A little touch that he himself came up with was carrying around another of his masks - an old bearded man - under one arm.  I remember a group of children cautiously coming up the driveway, huddling together, and he somehow timed it so that he stepped in front of a window in this costume just as they were finally approaching the door.  They screamed and ran away.   And I was disappointed that I didn't get to hand out candy.

 

These days he doesn't dress up any more.  It was kind of sad at first, to realize that he had lost the zeal for it.  But the graveyard is still going strong.  And he keeps adding on to it.  He buys life-sized figures to stand out there, and when he first brings one home he'll just stand one in a room in the house somewhere,  and let my mom "discover" it.  Just for fun.  There was a particularly creepy addition this year - a girl that looked a little too real - she swayed and her eyes lit up when she detected motion.  Just take my word for it, she's eerie looking.

 

Well, on Halloween night this week he called me, and this is what I heard when I answered,

"I just thought you might want to know that a little girl just left here crying.  AHAHAHAHAHAHA!  HAHAHAHAHA!  HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" 

 

It's a wonder I turned out to be so normal.