Saturday, October 27, 2012

A Haunted Garden Halloween Hop

*note: This post was scheduled to go up yesterday and for whatever reason, didn't. So...I apologize for the delay if you came on earlier.


Welcome to my little corner of the web. Thanks for stopping by on my leg of this awesome blog hop full of my talented fellow authors of The Wild Rose Press! At the end of my post, I will link to five other blogs. Every blog will offer a prize to one lucky commenter. Here, one lucky commenter will win a
 
$10 gift certificate to The Wild Rose Press
 
*  *  *  *  


My most vivid Halloween memory

Remember when you were a kid and Halloween was the most anticipated and exciting holiday? My siblings and I would count down the days and minutes until it was time to head out into the neighborhood and knock on doors. One year, however, I was sick with the flu. I had a high fever and was too sick to go trick-or-treating. I was heartbroken, of course. But my sister (author Laurie London), graciously offered to take my bag with her and collect candy for me. I figured that was better than nothing, and really--isn't the candy the best part of Halloween anyway? LOL.

So off my siblings went along with my dad and his big flashlight. All went well--the neighbors were very sweet and generous when Laurie would show them my bag and tell them my sad story...Until she went next door to the Anderson house. Old Mrs. Anderson wasn't a very nice woman. My dad had referred to her on more than one occasion as a "Battle Axe". I had no idea what that meant, but figured it wasn't a positive thing. (UrbanDictionary.com defines battle axe as "a fierce, unpleasant older woman with strong opinions.") 

 
My biggest memory of her was that she would lay on her roof on tin foil in her bathing suit in the summer to get a tan. She was a large, unattractive woman. Not a pretty sight.


But I digress.

When Laurie and my other siblings knocked on Mrs. Anderson's door, she told my story. My dad stood in the background, nodding his head in agreement. But old Mrs. Anderson (she probably wasn't even old, but I was a kid. All adults were "old.") wouldn't give her an extra candy bar for me. Said she didn't believe Laurie, and that Laurie was just being greedy and asking for more candy for herself.

Can you believe that?

Anyway, after that, Mrs. Anderson became known amongst the neighbor kids as "Fat Anderson." I remember my brother and I climbing on our jungle gym and seeing her in her backyard next door. We'd jump off the top of the gym and scream at the top of our lungs, "Fat Anderson!"

We never trick or treated at her house again.

Thanks for stopping by!


Five more blogs on the tour! Check them out for a chance to win more great prizes.

http://tarahscott.tarahscott.com/
http://thewildrosepress.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-haunted-garden-halloween-hop.html
http://twrpblackrose.blogspot.com/
http://twrphistoricalroseline.blogspot.com/
http://veldabrotherton.wordpress.com