Halloween October 31st

Halloween

 celebrated each year on October 31, is a mix of ancient Celtic practices, Catholic  and Roman religious rituals and European folk traditions that blended together over time to create the holiday we know today. Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity and life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. Halloween has long been thought of as a day when the dead can return to the earth, and ancient Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off these roaming ghosts.

The Celtic holiday of Samhain, the Catholic Hallowmas period of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and the Roman festival of Feralia all influenced the modern holiday of Halloween. In the 19th century, Halloween began to lose its religious connotation, becoming a more secular community-based children's holiday. Although the superstitions and beliefs surrounding Halloween may have evolved over the years, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people can still look forward to parades, costumes and sweet treats to usher in the winter season . History.com/Halloween

  Halloween...an exciting and thrilling day for kids and the young at heart! Candy corn, caramel apples, candied apples, pumpkins,trick-or-treating,ghost and goblins. I was lucky enough to be born on October 31st, and always got to have double the fun! Mother always planned the perfect celebration for me , never letting my birthday get over looked!

Me and my niece Jessica

Allen, Chris and Lacy: Halloween 1994

 As kids, trick-or-treating was on the top of our list for an exciting time.  Careful selection of a costume came first.  Should I paint my face and where old clothes and go as a hobo, or do I want one of those plastic formed mask with a rubber band and rubber outfit?  Now I need to select the candy holder...possibly a  little orange  plastic pumpkin, a fancy plastic bag with handles, or just dig out an old brown paper grocery sack or much stronger pillow case. We quickly find out that the pillow case held much more candy with out ripping. Banding together with your "bestest" buddies , we all venture out into the neighborhood to find our bounty of goodies! For hours we would wander from door to door, neighborhood to neighborhood knocking on every door that would open! When we finally have exhausted all our means for sugar, we skip towards our homes to inspect the treasures we had collected.  I remember sitting on our hard wood floor with my sister and brother and dumping our candy out into our own piles. Next as we sifted through the sweet mound, we would trade for our favorites among each other. I NEVER liked the black and orange Mary Janes...and still dont!

Me, Allen and Heather Haloween 1982

  As I grew older and was blessed with my son Allen, I tried to share the traditions I had with him. When he was just a baby , a simple painted face, was sufficient for trick-or-treating. The next few years he bounced back and forth between painted faces and store bought costumes.  

I still have his first costume...a Donald Duck mask with the rubber pull on suit...
and a few years later he chose to be Thundar from Thunder Cats. He was so precious to watch as he and his cousins would travel door to door .




My sister and I would take them to many of our own places in our old neighborhood.
Many of the people who had given us candy as a child were now giving our children the same.

Me and my husband John 1993
 Kmart Haunted House

Over the years, celebrations at work were included haunted houses and carnivals! Our haunted houses were just a blast!!!  Putting our "BRILLIANT" minds together, we rolled out a pretty decent haunt for the public to raise money for Cereal Palsy.

Kmart Haunted House 1993: 

Carnival 2009

Over the past couple of years we have held Halloween carnivals. It's such fun to do and the local children seem to really enjoy all the freebies! Games,contests, a cake walk, face painting,costumes and LOTS of candy and cupacakes! The kids have a ball and we employees love having chance to dress up and act like kids ourselves!

Mr. Bluelight (Jeremy)
 Carnival 2010

Carnival 2010

  

 Here in our area in North Alabama, there are many other ways to celebrate "All Hallow's Day"

...if you DARE!!

•  Arx Mortis (Haunted House in Killen, Alabama).

Forks of Cypress

 Rand McNally has chosen Arx Mortis  as the #1 Haunted House for 2010!  Enter at your own risk...

    ...others haunts and places to try...

• Forks of Cypress Plantation Site & Cemetery Walking tour.
• Haunted History of the Shoals Ghost Walk
• The Ghost of Sweetwater Mansion
• Ghost Bridge of Florence
• The University of North Alabama

• 

  Ghost Bridge

  

  Sweetwater Mansion

  

  University of North
  Alabama

 If ghost HUNTING isn't your thing, but getting RID of a ghost is what you need, you may want to leave it to the experts ! 

• N.A.P.I.~North Alabama Paranormal Investigations
• Alabama Paranormal Society
• Ghost Hunters~T.A.P.S.
• Adam Berry~Ghost Hunters ~ Adam grew up here in the Shoals area and has just been added as the newest member of the T.A.P.S. team by winning the spot on Ghost Hunters Academy.

Adam Berry

 

GHOST HUNTERS~ T.A.P.S.

                                    HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!! 

       

Nick and The Bear

"What happened yesterday is history. What happens tomorrow is a mystery. What we do today makes a difference - the precious present moment."

~Nick Saban~

"Losing doesn't make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder."

~Bear Bryant~

"Football games are generally won by the boys with the greatest desire." ~Bear Bryant~ "I know what it takes to win. If I can sell them on what it takes to win, then we are not going to lose too many football games." ~Bear Bryant~

"I always want my players to show class, knock'em down, pat on the back, and run back to the huddle."

~Bear Bryant~

"If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride - and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards."

~Bear Bryant~

"Losing doesn't make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder." ~Bear Bryant~

“The formula for success is every guy can make a difference for the entire team in whatever his role is. And to do it right, to get it right, is a critical factor in being successful."

~Nick Saban~

"It’s awfully important to win with humility. It’s also important to lose. I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won’t know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back."                                                    ~Bear Bryant~ If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes  really good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win games for you. ~Bear Bryant~ "In life, you'll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it." ~Bear Bryant~ Set goals - high goals for you and your organization. When your organization has a goal to shoot for, you create teamwork, people working for a common good. ~Bear Bryant~  "If wanting to win is a fault, as some of my critics seem to insist, then I plead guilty. I like to win. I know no other way. It’s in my blood."                       ~Bear Bryant~ "If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password,  Roll, tide, roll!" ~Bear Bryant~ “It doesn’t matter what you are ranked until the end” ~Nick Saban~

Can you smell it?

Ahhhh... Can you smell it? There is a cool breeze blowin' and a new crispness in the air. As the breeze blows lazily through the tree's, a brightly colored leaf lets go of it's tight grip on the source that has been giving it life for months now. Soon it's brothers and sisters will follow suit and release their grasp and do their final waltz to the waiting ground below. The ground has exchanged it's old carpet of lush green for a thick, new coat of many colors.  Fall awakens so many of my senses and stirs up wonderful memories.

  My grandparents had a yard full of many kinds of trees. Maple, cherry, pecan,apple and a HUGE old oak tree. Much of my childhood was spent underneath, in, beside or swinging among these trees. In the fall, my grandfather would diligently rake for hours to round up the colorful carpet of leaves.  We kids got to help out if we were lucky! I remember the sound of the metal rake dragging through the leaves...it was such a soothing sound.  To us , it wasn't work it was an adventure. Soon we would have a huge, colorful mound of leaves! "Wow!  Look what we did, Grandad! "  

  My grandfather was a quiet, gentle man. He would step back to admire his hard work, with a small hand-rolled cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. Then, without giving it a second thought, he would step aside and allow a mass destruction of his carefully piled mountain of leaves.

  I can remember the feeling of the first jump into that huge ocean of leaves. Get back as far as you can , run fast and take a flying leap..."whoooosh!" 

The crisp leaves part like waves in the ocean as you dive in. The cool dampness of the leaves makes your whole body tingle. As you swim to the top and get your first breath of fresh air...ahhh...that's what I remember most...that wonderful aroma of fresh fallen leaves! Standing up and stepping back,with leaves dangling from my hair and clothes, I make way for my brother and sister to have their turn. Laughter and giggles fill the fall air.  My grandfather joined with my grandmother now, stand proudly watching as we destroy a hard days work of raking!

  As the sun starts to fade, Granny calls us in to get cleaned up for dinner. Lining us up on the front porch to sweep the leaves from our hair, faces and clothes, we file in side. 

  Grandad, with the barely lit cigarette still in the corner of his mouth, reaches for the rake perched against the old oak tree and smiles... and begins again, to rake the leaves all back into a colorful mound.  

  I can feel the love of my grandparents, even today, when the scent of fresh fallen leaves floats through the air.  Ahhhh... Can you smell it?