Gruesomes Meet the Grinch Who Dissed Halloween

This fabulous piece of art belongs to © Jason Chalker.
Check out more of his work at The Manly Art Blog and his Flickr Site.

Okay...so I spot the word Halloween in a link on my MSN homepage and of course I click on it. The link however, takes me to an article that really irked me. This is an article written just a couple of days ago by Jeremy Greenberg who has taken to the blog-o-sphere for 'The Family Room,' to rail against Halloween lovers who dare have the audacity to put their Halloween decorations up by October 1st. And the premise of his post is this...."

"Your paper-mache tarantula is an act of suburban aggression!"

You must read the full article here, it's not too long.
And read the comments too.

My first thought was that the guy who wrote this piece was a total jerk, who fancies himself the arbiter of proper holiday etiquette for all. A guy who obviously thinks his personal preferences should dictate how others think, feel and respond to the Halloween Holiday. And no, I am not saying that he doesn't have the right to his opinion...that's not the point of my post. Instead, I've spent the last couple of days trying to determine if I thought there was any real merit to his words....have I been unknowingly violating some Halloween code of ethics that I was unaware of? But he had the audacity to say that the "Halloween decorations shouldn't be brought out until any sooner than a week before, and taken down the next day." As well as this little gem, "Plus, let’s not ignore what’s really going on here: putting too many Halloween decorations up way too soon is an act of aggression towards the neighborhood."

Steam was starting to trickle out of my ears and my head was spinning, when all of a sudden I began to wonder....I wondered if it was I who had grown delusional and all alone on my own lil' Halloween planet. I mean, I hang out here in the blog-o-sphere with other Halloween Heads just like myself. Of course WE all LOVE Halloween. Of course we see nothing odd about decorating early...heck that's when the stores actually have the best product. And it doesn't last long before they've overloaded the shelves with Christmas items, so you have to start early.

But maybe, just maybe....I somehow failed to realize that we are really just an odd little band of Halloween misfits here, who exercise poor judgement and an apparent lack of taste and decorum. We obliviously go forth and decorate far too early, thereby searing the corneas of our fellow neighbors who are all snickering and jeering behind our backs. Could this be the truthful reality of which I had somehow lost touch?????

It was sitting there in the back of my mind as we put some of our yard decorations out this weekend. And I found myself watching every car that drove by for any signs that the driver was in some way offended, or 'put out' with the 'Gruesomes' who live on the hill, decorating for Halloween too early again. But I don't think that is the case. We usually get comments, and by that I mean enthusiastic compliments, on our apothecary, graveyard and 10 ft. scarecrow. And I might add that we were NOT the first ones to put our Halloween decorations in the yard this year either.

And I'll admit that I've been on the receiving end of disdainful looks from a few relatives who don't understand our love for the holiday, or the skull on the hitch of my SUV whose eyes light up red whenever I break. And there's the inevitable eye-rolling of other shoppers who watch as I unload my basket full of Halloween items onto the counter in August. But I also have worked hard to instill the fun, excitement and joy of my favorite holiday and season into my kids and those friends and family members who haven't lost touch with their youthful exuberance. My neighbors think our house at Halloween is the most spooktacular place to be. My joy and excitement has been contagious to those around me, not assaulting!

So I think that guy needs to re-think his position on the whole matter. In fact, curious if anyone else agreed with him, I scrolled down to the comment section and was relieved and thrilled to see that the Halloween lovers were coming out in force to reprimand him for being so haughty and narrow minded. And it wasn't just Halloween lovers and parents with kids...but there were comments from those whose kids had grown up and moved on also. And comments from those who aren't even big Halloween fans, but were defending the right of individuals to have different likes, and above all, the right to just chill out and HAVE FUN! So Gruesomes of the world...go forth and decorate...and hold your heads high!

* * And for those of you wondering where I dug the Gruesomes up at....my family and I watched The Gruesomes / Flintstones last night on a VHS cassette that I found in a rack of Halloween videos at a Burlington Coat Factory last year while vacationing in New England. This was the first time we'd actually opened it and viewed it since we bought it. And as I was watching it, thinking how 'disgustingly wonderful' those Gruesomes were, I began to wonder if perhaps my own neighbors view US as their Gruesomes...ha! But on the flip side, when you watch the full episode you'll see that the Gruesomes think that it's all the other neighbors who are the weird ones, not them! Guess it's just a matter of perspective. Anyway, I just felt a strong camaraderie with the Gruesomes and decided to blog about it. :o)
Artwork © Jason Chalker
Artwork © Bill Hannah (and some other names I can't read)