Do you remember your dreams? I do, as best I can, that is. Sometimes weeks will slide by during which I can't remember even a snip of my dreams. But then something shifts and suddenly I can bring them up through all the layers of un- and sub-consciousness, into my frontal cortex.
I love my dreams. They are very weird, even the recurring dreams that I know so well I am lucid within them. Have you ever had a dream in which you thought, Oh god. It's THAT dream again? Happens to me all the time.
In October, in addition to the surreal, technicolor dreamscape, I do a whole lot of talking to the ancestors while I sleep (also while I'm awake, should say). According to a lot of traditions, October is a time when the veil between the living and dead thins. By Halloween it is so thin that the dead walk among us, barely distinguishable from the living. That's why we hand out candy on Halloween - because you never know who you're dealing with on that very powerful day.
Halloween on East Capitol Street is a Really Big Deal. In fact the neighbors are scaring me, telling me, for instance, that they spend $300 on candy, all of which they hand out before 9:00 pm on Halloween. People here on E. Capitol hire folks to pass candy since one treat dispenser is not nearly enough to keep up with the demand. They say there's no time to admire costumes, they don't even bother to wait for the doorbell to ring; they stand out in their front yards or on their porches, with bushels of candy at the ready. Halloween on East Capitol is hard work!
Sasha and Malia trick or treat here, they say. LOTS of people come from other neighborhoods. One of my neighbors said that, just for kicks, he decided to count the number of trick or treaters last year. The count was 1,500. Yikes!!
Living on East Capitol is a responsibility; it is a public thoroughfare, such a different vibe from Tennessee Avenue where we had some, but not too many, trick or treaters, mostly the neighborhood kids.
In fact I've applied for, and been granted, asylum at the house on Tennessee Avenue for Halloween. We will close the pocket door so that no lights are visible from the street, sit in the back of the house and drink martinis, hunker down with the dogs until the hubbub dies down.
I love living on East Capitol but I'm still a rookie, hence not yet up to the challenge of Halloween. I will definitely take pics, though. After 10 pm I'll sneak home, light some candles and whisper to my ancestors, so as to not draw the attention of late night trick or treaters.
At least, that's my plan.
16 comments:
i love dreaming; mine too are always quite weird which is why i love them.
i like to station myself outside (weather permitting) with the bowl of treats for the trick or treaters.... i thought my neighborhood is filled with kids but compared to east capitol we got nothing....i can get by with an investment of about 30-35 bucks - a fraction of that 300!!!!!
oy, oy
My dreams, when I remember them, are very weird. A lot of times whatever book I was reading right before I go to bed will inhabit my dreams. When we first moved into the country house, I started having night after night of disturbing dreams so my sister put some herbs together for me to keep by my bed. They've probably lost their potency now so I guess whatever it was has gotten used to us being here.
Last year here not a single trick or treater and there are kids on the street and in the little neighborhood. In the city, we rarely got more than a dozen or so on a good night, some years not a single soul. I'd flee Capitol Ave too. $300 on candy? Yikes. It does remind me though of being a kid when our whole neighborhood would turn out. throngs of kids.
1500? I would apply for asylum too!
I love that 3rd paragraph Reya.
During the 2 years I lived in Sacramento's Curtis Park, we had insane numbers of trick-or-treaters. It was known as Sacto's Halloween mecca. We would entertain the ghosties and goblins til we ran out of candy and then flee the premises to go to the movies, all the while hoping and praying our porch wouldn't be egged.
In Hawaii, as our house was completely invisible from the street, we had nary a one trick-or-treater. Here we have a few, it's very sane.
Oh YES! Dreamworld is far more vivid and fun and peculiar than real life. It does not surprise me that your dreams are just *snap* right there!
Halloween in your town sounds insane- $300.00 for candy? What?
We used to get car loads of children from the reservation, they would unload, change outfits and reload. Now, not so much, I make the house dark, go downstairs and read something like "Ghosts on the Range" and try to celebrate quietly with the "others".
Since I've moved into my new place, I've been having the most vivid dreams. My sister and I have even had similar dreams, very strange and wonderful.
I can't fathom that man goblins and ghosts, your plan is golden.
My dreams are often strange but there seems to be a recurring landscape and set of people that I meet only in my dreams. Living in the UK, trick or treating is no where near that manic. We will get a few but one bag of sweets tends to do it!
I love Halloween and I wish we had more trick or treaters (we usually get under 10) but 1,500!! That's scary. I think I would visit a friend too.
when i was a child i had recurring dreams. the one that has stayed with me in my memory involved a man picking me up out of my bed and throwing me through the floor - through three floors actually until i landed in the basement where there were rats and cockroaches etc. there really were rats and cockroaches down there actually but the dream - well i figured it was about the shock of being thrown into the darkest mess possible. the details of that are difficult to relate here but since that time i haven;t had that dream. nowadays as an adulti have all sorts of dreams about swimming in rivers - as a fish. otherwise i love to unpack the "one-offs" as i call them. i see dreams as a gift . . . an oracle, a fortune teller, an insight, certainly curtains being pulled back. steven
ha--i'm surprised they'll let a deserter back into their midst. Thank heavens for safe refuge. We might have a dozen kids here...so that's about a bag of candy plus just for us!
Tom - Haha!! You are so funny. Has your mustache grown back?
My dreams are filled with angst these days. Lots of troubles, missed appointments and that sort of thing.
Halloween around here is a handful of kids. We are a neighborhood of older folks.
There are some places that my dream recall is better than others, or maybe some times. I dreamed vividly in Venice, for example. Lots of interesting dreams when I was at the seashore, too. Wonder what that means.
And I used to love Halloween -- decorating, making mulled cider with a little zip for parents, doing special treats for the kids we knew and regular treats for the others. This year I'll be celebrating in San Miguel de Allende with Rebecca and friends.
I'm relying on day dreaming (lucid) these days, plus the recall of more memorable dreams I had before this apparent spate of dreamlessness. This time of year especially, I love the interplay of veils and dreaming. Wonderful descriptions, btw, of the many traditions.
I, too, would probably make alternative plans to such a high traffic affair (1500?! With no time to enjoy the costumes? Doesn't sound like much fun to me, either ;)
May you spend a lovely night with welcomed companions and thank you again for your Dreamtime shares.
1500 kids is some kind of crazy... What about joining in for just an hour with one of the neighbors as a kind of Halloween internship, so as to see what you're in for next year? :)
Halloween is the BEST in our lovely little town--lots of kids, grownups dressed up too on their porches handing out candy or walking with the kids, houses decorated. Everyone gets into the spirit of it. It's great.
I think my favorite Halloween, though, was in SFO, walking up and down Castro Street. Yeeha!
I was just chatting with some students about the classic anxiety dream--you know, the one where you have to go take a final exam for a class you were registered for but forgot to attend. :P I have now had the professor's version of that one: forgetting to go teach on the first day of class!
I'm looking forward to good, vivid dreams this month, though I think I need to do what I can to make sure I get enough sleep for that to happen...
Last night I dreamed I couldn't find my car - turned out Dr. M had "borrowed" it to drive to the rental place to rent a pesticide truck for the day. I'm not sure I want to know what that means!
Our neighborhood gets a good many kids - we're near a church that does "trunk or treat" in their parking log & then the kids drift our way. Dr. M LOVES it. He dressed as a pirate last year & handed out a ridiculous amount of candy.
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