Day 20: My Town

I know I have already talked about decorations and imaginary dwellings, but I just can't help myself. The thought for the day was brought about by a mix of things. I got home late last night and it was already dark and spooky. The clouds were dark and ominous and the wind was whipping everything into a frenzy. I went inside and got comfy, made some pumpkin tea, sat on the sofa and watched my candy corn lights flicker outside on the porch. After a while I picked up one of my October magazines and began to thumb through it. Two words caught my attention; they were "imagination library."

Now if you know me at all, you know my brain was immediately thinking two different things at once. First, I was pondering what exactly an imagination library would look like if it were to take on a physical form, and second,  I was thinking about the inspiration file in my desk. From now on of course I am going to call it my imagination library. What a wonderful choice of words. I put the magazine down, looked back at the Halloween village and began to day dream.

Every year I have spare moments where I imagine what it would be like to live in my Halloween village. There are a mix of spooky and normal houses, a train depot, a bakery, a roadhouse café, a cemetery, mansions, a few ghosts, Halloween trees, fall trees, of course a movie theater and much more.

My favorite piece of the village will always be the haunted mansion that my grandmother made for me. It was lost in a fire a few years back but it lives on in my memories. It was ceramic, the paint was chipped in places, the lights on the inside only worked half the time, and each transition of color made a clicking noise. But it was an old haunted mansion after all and such things come standard.

My Halloween village has had various incarnations. It is a magical town after all and nothing likes to stay stagnant. I can imagine walking down the cobblestone lane of my town. Some roads would be paved; some would be dirty and filled with overgrown weeds. Some roads would lead off into the woods and some would take you right to the mayor’s residence. In my town fall would be a big deal and a mandatory three month celebration. The local high school would be named after either bats or pumpkins and the town drink would be cider. Of course my town would be very monster tolerant, after all, monsters are either lab experiments gone wrong, or individuals who could just use a really good hug.

The Mummy, would run the local Bed Bath and Beyond. The Invisible Man would be the sheriff. The Creature from the Black Lagoon would be the swim coach, Frankenstein would be a surgeon and the Wolfman would be the owner of the local cinema. Dracula would be the bank manager and the Phantom of the Opera the local music teacher. An Igor would run the local coffee joint and the Headless Horseman would be the bus driver.

But the library, the library would be something special. After all, it would be an imagination library. The building would never be in the same place twice. Sometimes it might be found in the deepest parts of the forest. Other times it might be underneath the lake. Every so often you might find it on Main Street....or above Main Street. You could only access it by closing your eyes and picturing it. Once you saw it in your mind’s eye, suddenly you would be standing inside the great front hall. This library would be built like a castle, but without the drafts. There would be many rooms, attics, basements, secret passage ways and comfy chairs. There would be roaring fireplaces, window seats, spiral staircases, catacombs, and rolling ladders. Genies, elves, gargoyles and ghosts would retrieve any book you needed and you would never have to worry about returning books because once you were done with them they would just reappear back on the shelves in the library where they belonged.

In my library there would always be a chair waiting just for you, and it would always be exactly what you wanted and exactly where you needed it to be. The only limits to what the library could be would be your own imagination. Instead of using elevators to get to different floors, you would use magic mirrors. And as to the imagination part, there would be a very special room for that. Once in the room, you could walk around inside your own imagination. You could sail the seven seas, fly along the clouds, and create a world entirely built by gumdrops if you so choose, after all, it would be your imagination.

Wow, best town ever. I can't wait to move there. But first I have to find the shrinking potion that Alice drank in Wonderland. I know I put it around here somewhere. That pesky rabbit must have run off with it. Now that you know about my imagination library, what would yours look like? Have in it? Did I mention mine has a coffee fountain and butlers who like to bring you scones?

Day 19: Welcome to my House

If there were some sort of magical place where everyone got to pick exactly the kind of house they wanted to live in, I would go nuts. Just thinking about it makes me squeal with joy. I would be over the moon happy. That’s not to say that I don’t love where I live right now, but just imagine, money, the laws of physics, reality, none of it would come into play. You could design whatever you wanted.

First of all my house would be an ever changing house. It would ripple and redesign as I saw fit, no need for pesky contractors. Dare I say it; I would live in a magic house. Some days it would look like a nice mountain cabin or an ivy covered cottage from the Cotswold’s, others it would more closely resemble a normal craftsman type home with a wide front porch. But in October, oh man, in October it would really be something. I’m thinking a LARGE Gothic Victorian mansion bordering on decrepitude. It would of course have an overgrown vast front lawn for the wolf man to play on and a long front drive that was guarded by a rusted out and yet still ornate wrought iron gate. Don’t forget all the broken down fountains and water features. The frogs and toads have to frolic somewhere.

It would have several gables teetering dangerously past vertical, hanging shutters, peeling paint and of course a belfry for the bats. But the inside, the inside would be immaculate, a reminder to look past first appearances. Of course there would be a wide grand staircase and suits of armor that talked. There would be many drafty fireplaces and many, many secret passageways and of course some of the paintings would have removable eye slots so that you could peek out from inside the passageways.

Shamelessly stealing from other authors, there would be an underground lair like in Batman. The dining room would have floating candles above it and a scene of the night sky overhead like in Harry Potter. Also like Harry Potter the meals would magically appear at the table which would be set in a Downton Abbey type style. There would be a secret entrance through a bookcase like in the Addams Family and all the books would open so that you actually immersed yourself in them. Want to go to Narnia, no problem. Feel like a trip to Middle Earth, pack your bags. Like in Dangerous Creatures the house interior would change with my mood and I would be able to write on the walls with my mind. There would be four poster beds you could bounce on, many bannisters to slide down and a spiral staircase that turns into a slide like in Casper. There would be a big front door which would have talking knockers like in Labyrinth, though they wouldn’t be nearly as irritating.

But my favorite idea comes from the movie the Haunting. There is a hallway in it that looks like it has been flooded and there are stepping stones that are made to look like submerged books. I would have three of those just cuz I could. Plus there would be a solarium that looked like the inside of Willy Wonka’s factory, you know, the one with the chocolate pool, edible grass and flowers. I’d poach Beauty and the Beast’s library, oh oh, and all the talking furniture as well. I’d have a pool like the one at Hearst Castle and a grand ballroom of some sort. Let’s just say it would change with my imagination and have floating tables like in Hotel Transylvania.

In this monster house I’d also have a ginormous aquarium that made up the floor like in Despicable Me. Plus a room that was nothing but a ball pit and a room that you could change the type of room it was by spinning a nob just like in Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. Which leads me to my in home movie theater. It would be set up like the grand theaters of the 1920’s. Movie monsters would be the attendants and there would be a concession area with every goodie imaginable. Plus they would serve theme food to go with the film. The inside of the theater would have red curtains with gold ties over the screen and balconies and couches instead of seats. A zombie would run the projector because I’d want to watch movies 24/7 that time of year and a zombie’s the only one who wouldn’t fall asleep on the job.

Yup, it’d be pretty amazing. Don’t worry; I’d totally invite you over for a visit. I’d send my driver Lurch to pick you up in the hearse.

October Thought Day 26: The Place to Be

Back home there was a quaint little coffee shop on the corner called “The Place to Be.” I thought the name was kinda clever as it was advertising in and of itself. After all, it simply was the place to be. It was cozy, the servers were friendly, the couches were deep and soft and the coffee was good. In short it was the perfect coffee shop. Alas, not all good things can last and now it is a very uninspiring furniture store. But what’s my point?

There are lots of places to be around this time of year. Many people travel to New England to watch the leaves change in a glorious riot of color. More than a few head to Keene, New Hampshire for the massive pumpkin festival that has set world records in pumpkin carving. Some intrepid souls hitch their wagon and set out for Salem, Massachusetts for the historical reenactments. Salem is a town that has taken its fifteen minutes of fame and turned it into a lifestyle, which is also what St. Helen’s Oregon has done. The movie Halloweentown was filmed there and every October the town recreates the set for the thousands of visitors who flock in. And speaking of towns that capitalize on entertainment, one can also go to Sleepy Hollow, New York to experience the legend of Sleepy Hollow firsthand. The town keeps the story alive all year round, but do a little something extra come October.

Halloween is a growing holiday and it seems like more and more places want to put their individual stamp on it. There are coffin races in Manitou Springs, Colorado and the World’s Largest Halloween party is held in Louisville, Kentucky. The Halloween capital of the world is in Anoka Minnesota where the first Halloween celebration in the country was said to occur. But the Halloween fun isn’t limited to the states, Airbnb is offering a night in Dracula’s Transylvanian castle this Halloween.

There are ghost towns a plenty all over the country and the seven scariest ghost towns in America (according to the internet) are Dudley Town in Cornwall, Connecticut, Bodie in California, Animas Forks in Colorado, Centralia in Pennsylvania, North Brother Island in New York, Thurmond in West Virginia and the Seattle Underground in Washington. Truth be told, there are “haunted” locations to visit in each one off the fifty states if you know where to look.

But ghost towns aren’t the only spooky locals; there are also towns with odd spots in them like the Oregon Vortex in Oregon or the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. Then there are the towns you simply want to visit because they sound Halloweeny like Candy Town, Ohio, Cape Fear, North Carolina, Frankenstein, Missouri, Pumpkin Bend, Arkansas, Pumpkin Hollow, New York, Scary, West Virginia, Spook City, Colorado, Tombstone, Arizona and Witch Hazel, Oregon.

No matter where you go there is something fun to see, do or experience in the fall. Your challenge today is to get online or go to your local chamber of commerce and see what interesting attractions you can find locally then go visit them, share with me or if you can’t travel, make your own home the place to be.