Day 22: Candy Corn Tribute

Well folks, there are only 9 days left till Halloween and 10 till my perfect month ends. Everyone talks about how time is moving slowly with Covid, but I feel like October is positively flying by, like a witch on a turbo charged broom. I keep expecting to wake up and find that it is already Thanksgiving. I’m glad it’s not, but it seems other people are anxious for it to be December already. The personalities on the radio have already started talking about Christmas shopping, Hallmark started advertising their Christmas bonanza in August and I found a radio station that has started playing Christmas music. Good grief, plus now there is talk of snow. At least let me have fall for 10 more days.

But enough about Christmas and snow, today’s Thought is in tribute to my mom (I started writing this before her hospital shenanigans). She is my original October Thought fan, and  is the one who encouraged me and offered suggestions or pointers when I first started writing. One Thought that she always asked for was about candy corn, she loves the stuff. Well, she really likes the fondant pumpkins and spice drops, but candy corn is right up there. She would get very upset if I forgot to give the humble corn its due.

The little tri color triangular treats came into being sometime in the 1880’s, except they weren’t called candy corn. They were known as “Chicken Feed” and their invention was credited to a George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company. The original recipe was sugar syrup, fondant and marshmallows.  Now candy corn is made up of sugar, fondant, corn syrup, vanilla flavor, and marshmallow crème along with corn starch. Maybe messing with the recipe jus ta bit is why not many people like it anymore?

Wunderle is no longer in business and so the second longest producer of the tri colored triangles goes to the Goelitz Confectionary Company of Cincinnati which you know as the Jelly Belly Candy Company. Jelly Belly to me makes the best candy corn, plus, they sell it in little fun sized snacking bags so you don’t get pounds and pounds of the stuff and you never get any that are stale.

Every year candy corn makes the top 10 list of candy that people hate, last year it was voted the MOST hated Halloween candy in America, yet that doesn’t seem to stop the sales of it. Last year 9 billion pieces of candy corn were sold. Personally I think most people craft with them rather than eat them, but who cares? You can do all sorts of things with candy corn if you are creative. My favorite thing is to make fangs out of them and then eat them.

In case you were wondering, the other hated candies were circus peanuts, those mysterious orange and black wrapped confections known as peanut butter kisses and wax soda bottles, along with licorice, Tootsie Rolls, Smarties and Good & Plenty. I agree with the hatred of the first 3, but come on with the last 4. I used to have to beg my parents to give up the Tootsie Rolls. What is wrong with the youth of America today? More for me I guess.

Candy corn eventually branched out into holiday corn and for a brief moment even capitalized on the pumpkin spice craze. Now there is candy corn for just about every holiday, there is  Indian Corn  or Harvest Corn for Thanksgiving, Reindeer Corn for Christmas , Cupid Corn for Valentine’s Day,  Bunny Corn for Easter and 4^th of July Corn for, well, you get it. I’m kinda miffed that there is not Guinness flavored corn for St. Patrick’s Day or Champagne Corn for New Years. I think they are missing a market opportunity there.

This year’s seasonal “treat” is Haunted Tropics Candy Corn which boasts the sour flavors of, Watermelon, Pineapple, Banana, Kiwi, Mango and Tropical Punch. Cuz nothing says Halloween like bananas or the tropics? And what exactly does a sour banana taste like? Just cuz you slap a skull on something doesn’t make it fit for October. I can’t believe I just said that.

In addition to the holiday corns are other seasonal favorites like Pumpkin and Apple pie flavors along with caramel apple, sour corns from the Trolli brand, giant candy corns, cinnamon, blackberry cobbler, grape soda, caramel, Donut Shoppe, mermaid , and unicorn horns just to name a few. There is even a turkey dinner candy corn that even I am not brave enough to try. It says it is a limited edition but I don’t think it is limited enough. The description reads “flavors include roasted turkey, green beans, ginger-glazed carrots, sweet potato pie and cranberry sauce.” Nope. Nope. Nope.

National Candy Corn Day is the 30 of October, but I wasn’t going to wait till then. So, what’s your favorite flavor of candy corn? And would you be brave enough to try Turkey Dinner Corn?

Day 21: Why I Have Phobias or Why I Love Stephen King

WARNING: Today’s thought is short and may be a bit disjointed because I am still on the mend.

I wasn’t feeling all that great yesterday. I woke up with a headache that steadily evolved into a full on Godzilla type migraine by the end of the day. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I was playing Boo-Opoly with one of my residents and I couldn’t remember how to play the game. I knew I had to go home then.

The headache didn’t surrender when I got home, so I made some toast to feel better, but after I dropped 2 slices because I couldn’t remember how to hold things I decided to just go lay down. I couldn’t read cuz my eyes were all wibbly but I needed something to distract myself. So of course I chose a horror documentary and what do you know, I felt loads better after watching it. I think it was because my brain identified with all the gory stuff on screen. Creatures popping out of stomachs, alien life forms morphing out of dogs, King Kong squishing someone, yup, that’s what my head felt like on the inside. Finally, someone understands.

The documentary is a TV series on AMC called Eil Roth’s History of Horror and it is in its second season. People in the genre comment on a selection of topics for an hour and it is so interesting to get their input. The segments aren’t nearly long enough but they are so, so good and  I do love me some history.

In the various segments they sometimes have my favorite movie critic Leonard Maltin and one of my favorite writers, Stephen King. That man has a way with words that makes me want to cry, both out of a deep sense of inadequacy and for the fact that he is just that good. He can write long things, short things, scary things and thought provoking things. Back in the day, if you picked up a copy of Entertainment Weekly (now Monthly) and flipped to the very back page, he had some fantastic things to say about modern day pop culture. He is just great, and where Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley left off, Mr. King has picked up the slack. He doesn’t to my knowledge throw scary costume balls like Anne Rice, but he has helped to make October a very spooky place.

Consider some of my favorites:1408 (which totally made me never want to stay in a hotel room again), Apt Pupil (which gave me a fear of ovens) Carrie (which made me laugh and cheer) Christine (which was the reason that it took me 25 years to drive a car......not really but it sounds plausible) Cujo (which just plain freaks me out, dogs are supposed to love people not eat them) Dolores Claiborne (which made me fear housewives and wells) Firestarter (which made me fear blonde children) The Green Mile (which touched my heart and made me cry) Insomnia (which totally got bootlegged from my life........ya know, minus the whole mass murder part) The Lawnmower Man (which made me fear computers, toasters, mowers AND the telephone) Misery (which just made me love Kathy Bates that much more and made me terrified to ever get famous) Needful Things (which just made me laugh and laugh and laugh) The Secret Window (which kept the laughter going) The Shining (which made me deeply afraid of hotels, made me proud of Timberline Lodge, kept me out of bathtubs and freaked me out about little boys with bowl cuts, big wheels and twins) and the Stand which was just too long but helped me to spell the word MOON.

So yeah, thanks to Mr. King I am just a big ball of neurosis. But you get over it, sort of, and wait until the next one comes. My order for you today, go out, find a book, movie, short story of Mr. Kings and scare yourself silly, then just repeat after me, “there is no such thing as monsters, there is no such thing as monsters.....................;-)

Day 20: October Joy: Part 2: In Which our Heroine Adults and then Descends into Madness: and uses a lot of colons to explain the journey

WARNING: This October Thought comes with footnotes. They jump out in crazy places. You have been warned. 

Monday’s are my errand days. Everything that needs to get done for the week happens on Monday. I cook extra meals; I do laundry and yard work, pay bills, visit vendors etc. When I get in to work on Tuesday everyone always asks me, ooh what fun things did you do on your days off, and of course I sound like the most boring person on the face of the earth. Um, I folded my socks and took a nap after I got done cleaning out the drip trays on the stove. I swear, 5 year old Rebecca is shaking her head in abject misery at hearing about how I spend my weekends. At least sometimes I have ice cream for dinner, so I have that going for me. 

This Monday was no different. I had a very ambitious list of grown up things to do. I always have ambitious lists on Monday. I make them on Sunday when I am rested and feeling energetic. I KNOW that I will never accomplish everything on the list, but maybe, maybe I just might so I had better put everything on there I can possibly think of. Then Monday rolls around and I cross a few things off the list, but not enough and eventually I have to be happy that I crossed off anything at all. But seriously, the only way I will ever be able to cross off all my things is if I get my hands on Hermione Granger's Time Turner. Apparently the one you can buy from the Noble Collection and the one in the movie do not possess the same magic, but I digress.

So yesterday I adulted with the best of them. I voted. I paid my taxes early. I did both the laundry and the dishes and I stripped and remade my bed. I was the epitome of a responsible adult, if you discount the t-shirt I was wearing, but that is a story for another day. Then 3:45pm rolled around and all my best laid plans went straight down the tubes but in the best way possible. I stopped by work to drop of bingo prizes and to pick up some stuff. I ended up staying for an hour and a half talking to coworkers, buying donuts for a resident and watching a Halloween baking challenge with my mom who was horrified by what those people were doing to perfectly good cakes.

After that I went grocery shopping (back to adulting) but I did buy 4 giant bags of candy* so I wasn’t totally responsible. All month long I have said that this year, I am not going to open my door for trick or treaters. I don’t know if there will even be any out and about, but I didn’t particularly want plague children willingly running up to my door. You all saw the sign I bought in preparation for my Halloween grinchiness. But, as I was driving around doing more errands I got to thinking, I really want to keep my lights on. I don’t want them off or have to explain to those who come to my door why the lights are on but I won’t answer. I’m sorry small child, I know trick or treat etiquette, but you see, this middle aged spinster would like to look at her Halloween lights and not be bothered by the likes of you. Off you pop you little germ goblin. Yeah, I don’t see that going well for me or the side of my house. So I totally caved and WILL be handing out treats this year. I am getting pretty excited. I honestly don’t know who is more excited by this, me or the trick or treaters? Last year I didn’t even let them ring the bell; I was already on the porch waiting for them as they walked up the driveway. I even scared a few with my over eagerness. Yup, I’m a middle aged spinster creeper. I don’t even need a costume.

Anyway, I got back home and unloaded all my candy and made dinner and then sat down to do finances, (yup, back to adulting) when I noticed that the grocery store had overcharged me. So back I went to straighten things out. Turns out it will take me more than one visit to get this fixed. Of course. On the way back home I totally could have stewed and grumbled, but instead I decided to keep being responsible and drop off some Tupperware I had borrowed. It was early enough in the evening and the bowl was in my car, so I stopped at my friend’s house. What started as a simple drop and go ended up being an hour long visit where I laughed so hard I cried, and I got a cookie. I left in much better spirits.

As I started driving home I passed by more houses with Halloween décor and I made a decision, the night was not young, but I had a cookie in hand and a full tank of gas and by golly I was going to go out and look at decorations. So, like the middle aged, night time creeper spinster I am, I drove around the neighborhoods looking at lights. I know, I know, most people do that for Christmas, but as you well know, I am not most people. I just happened to have my Songs of Halloween tape in my car (just happened, pfft, who am I kidding, it is in there all month long) so I popped it in and cruised. It was a beautiful night and there were even more decorations to be seen. The people who have my favorite October house have added even more to their tableau. Now there are 9 foot spider webs everywhere and a GIANT spider on top of their house. They have a really cute Frankenstein that I am thinking of offering them money for. I almost drove into a fire hydrant rubbernecking while looking at it. The house is AMAZING and I have decided that I will be marrying whoever lives there. I don’t care if they are already married, a thrupple will work, especially if one of them takes a very loooooong vacation. Hey, people have gotten married for less. I mean, I already know we are compatible. They like to decorate for Halloween, what more do I really need to know? And they say romance is dead.

I got back home around 11 or so and it was an amazing night. It was waaaaay too warm in my house so I decided I needed to camp out in the back yard. Cuz why not just turn on the ceiling fan when you can set up your summer yurt thing that has never been out of the box and then drag your extra twin mattress outside? Sounds totally reasonable and not at all crazy. My dog looked at me like I had lost my mind, but clearly I needed protecting because I had taken leave of my senses and who knows what shenanigans I would get into without him, so he reluctantly went out with me.

Our fun October backyard camping experience lasted until about 1am when some weird demon bird woke us both up. It made the strangest noise I have ever heard. I can't even begin to describe it, that's how strange it was. I tried to record it but it turned out akin to when people try to photograph Bigfoot. You can hear a noise but it really could be anything and it just makes you look extra crazy. The demon bird thing wouldn’t let up and sounded like it was getting closer and closer to our yurt/tent. Neither my dog nor I wanted to have our souls sucked out so we very bravely went back inside the house, which felt even warmer because it was 20 degrees hotter than outside. This time I had learned my lesson and turned on the ceiling fan. As soon as we got in bed the demon bird stopped hoot chirping. I don’t think it liked us being out there. Either that or it sucked the soul out of something else. Either way, we were safe.

So that was my somewhat spontaneous, but wonderful October day. I love unexpected pockets of joy like that. Oh, and the cookie was delicious. 

*When I was very seriously perusing the candy aisle, I found Glow in the Dark Hershey bars and Kit Kats. I was all, WHAT??? How did they make the chocolate glow in the dark? Does this mean it is radioactive candy? Why would they sell that? But how cool! And then I read further and saw that only the wrappers are glow in the dark. I was a lot less impressed. But that does sound safer.

* * This was the very responsible shirt I wore whilst adulting.

. 

Day 19: They're Monstrously Delicious

I know that I write about Frankenberry cereal every year, but I love it so.

I like how despite the fact that it is puffed up wheat that contains dyes, sugar and marshmallows it is still “a part of a nutritious breakfast.” Yeah, if you add a banana and milk and don’t eat the cereal at all it might be. That part of the TV ads always cracked me up. I didn’t even buy that lie when I was a kid. I was a weird child; I didn’t like sugar cereal which was good cuz mom didn’t want to buy it. I liked “old person” cereal. I called it this because only my grandpa ever at it. I am a Grape Nuts fan, though I will admit to a strong desire to gulp large amounts of Cap n Crunch with crunch berries but that is where it ends. I don’t want sugar for breakfast, if I did I would eat a donut or go snack on some candy or just drink syrup straight from the bottle. But when October rolls around all my good nutritional sense goes out the window and I consume my sugary cereal with gleeful abandon. Sometimes it is even dinner.

As per usual, I did my yearly Google search about my favorite monster cereal and man the things that came up. I always find something good. This year there is a contest from General Mills to win carved busts of Frankenberry, Count Chocula and Boo Berry. Admittedly the busts are kinda bad (only Count Chocula looks good, Boo Berry looks like a slug and Frankenberry looks like a pig), but I still feel that I need them. I started an Instagram account just so I could enter. I will be deleting it after the contest ends. My dedication knows some bounds, just not many.

After doing that, I went down the old commercial rabbit hole on YouTube. I find the monster voices amusing. Frankenberry sounds like a British professor, Count Chocula sounds like Snidely Whiplash and Boo Berry sounds like an Igor even though he should sound like Frank Sinatra. I have no idea why I think that but I just do. I remember watching these ads when I was little. I always looked forward to them. I wish they still made them. It seems they do but I haven’t’ seen one on TV in years. I love that there is a continued rivalry between Count Chocula and Frankenberry. Boo Berry is kind of an afterthought. Maybe that’s why they always render him as looking kinda stoned. He’s probably sitting in a back room somewhere half snoozing with a raging case of the munchies. If monsters eat other monster cereals, does that make them cannibals?

In my searches I found a terror alert chart for the Halloween cereals a la homeland security. I also found a recipe for making Frankenberry rice crispy type treats. I will be making them today. I can hardly wait. Let the sugar rush BEGIN!

If you could make a fall cereal, what would it be, what would be in it, and what would you call it. I think I would have leaf shaped cereal in fall colors. It would taste like cinnamon. I have no idea what it would be called. All my ideas are dorky and after I thought of Leafy-O’s my brain short circuited. I know this though, if it ever became a viable cereal source it would be a sponsor of my October Thoughts, I might even print some on the back of the box for breakfast reading.

Oh my goodness, one more thing before I go, I found this funny article about what happened to the Yummy Mummy. It made me giggle like crazy. I think I am going to print it out and stick it with my monster cereals. Give it a read if you want a good laugh. That Yummy Mummy is nuts.

https://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/1123/yummy-mummy-we-hardly-knew-ye

Day 18: All Dressed Up in Hopes of Somewhere to Go

Yesterday I got to clean out the activities storage shed at work. It looked like an episode of hoarders crossed with a hurricane. It took me waaaaay many more hours than I am comfortable sharing to get it organized. I am stiff and sore and could do a really good impersonation of an Igor right now with my humped over walk. It’s a good thing Sunday’s are a day of rest. I will be surrounding myself with cozy blankets, scary movies and pumpkin everything.

While I was cleaning out the shed my mind drifted naturally to decorations. I was quite literally surrounded by the stuff. I found some of my missing fall things I had been looking for, and when I had lugged it all back to the building I realized that instead of hardly having any October stuff, I had oodles. Some of it may still get put up before the month is out.

But what really got my October thinking percolating was the box of costumes that I found. We get all dressed up for those we love, or hope to love. We dress to impress, we dress to make ourselves feel better, we dress for work and we dress to be comfortable. Halloween is the bestest holiday ever for playing dress up because for one night of the year we get to let our inner freak flag fly. We can wear whatever we  please, be it a French Maid, the killer from Scream, body paint, or the cute kitty. I love playing dress up (though you would never know it) and Halloween says, ok, go ahead, have fun.

I love the wigs the wands the fake bloody knives and axes. I love the wings and hair dye. It is all just too much fun. I can remember every costume that I have ever worn. I can also remember almost all the places that I have trick or treated at (but that is for another day). I have been a pumpkin (the cutest ever in the history of pumpkins) the Green M n M, Princess Amidala, a clown (oh how I HATED that costume...........still do......I wore it for EVER and a day), a flapper, a demented cheerleader, the Mad Hatter, a cheetah, a flapper and a nun just to name a few.

You would think in my 40 years that I would dress up more, but the problem was and is, I have nowhere to go most of the time and the other half..........well, I am just too picky. I don't want a crappy costume that looks like it came from a bag. I want something different, unusual, or at least well made. I have several costumes in my TO DO file and I keep looking for them to either be discounted or to find the right accessory that I am missing for it. I also have several costumes in the wings just waiting to be worn. I had grand plans for this year’s costume, but Covid has thrown a bit of a monkey and his wrench into my schemes. I have 2 new costumes ready to go but I am not thrilled about either of them. They are fine. They will work well with our precautions and my work environment but they aren’t super fantastic. I keep looking for something that has that wow factor but, maybe I will just have to save it for another year?   

So I might have digressed a bit there, but my point is, costumes are FUN!!! If you feel like it, post back and tell me some of your best costume moments, or some of the worst. The worst was the STUPID, WRETCHED clown costume. The mask suffocated me, it was ugly as sin, the jumper itched and I just plain hated it. I wore it for like 5 years or more. AHHHHHH.
The best was Queen Amidala. I rocked the face paint let me tell you. I actually had kids taking pictures with me.  Let me tell you, I could have gone on some sort of Star Wars tour. So there you have it, costumes in all their glory. I can't wait to hear your stories.

Day 17: Give Me All the Things......Part 2

Yesterday, a couple of my coworkers told me that I needed a decoration intervention. I told them interventions were only for people who didn’t know they had a problem. I am fully aware that I have a problem and I revel in it. I delight in it. I am unrepentant, so much so that after hearing from multiple sources that I needed to stop……I might have gone out………….and bought more decorations.

It’s not my fault though, I blame Christmas. It started the night before last when my favorite vintage shop had their online sale and after selling cute Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff (of which I may have bought a few things) they brought out Christmas. It was bad enough that Jo-Ann’s was already selling it before October even started, but to see it sneaking in elsewhere, sigh. A few Christmas ads have already been running on TV and when I went to the store today to pick up some totes for work, they were already selling Christmas cards. I could probably have tolerated that ok, but when I got back in the car I found a radio station playing Christmas carols. Well, that was the last straw, my holiday rage got the best of me and I went back in and bought some more Halloween décor just to let Christmas know who was the boss, cuz clearly it was me.

 My shopping binges were actually very worthwhile. I had been looking for the perfect little accents to my already gaily bedecked abode and I found what I was looking for quite by accident. I actually found a lot of décor that completed my tableau's for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Yay shopping!

So as I sit here enjoying my new décor I feel quite content. They were all very good additions to my holiday scene.  I’d say I am done purchasing October stuff for the year, but who are we kidding? I haven’t even hit Trader Joe’s or the pumpkin patch yet and then there are the discount sales. Viva la decorations!

And yeah, I know that with this sign my house is totally getting egged this year. At least I find it amusing now. 

Day 16: October Joy

There was something else I had planned on writing today, but then yesterday happened and I had to write about that instead, October joy. I don’t know what it is about October specifically that makes me so happy? I am happier in October than any other month and it isn’t just because of Halloween. I have tried to figure it out and I still come up empty. Am I happier because summer is over and the temperatures are more to my liking?  Possibly.  Am I happier because there is football and I get to decorate after a long dry spell and there are pumpkin spice type things? Maybe. Am I happier because of falling leaves and harvest parties and corn mazes? Again, could be. It is a quantifiable fact though; I am a happier person in October. Some truly awful things have happened to me in October too, but even those do not shake my faith in the month. For 31 days I drift along on a cloud of feel good that is full to bursting. If I was a character in a musical I would break out into song, thankfully I’m not so you will get nothing but written words from me.

Why was yesterday so good that it subverted a normally scheduled thought?  Read on and see. It started when I woke up. I didn’t wake up to the shrill of my alarm; I came awake gradually like a diver coming up from the sea floor. I went from the arms of a dream to cozy wakefulness. My blankets were the perfect temperature. They weren’t too hot and the room wasn’t too cold. I was burrowed in like a cozy critter ready for hibernation and I had half an hour to luxuriate in my own little pocket of warmth. It is one of my very favorite feelings in the world and if I had magical powers I would capture that moment in a bottle or potion so that I could take it out and use it again. It would be really excellent for cold winter days.

I was able to make breakfast leisurely instead of having to eat and dash. There wasn’t a line at my local coffee shop and I had time to make an extra purchase of a fall something that I had had my eye on for a while. Work was full of laughter and sweetness. I got to spread smiles and bring comfort and I had plenty to spare. Long term nagging problems suddenly presented solutions, I got puppy cuddles, and I got to see my mom’s face light up with love. I had unexpected compliments and gifts. It was truly a great day at work.

On the way home the radio played nothing but my favorite songs, so much so that I drove around the block twice singing along. Two packages showed up that weren’t supposed to come for another week, and I had time to be leisurely. I finished a good book while starting another; I had a good laugh at an online sale and may or may not have bought more fall stuff.

The cap though was the sunset. I had my door open admiring my porch decorations and I caught a glimmer of something orange out of the corner of my eye. I looked out the door and the sky was on fire. It was a riot of orange that faded to salmon pink in places. Those vibrant colors gave way to a washed out yellow which was blanketed by a deep blue and then black. I sat there just staring out at the night until 10 o’clock. It was quiet and cozy and wonderful. It wasn’t a perfect day, but there was so much good in it how could I not be joyful?

But that is what October does for me. There are little pockets of joy to be found all over, little unexpected treats that wink at me.  I find my elusive monster cereal around the corner of an aisle when I’m not looking. I get a surprise package in the mail or a text. Problems turn into exciting examples of the goodness of people. It isn’t just this October that I feel blessed, it is all the Octobers. I see beauty more, I feel more creative. I think I am simply more open to the good around me. I need to figure out how to co-opt that for all the other months.

I hope you find October joy today. I hope something wonderful happens for you be it big or small. I hope it brings a smile to your face and a warm wonderful feeling to your heart. I’m cheering for ya!