“I Believe in Mary Worth”

FOOD FOR THE SCARED SOUL

  Now that we are entering October I should be loving the cooler weather, the beautiful changing of the colors of the leaves and the wonderful weenie roasts.  Instead I find myself racing into one of the scariest holidays of the year.  I love Halloween, but not the scary part of Halloween.  I enjoy the pumpkin carving, the cute costumes, handing out candy to the many many kids that stop by the house…etc….  I do not enjoy the scary movies, scary books, or being anywhere where something can “jump out” at me.  As I confessed in an earlier blog, the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz cause nightmares, so I dread weeks and weeks of scary previews for horror movies and scary movies on tv.  I sleep with my feet covered up just in case someone would try and grab my foot from under the bed. Logically, as an educated adult woman, I know that will never happen.  In the first place, there is so much stuff under my bed, nobody would fit, and in the second place, everyone knows killers hide in the closets.  🙂 There is even an email that someone once sent to me where you would click on cute pictures of baby animals and then on the final click a scary face would pop up along with a blood curdling scream.  The one and ONLY time I fell for that, it scared the bejesus out of me so bad, it took quite awhile for me to compose myself.  Of course I reacted perfectly by letting out my own blood curdling scream in the office.

 When we were in Junior High, about 10 of us would go into the girls restroom and turn out the lights.  We would stand holding hands in a circle and chant, “I believe in Mary Worth” 13 times and then someone would surely see Mary Worth in the mirror.  Everyone would rush out of the room screaming, but not me, I would have to head into the nearest stall to avoid an accident.  Then there was the famous “Johnny I’m on the first step”….that one would leave me laying in my room at night listening for someone to sneak up the stairs while I tried to sleep. Plus,  we lived in an old house, whose stairs creaked and snapped all night.  PURE TORTURE I TELL YOU!  I won’t even mention the OUJIA boards that were so popular when I was a teenager.  Oh,and don’t forget the one about the young couple “parking” in the country and they heard a strange scratching on the door, fled in terror and found a hook hanging from the driver’s door handle when they got home.  That hook apparently belonged to a  killer who lost his hand and used a hook in place of his hand.  Not that I ever  “parked” in country to “talk” when I was in high school, (hehehehe) but if I did, it sure wouldn’t be during the month of October.

  Once when I was about 14 my mom decided that it would be fun to host a haunted house in the basement of our church.  I couldn’t think of a reasonable reason to say no, so I sucked it up and agreed to help.  We set tables up in a dark scary part of the basement where you could go in one door, travel through 3 rooms and then go out the other door.  She was so creative, in my room you had to stick your hand into a number of bowls and try to figure out what body part was in the bowl.  She had greasy spaghetti that was to be intestines, peeled grapes in warm water that were eye balls, and other things I have chosen to forget.  Again….torture.  We would then go on a hayrack ride out into the country and we would go past Cumberland cemetary that is thought to be haunted.  Word has it that a restless ghost comes out and dances around her tombstone and eternal light at dusk.  Let me tell you that this was awful because a hayrack goes about 2 miles an hour, and there is nowhere to hide or a door to lock or windows to roll up.

Which brings me to the good things about my kind of Halloween.  There are the cute kids in their cute costumes, the not so scary carved pumpkins, the freshly roasted pumpkin seeds after you carve the pumpkin,  rooting through your kids trick or treat bag for the Snicker bars, the decorations, the grade school parties, and one of my all time favorite movies “Hocus Pocus!” It’s enough to give my nerve endings a little tingle, and won’t throw my heart into cardiac arrest.  Guess once a wimp, always a wimp!  I hope everyone enjoys the holiday, and good for you if you enjoy the gore and blood and screaming and total grossness.  Me?  I will try to avoid Mary, Johnny and the dancing ghost at all  costs ♥

FOOD FOR THE SCARY BODY

ROASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS

After carving your pumpkin, and while the seeds are still wet, rinse them under cold water, pulling away any strings and pulp.

Place in a single layer on an oiled cookie sheet, stir to coat the seeds with oil.  (or just spray with cooking spray)

Salt and bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown.

Store in an airtight container after cooled.