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An annual neighborhood tradition continued yesterday morning.
Going on my seventh year as official "Neighborhood Keeper of the Sign," I installed the somewhat-official trick-or-treat announcement sign.
Our neighborhood has a wonderful Halloween tradition in that we ALWAYS celebrate trick-or-treat on October 31st. Rain or shine. Even when the rest of the city has their various scheduled times on the Saturday or Sunday before Halloween. I still don't understand why they have to complicate things?
Back in 2011, I stepped up to create the above sign when the previous keeper's sign became old, faded and then vandalized. In 2010, a small temporary sign was created but I wanted to make one that screamed out the trick-or-treat announcement. So with some great vintage clip art, Halloween fonts, a projector and some paint, Mrs. Highbury and I created one worthy of the High Holiday.
Seven years on, it's looking a bit rough and might need some touch-up paint, but it is once-again placed at the top of the neighborhood, announcing the grand celebration for all.
And even after seven years, I look at the sign when I drive in and out of the neighborhood, and every time I still get a big smile...
Halloween is coming.
Two weeks to go, haunters! That means it's time to perform my annual duty of putting up the "official" neighborhood sign! Trick-or-Treat. October 31. 6-8 pm.
Since 2011, I have "inherited" the title of Keeper of the Sign. It was then that after years of impatiently waiting to see the official trick-or-treat announcement sign go up in our neighborhood that I decided to take matters into my own hands. There was a lull during the 2010 season and a small, handmade cardboard sign was hastily thrown up at the last minute.
I knew that I couldn't let this continue, so I decided to create a larger, more easily readable, more Halloween inspired sign. For 2011, I hand-painted the sign above and proudly staked it into the patch of grass that leads down into our neighborhood. With this new sign, our neighborhood would continue to buck the city's trend of having trick-or-treat on the Saturday before Halloween, leading to the nightmarish confusion of each neighborhood setting up their own times.
It's a confusion that still goes on today, and after some discussion among some of the neighborhood residents, it was decided that we would continue to celebrate trick-or-treat on Halloween night, regardless of what night it fell on. For one, I get to reuse the sign I made six years ago, and more importantly, our neighborhood will continue to carry on its long-standing tradition of Halloween night that we get to celebrate with the rest of the city.
For me, it's a win-win!
And after six years of being exposed to the October elements, the sign is still holding up fairly well. A few touch ups here and there and it should last for another couple of years, when just maybe, it might be finally time for me to retire as Keeper of the Sign and allow someone else with a passion for all things Halloween to step up and create the next sign that will carry our neighborhood tradition into the next generation!
