Thursday, October 30, 2008

How can I compete?





The picture on the left is of the oh-so-scary Flatwoods monster. He's in my front window, and he lights up at night. What-- you don't know the story of the Flatwoods monster? Oh, okay, I'll tell you.

Flatwoods is the geographic center of West Virginia. It's where everyone comes for state meetings so that nobody can complain that they're driving further than anyone else. Along about 1952 or 1953 (I forget the actual year), a mom and her kids were wandering around in some woods near Flatwoods when they saw something streak across the sky and heard a crash as it landed. They went to investigate. That's when the Flatwoods monster appeared: 12 feet tall, glowing, with a head shaped like the ace of spades. My version was designed based on the witnesses' description and a re-created sketch. Yup, pretty scary. So I put my monster out for Halloween. The rest of the year it sits on my bookshelf in the living room.

The picture on the right is what the neighbors right across the street have done for THEIR Halloween display. How can my Flatwoods monster look even remotely scary compared to body parts hanging out of a nuclear drum and a beheaded mannequin right next to it looking for its head that's rolled off? Sigh . . . I just don't have a gruesome enough mind, I guess.

But whose house would you feel safe sending your kids trick or treating to?

Speaking of Halloween decorations, you might also want to visit the blog of my Relief Society president's husband: www.insidetoddsbrain.blogspot.com. His first October entry shows what they've done for Halloween. I'm hanging out there for Halloween. It's quite the show!

2 comments:

Fletch said...

Noelle would have screamed herself silly at your neighbor's spectacle.
(And not in a good way.)

So I vote for your teeny, tiny decoration. (And this is coming from a woman who didn't put out a single Halloween decoration...unless you count pumpkins. But then, I didn't even get around to carving them.)

literaqueen said...

I think carving pumpkins is a waste of energy. I might think differently if I actually made something from them, or if I had kids.

Your other kids would have liked the neighbor's decorations, even though Noelle would have freaked out.