A pumpkin free zone

I’ve just finished re-reading “The Green Man” by Kingsley Amis in time for Halloween, a total coincidence but a great antidote to the US style “trick or treating” that seems to have taken over the country, largely encouraged by retailers as a way of getting in some more customers in the run up to Christmas.

Published in 1969, “The Green Man” describes the encounter by Maurice Allington, proprietor of the inn of the same name, with the ghost of Dr. Thomas Underhill. Allington discovers that he has a few things in common with the wicked 17th century parson and this connection is manipulated by Underhill. A womanising, alcoholic rogue, Allington spends as much of his time having affairs as he does running his inn. At the beginning of the book he is trying to set up a threesome with his wife and latest girlfriend and his alcohol intake is such that he cannot tell at first whether the apparition is actually down to booze. By the end we learn whether Allington has redeemed himself and conquered his fear of death. Set in a sweaty English summer at the end of the 1960’s this book will keep the winter away for a while. It is worth reading just for the way it evokes that time. One of my favourite characters is the appalling Reverend Tom Rodney Sonnenschein.

I have wondered whether Halloween evolved as a way to deal with a fear of death, the dark, the unknown. In Mexico, they celebrate the memory of those family members who have died on El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), on the 1st and 2nd of November. Although skulls and bones are very much in evidence it isn’t about fear. Halloween seems to have developed differently in Protestant countries. I was taught about it at primary school but don’t remember it having the same impact that it does now. The impression I get is that it was something that was marked in the north of England and Scotland. It only gained popularity throughout the UK as a result of US television programmes and films.

I almost gave in and bought one of the large skulls in the window of a shop around the corner but am now glad that I didn’t as they are probably available at half the price now and do I really want it anyway? Apart from that I am not sure whether I want to give in at all to the plastic Halloween that takes over at least one supermarket aisle in September (alongside Christmas). Our experience of Halloween at our current address means that we now turn off the lights and put up a sign asking trick or treaters to stay away.

Years ago we answered the door to a tiny little girl, whose mother was some way off, and wondered what she could be thinking of to let her fragile child do this. I knew that there were a number of loud (if not dangerous) dogs in the street at the time, owned by nervous pensioners. Just having them bark at you could be frightening for an adult so I can’t imagine how a small child could have coped with it. On another occasion the door was answered to loud and demanding knock. A masked child had the wheel of his bike up against the front door and expected to be welcomed with open arms and, presumably, a bucket full of sweets. I can understand that, in the America depicted in “Desperate Housewives”, children are recognised by neighbours who are prepared for this kind of visitor and meet them with all the confectionary their little teeth can cope with. The problem is that I don’t live in Wisteria Avenue, there are hardly any families with children in the street and I wouldn’t recognise them if I tried.

The local Safer Communities Team has recognised that this tradition is not welcomed by everyone. They have been distributing cards to place on front doors with a polite message to put off unwanted callers. It is sad that well behaved children suffer the same discrimination as the nasty ones but I suspect the fact that we did not get any visitors this year is as much about the credit crunch as it is about good manners. I think that parents have been forced to concentrate on Christmas this year. This time around the pumpkins are for eating.