Happy Halloween!
Houston and Katrina were exceptionally cute. Last year Houston would whisper "Trick or treat", but this year he was belting it out, and then he'd get distracted by the candy strangers were putting into his little pumpkin bucket and forget to say "thankyou." Katrina, on the other hand, was totally outgoing, saing gleefully "Tickerwee!!!" about five times, usually stopping as soon as the people would actually come to the door. Okay, there was this one house which was actually quite creepy, with articulated skeletons strewn about, gory heads and hands sticking out of the lawn, a bubbling cauldron, rotting faces... and perhaps worst of all, spooky laughter and moans and clinking noises. Yeah, it's people like that witch (har har) boost the commercial success of Halloween. Eew. Katrina pawed to be picked up and said "Cover my eyes!" and buried her face in my neck until we were a long ways distant. She told next three candy givers how scared she'd been, informed Grandma when we got to her house, and on the way home in the car said how the music was not scary. Poor girl. I hope she doesn't get nightmares because of that.
When i was four, my parents took me to Disneyland, where we all went through the haunted house. The haunted house! I was four! I remember most vividly this mailbox which popped open and a scary greenish hand with long fingernails popped out. I flung myself on my mother's lap and hid my face, wailing in abject terror... i'm pretty sure Mum remembers it. I don't remember getting nightmares about it. The only nightmare i remember was "The Wicked Spider", which was simply a large, long legged black spider which surprised me on the other side of this block of wood i loved to bang nails into. No spider ever actually scared me like that, but that was my most feared nightmare.