It's Halloween Heaven: Halloween is an American import, just like Budweiser beer, Marlboro cigarettes and 75% of what we watch on TV; but whereas the beer and ciggies are assets, I'm not so sure about the remaining liabilities? Once again, though, I must hark back to my youth, a time when Halloween didn't exist, at least, not in the UK.
It's a night when all the ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy-beasties and things that go bump in the night; along with witches on broomsticks flying through the sky, and Jack 'O' Lantern's gurneying wicked peg-toothed grins at us from darkened windows, are there to scare the pants off us.
Yeah, right!.
And it's the night when the neighbourhood kids, usually dressed as witches, or Dracula, or some other 'grotesque monster,' are on the streets to 'trick or treat.'
And with parent's guarding their children from being snatched by paedophiles by insisting they taxi them to school in broad daylight; suddenly, because it's Halloween, it's OK to let them roam the streets knocking on stranger's doors in complete darkness!
Sorry, it doesn't make sense. And on occasions when the kids get their 'treat,' how do we know they're not getting drugged treats, allowing some weirdo to harvest 3 or 4 kids at once; delivered on a plate to their front door courtesy of Halloween?
No, Halloween didn't exist in my youth, when the world, despite the odd bent vicar or scout master with a penchant for boys here and there, was a much better place than it is today. It's just a load of money-making hoo-hah, designed to fill the coffers of the local shops and businesses after the bucket and spade and ice cream sales have dropped off after the summer holidays.
It's also Mikkey Dee of Motorhead's Birthday, so Happy Birthday to The Best Drummer In The World!