As we stroll past Halloween and the autumn season rolls on I am reminded at all the things I have aspired to a kid. It seems like most of my Halloween aspirations were around cowboys or Indians, or marshals of the old west, or astronauts. One year my cousin Matt made a full size wolf head that he could wear and he engineered the jaws to move with his own. And in 1st grade Timothy Castro brought some white body paint to school on Halloween Painted a big white star around my right eye and made me into his impromptu KISS band member. NOW…I dont remember my mothers reaction to my rockstar aspirations, but i am certain as a devout Christian that she wasnt impressed with my trajectory on that Halloween.
But surprisingly, the thing I wanted to be most when I grew up was a firetruck. And there’s good reasons for that, my grandpa Ed sold and repaired fire trucks, and specifically sold the American LaFrance line of fire engines. I remember going to his house in SLC, and seeing all of his scale model replicas of fire trucks. They were mostly children’s toys, but he displayed them as if they were collectors items. And occasionally, we got to take them down and play with them if we were careful. He was always so generous in showing us his new trucks, the toys, and the real ones. I remember the time when American LaFrance came out with a new yellow model firetruck, something that had much higher visibility. And how excited grandpa Ed was to tell us about it. And occasionally we went and saw demonstrations, as to what the firetrucks could do. So, in my mind, aspiring to be a firetruck, was a very noble thing to do. Not super realistic, but very child like and nostalgic for me, because grandpa Ed loved them.
I love the connection between the firetruck and grandpa Ed. So when I found a line of toys that Hess came out with, they were quality, and I started purchasing them for my son’s birthday and Christmas presents. And as he grew older, his desire for child like toys lessened. But mine didn’t. So I continue to buy them, for me, I mean for collectibles, and for my connection with grandpa Ed. Over the past few years Hess Trucks have become extremely popular, and if you don’t buy them within the first day or two after they released, you don’t get one. So yeah, I have the text and email alerts set up, so that every year when they go on sale, I can purchase one immediately. Yeah, I’m hooked. And of course there will be a link to the Hess Toy Trucks in the show notes.
Now another aspect of Autumn is spiders. Its interesting that the autumn season in the northern hemisphere includes a migration of spiders to the indoors. So around coincidentally, Halloween time, those 8 legged freaks seem to be climbing out of the electrical outlets. While living in Rigby Idaho in the fall of 2014, I was shocked to see the amount of arachnids in the house, and particularly in the shower area. I mean its better than on the ceiling over your head at night, but just barely. Living in a HUGE agribusiness state didnt help the fact that part of a healthy farm ecology is spiders. And during another autumn season in Arizona, i had a large hairy wolf spider climb into my car as i carelessly left the windows cracked to keep it from getting so scalding hot inside. Well I noticed this buggers presence when I went to join a friend for lunch. I was gonna offer her a ride in my car, but that son of a gun slinkered out of sight faster than i could track him down. So I asked if we could take her vehicle. I left the windows down intentionally that time hoping that it would scramble out of my car. Anyhow when lunch was over I looked all over and couldn’t find that hairy monster anywhere, so i figured it musta vamooosed on its own. The next morning at 3:30 am (still very much dark) on my drive to work, i noticed from the streetlights, a scampering silhouette across my drivers side window, next to my face. As reality sunk in I saw that the my assumption about the spider escaping was absolutely not true. As i was at a high rate of speed and just inches away from this spider being a snuggle buddy. So I dont know exactly how spiders got spun into the web of Halloween, but its timely, if nothing else.
Are there any takeaways from this?
Well yeah, i think so….as necessary as spiders are its still creepy to have them crawl out of your hat 🧢 while you are trying to drive down the road. And I am still NOT convinced that I dont swallow my share of the 1 3/4 spiders every year.
The autumn season and its holidays are very nostalgic. Enjoy that. Build on that with your family. Dont let creepy take over the aspirations of a childlike mind.
And if you wanna be a firetruck, well I get that.