Of Ghosties & Ghouliess---the inner Goth

“Of Ghosties and Ghoulies and long legged Beasties, Good Lord Deliver Us!”

Isn’t that a wonderful sentiment, it’s like discovering that the earliest collectors of fairy tales was named Grimm, wonderful last name.

Today is Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, Samhain and what other names that is associated with this Day and Night.

For the Mundane people it is one night of the year that they can let their strangeness out, but for the Elder Goth Halloween is 364 days of the year---After all there is Christmas and it needs to have it’s own day. It’s really hard to live Christmas 365 days of the year, except in good fellowship spirit, which even an Elder Goth should maintain, after all Snarklings we do have to get along with all the “Muggles”.

Of course you have to decide “Addams Family” or “Munsters”. Frankly I prefer “Addams Family” but both shows and even the iconic cartoons of the Addams Family did show and practice family values. The Munsters took in a niece that although they secretly pitied because they thought she had a disadvantage, they still loved her and protected her, and she loved them because she knew they loved her and always watched out for her, even if the rest of the world would run in horror.

In the Addams Family T.V. show, there was one program in which a wealthy young man who tried to be a rebel ran away from his father and the family wealth. The Addams’ took him in, accepted him as he is, and demonstrated it to his father who learned to accept his son and his son accepted his father. O.K it was overly simplified, in the real world it would be a very hard lesson to learn, but the messages were always there, and done with a smile.

But I love Halloween because it let’s your inner Goth come out with a vengeance.

The trick is how does one maintain it all year round, you start with little things and slowly build up to your inner Goth, with me it was easy, as a child I wore what my parents bought me, the red plaid jumper, the black patient leather shoes for Sunday best wear, but as I got a little order, especially when I was 13 and 14 I started my inner Goth without realizing it.

I loved classical music, so saving up my pennies to buy the classical record albums that were on sale at the nearby drug store was not consider unusual, I would read ghost stories, and even the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy mysteries, like the “The Clue of the Phantom Showboat” or something like that…not unusual. But I kept my slacks and skirts to dark blue or black, which could be a little hard in the 7th and 8th grade as Mom wanted to buy me a print skirt that had little poodles on it with the background as being in Paris, it was the thing back then, she wanted to buy a pink skirt, but I spotted one with a soft light gray background and I suggested it to her saying that it would go with any color blouse I wore, she could see the wisdom in that. So I had a poodles skirt but NOT in pink….compromise always worked.

Later on in high school I realized that it wasn’t wise to stand out too far, you could be improperly labeled, that still happens to day but for other reasons. So I had to suppress my inner Goth with dark blue, gray and in the spring even a few pink and white blouses and blouses bought by well meaning family members for my birthday or Christmas.

Then I discovered in music my Uncle’s 1920’s and 30’s Jazz and Blues collection, in old 78’s, I had fun with that and in high school my Mother and Dad decided that the baby furniture that I grew up with was too babyish for me, of course by that time I had a baby sister and it was perfect for her, but there was no money for new bedroom furniture for me, what to do….Again my Uncle who was a widower and my Grandma came to the rescue, my Uncle moved in with Grandma after Grandpa passed away. His wife had died some years before and he was rattling all alone in his house, Grandma all alone in hers, he packed up everything, sold his house and moved in with Grandma, but he had this vintage from the very early 1930’s bedroom set.

It was perfect! And although I still had pink wallpaper in my bedroom, the wall paper had tiny harps and filigrees in silver, it was a perfect combination. And her dresser set all black enamel with silver chrome decorations, also perfect. I still have it to this day, except for the wall paper. But that is when I discovered antiques and art deco vintage could satisfy my inner Goth.

And that is how one does it by degrees….unless one wants to go all out and build either an Addams Family or Munster House, which several couples have done, and not an easy thing to do.

But for today, just today on Halloween to all you “muggles” let your inner Goth come out.