Halloween then Christmas

Early in August, Miss Trixie and I were at a local shopping venue and Ol’ Dutch noticed that they had some Halloween decorations already out. I am sure you all can remember when they used to start in with that marketing madness about the first of October, but it seems that every store has begun digging out the orange stuff earlier and earlier hoping to corner the market before their competitors can do so.

And I thought to myself that most certainly it's early for pumpkin madness but soon after that I began to see Christmas items for sale in stores around the area also. I read somewhere that retailers are trying to get these seasonal things out for sale sooner than later because people have money now and they may not have it around Christmas time due to inflation.

When you think about the word inflation, we all generally think about airing up our tires. And it's the same with an economy as it keeps going up with nothing but air to support it. We all know that things have never been more expensive and it's almost every day that the everyday items we buy increase in price. If you have a car and drive it at all I don't have to tell you how the price of gas has gone up and up and up. It's ridiculous and I do believe it's all a planned event. But regardless of your opinion on the cost of living increases we have seen, it's common knowledge that people are having to change the way they shop and what they buy.

At the Big Box store I saw a cardboard pumpkin for carving. The directions said all the fun of carving without the mess and cheaper too. The display for said fake punkins showed kids whacking away at this hollow paper-based sphere with fake knives which looked ridiculous. It's almost un-American to suggest that children should be deprived of the experience of putting their hands down inside a slimy pumpkin and gutting it like last year's deer. How else can they learn to process a carcass unless they start with slimy orange stringy piles of seeds?

And I hear that many a brain surgeon got their start in just such a situation, and we do not want to deprive the world of such talent found early on around Halloween time in their lives. But we are strange people always looking for the easy way out and I can see that these new cardboard contraptions will be popular with mothers since it will mean less mess to clean up afterwards. That is unless you count the blood from said child's awkward attempt to slice the hard carboardish slick surface. And then savings on this new gadget will be offset by a trip to the local emergency room for five stitches in little Johnny’s hand.

But all in all, it's a good time of year to look forward to with the little gremlins soon to be seen dodging cars and trucks in an attempt to wrangle $3 worth of candy into their bags. And if the exposure to the E.R. does not point your child toward a career in the medical field rest assured the annual begging for candy from door to door will set them up for a lifetime of selling vacuum cleaners to lonely housewives stuck at home.

Kevin Kirkpatrick and his Yorkie, Cooper, fish, hunt, ATV or hike daily. His email is [email protected]. Additional news can be found at www.troutrepublic.com.