“First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys…
…And if it’s around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling
and the sky orange and ash gray at twilight,
it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks
and a soft flap of bedsheets around corners.
But one strange wild dark long year, Halloween came early.”
- from the Prologue of “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, Ray Bradbury
DarkLore – are you wholly unfamiliar with the works of Ray Bradbury – ?
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Dandelion Wine
The Halloween Tree
Fahrenheit 451
The Martian Chronicles
The Illustrated Man
The October Country –
“…That country where it is always turning late in the year.
That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist;
Where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger,
And mid-nights stay.
That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars,
Coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun.
That country whose people are Autumn People,
Thinking only autumn thoughts.
Whose people passing at night on the empty walks
Sound like rain…”
Too many works to mention here, including short stories like Homecoming, and The Jar, that celebrate the very spirit of Halloween, and whisper low of the most profound primal horrors…
If you don’t know what Ray Bradbury has to do with Halloween, DL, then I suggest you get yourself to a library, or a decent bookstore, preferably with a nice selection of “dark lore” to peruse, and ask someone there to introduce you to Halloween’s greatest poet laureate.
(Of course if books are not your thing, The Green Town Emporium does offer a line of “451”-themed items… These relate to a different kind of Bradbury horror story altogether, one that sends chills down the spines of people who read.)
Happy Halloween, always.
Most Sanguine Cheers,
SOT
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