Only in the Movies!

I'm sometimes accused of giving too much significance to movies. For instance, I was recently flying home from a business trip and read an article about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The article went on to point out all the key factors in the demise of Communism and the Soviet Union. To my dismay, nowhere in the article did they mention Rocky Balboa's stunning upset victory over Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1986). I mean, c'mon...isn't that the first moment when most Americans first believed we could topple the Soviets? It was definitely mine! Rocky's improbable knockout, followed by that historic "If we can change, you can change!" speech, single-handedly altered the mood of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II get all the credit, but really they simply picked up on Rocky's cue and put the final nail in the coffin. Within three years the Soviet Union was gone. And what about the Titanic? Am I the only person who believes they might have been able to steer that ship around the iceberg if only the lookout man hadn't been distracted by Jack and Rose kissing below on the deck right before spotting the iceberg? Those were precious seconds wasted. Other examples: I believe, were it not for Forrest Gump of Greenbow, Alabama, Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal might never have been exposed. And while I've never set foot in Kansas, I firmly believe that when I do, it'll be in black and white.

The business trip I mentioned was one of those tough ones. I travel a good bit for work, like many other dads, and while there's never a good time to be away from your family, Halloween is one of those days I really hate to miss. To me, Halloween is really the ultimate family holiday. Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving are great for the extended families...you know, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins...and also great for the soul; but Halloween seems designed just for families, and just for fun. When I was a kid, my Mom, who still loves Halloween, stayed home and handed out candy dressed as a witch, while my Dad put on his bald monkey mask and took us trick or treating in the neighborhood. We walked from house to house, swooshing our feet through the piles of dead, dry leaves. My brothers and I still remember to this day the way my Dad would use this one night of the year as his chance to catch up with all our neighbors. Each house would take 15 minutes! He would stand on each porch, still wearing his monkey mask, and have full conversations with every neighbor! Meanwhile me and my brothers and sister would patiently sit on the porch steps counting our candy, waiting to move on to the next house. I'm sure our neighbors would always wonder, "Who was that talkative monkey?" Our neighborhood was small, lots of trees and long driveways...and the houses were spread apart, so trick or treating was a combination of a lot of walking, a lot of waiting, and few rewards. But it was always fun. And it always ended dramatically. After the last house, our Dad would walk us over to the cemetery behind the church. By now most other trick or treaters were done for the night. The streets were empty. The wind usually picked up at night and the sound of those blowing leaves would add a level of spookiness to the chilly night air. We would get to the fence at the front of the cemetery and our annual game would begin. Each of us would venture deep into the dark, wooded cemetery alone, one at a time...to see who could go the deepest. There was one particular tombstone we each tried to reach..."Toma" was the name inscribed on it. If you could make it to "Toma", you did pretty good. Sometimes my Dad would sneak around the side, try to make some noise to scare us, as we ventured alone in the cemetery. That's what Halloween is all about..family togetherness against all the evil spirits of the world. What a holiday!

I've since tried to make Halloween special for my kids. As they get older I've come to realize what a small window Halloween can be in "kid years". Really, the trick or treating career is incredibly short. It starts around age 4 and is over by 12. That's it. As a dad, I hate missing any of those years. A couple of weeks ago I had to break the news to my 5 year-old Christopher that I had to travel on Halloween. His eyes watered, his lips quivered, as he told me in a shaky voice, "It's OK daddy". I felt awful. As Halloween got closer, I couldn't even talk about it with him anymore...I felt too much guilt, too much sadness.

Just a few days before my trip I sat down with Christopher for our annual viewing of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". (The Galucki family is a Peanuts kind of family!) And then it hit me. This year, I was Linus. I explained to Christopher that this year for Halloween I was going to skip trick or treating in search of the Great Pumpkin in Washington DC. I told him I would take a sign saying "Welcome Great Pumpkin" and I would look for the most sincere pumpkin patch I could find. His eyes brightened. He loved the idea. In fact, he added his own wrinkle. He would go trick or treating and ask each house for an extra piece of candy for his "silly" father who was sitting in a pumpkin patch in Washington DC on Halloween night. I sent pictures to him via Facebook of me holding my sign; and he collected extra candy for me while trick or treating. Even though we weren't together, we found a way to connect for Halloween '09.

Sometimes, putting too much significance in movies has its benefits. Here's to you, Charlie Brown!