By Eric Peterschmidt
Ah, the crispness of fall. The smell of firepits holding back the evening chill. The pumpkin spice everything. The planning for costumes, parties, decorations, and treats for trick-or-treaters (or just for you – no judgement here).
It’s a time of year like no other. From the first day of school to the Halloween costumes to the family gatherings, the cameras are clicking away. The pictures are shared on Facebook or Instagram (or both). Some families text each other the pictures they take (mine does) to share the moments they’ve captured.
It’s memory-making season – again.
Whether you shepherd tiny humans from house to house or you’re a party person dressing up and enjoying some spiced cider with friends, the memories you make this year will be memories to savor long into the future. I encourage you to take all the pictures. Get the snaps of your kids, your friends, the trick-or-treaters who come to your door. Photograph your decorations, or the magnificent tray of party appetizers, or the kiddos bobbing for apples.
Capture those memories.
While I have pictures of some past Halloween parties, I wish I had more pictures of my kids in their costumes, or of ME and my siblings in our costumes back when WE were the tiny humans being shepherded from house to house. Of course, the big difference between then and now is that most everyone carries a camera everywhere they go, and those cameras take good quality pictures. Not to date myself, but back when I was trick-or-treating, pictures involved an actual camera with (gasp) film – and then sending the roll of film off to be developed – and waiting for it to come back in a handy envelope.
As Kurt so eloquently put it in his post Why Do We Take Pictures, Anyway?, “when we see the photo [we’ve taken] weeks or years later, it holds the memories of the moment we clicked and the moments around that moment.”
Those photos inspire stories. A friend of mine is from a town that has one particular street that is Halloween Central. This street has even been written up in magazines and newspapers. They get so many trick-or-treaters each year (hundreds) that someone started a candy drive a few years back to help the homeowners defray their candy expenses (and the homeowners were VERY grateful). The police block off their street. It’s a VERY big deal in that small town.
And the costumes. The costumes range from the simplest you can imagine (ghostly white sheets) to the most elaborate you’ll ever see (an entire sailing ship constructed around a wheelchair – amazing!). Some of the parents dress up, too. And the cell phones are out, clicking away. Pictures of the houses and their décor. Pictures of cool jack-o’-lanterns. Pictures of dressed up homeowners. Pictures of kids, groups of kids, kids and more kids. Oh, and let’s not forget the dressed-up pups who may also make an appearance.
And the stories. Bobby from down the street took his baby sister out for her very first Halloween that year. The pumpkin we saw at the house behind us inspired us to do THIS the next year. Nate was too scared to walk up to the porch of that one house because they were playing scary music.
And all that is just the kids.
The adults have stories too – the year the Peterschmidts won the best costumed couple prize (it happened), or the time someone’s beak fell off into the punchbowl (I know nothing). The friend from England who thought “Halloween – meh” until he got to stand behind the cornstalks in the front yard and scare passersby with a sudden turn of his head (it happened at a friend’s house – and it was HYSTERICAL).
All those memories. All those pictures.
Capture everything. And, in the depths of the dog days of summer, or as summer wanes into fall next year and you’re looking for inspiration, open your TightKnit story album, view the pictures, read all the comments from the people you’ve shared with, and perhaps stir up some more conversation.
