Disco dancing in the woods surrounded by ghouls

We celebrated Halloween a couple of weekends ago. It had been raining all week, but Saturday dawned, if not clear, then at least dry.

We warily watched the skies all the way to the campground where we were to meet my brother, David, and his family. When we arrived we realized that they had forgotten to tell us which campsite they had been assigned.

So we parked the car and trudged up the hill while trying to call him on the phone. There is very little reception in that area of Hueston Woods. I was listening to the message telling me that my call couldn't be completed when I looked up and saw him across the lane.

We were promptly reintroduced to his friend, James, from work. James' children, his girlfriend and her children and my sister-in-law were all busy decorating the area with lights, a skull-shaped dicso ball (their theme this year was disco) and other assorted Halloween decor. David was pretending to read directions, for what, I don't know.

We were soon recruited into a game of kickball by my 13-year-old nephew and two of his cousins. The other kids joined us and played until they lost interest. My nephew was adept at kicking the ball into the lone mud puddle. After a bit we abandoned the game and left it to the boys.

After supper it was time for trick or treat. David and his wife slipped into the tent to change into their disco clothes. David is a natural blonde. He emerged wearing a black Afro wig, fake black sideburns, a fake black mustache that kept tilting away from his face, fake chest hair, a sparkly shirt and glow-in-the-dark platform shoes.

My sister-in-law, Apryl, was more sedately dressed, barely. My nephew also had the same shoes as his father but he let his cousin wear the wig. James and his family were dressed in 1950's style complete with poodle skirts for the girls and the dog.

All but one of the group took off to stroll the campgrounds. We stayed behind and passed out candy. I must say we were impressed by the variety of costumes this year. We saw penguins, lions, mice, princesses, ninjas, and even a few muscle men. The older kids seemed to go for more of the hand-made look. They favored being butchers and zombies with lots of fake blood. We even saw an entire family of swamp things.

After we ran out of candy I found another bag in the cooler. We were mobbed and it was gone in a heartbeat. We left the lone teen to guard the site and walked around for a bit.

There were no signs of a rotten economy as we saw an abundance of giant inflatable spiders, wispy ghosts, ghouls of every size and design and spooky settings all over the place.

One camper had gone all out. He had a corner lot filled with zombies, bones and a giant monster skeleton that would growl and rise to a height of at least nine feet while brandishing half a dead body in its claw. That whole display had to cost more than I make in a week. It was impressive, to say the least.

But what impressed me the most was that children of all ages, from toddlers to teens were wandering the area. They were smiling, singing and generally having a good time. We even witnessed a tug-of war. All this was without television, radio or cell phone service.

We all met up again at the campsite. David's fake chest hair kept slipping and we all took turns yanking it back up into place. Then they turned on the music and we all attempted to dance to disco tunes. This was difficult because none of us have a sense of rhythm and we couldn't remember the moves. My favorite was one they had found on the Internet. We called it, "Point to the exit, point to the exit." It looked like a motion done by flight attendants.

We eventually took pity on my husband, who hates disco music, and went back home with memories of children having fun. There is something about being surrounded by trees and loved ones that soothes my soul and restores my belief that we can still manage to entertain ourselves without the use of hand-held gadgets.[[In-content Ad]]