Fall colors were all around me…today. Thus is the mystery of autumn. You search and search for the brilliance of the fall…and if you oversleep…you miss it. Temperatures are dropping into the low 40’s at night and 50’s to low 60’s during the day. It is much more seasonal weather and the leaves know it. Thanksgiving is less than a month away…and Christmas is a month after that. The Holiday Season has arrived.

Having just attained the full age of 64 I still am amazed when I see that my fellow classmates from Eldorado High School…are all becoming 64 in 2021, also. Somehow the fact escaped me that I was in class with others who were the same age as me…and would be traveling Life’s Road at the same chronological pace as I am. So many simple things can elude us.

Life is a work/luck endeavor. Many will proclaim proudly that the poor simply need to get up off of their backsides and go to work. They go on to enumerate how hard that they have worked for their success. Somewhere in the conversation will be the discussion of bootstraps. Capitalism is devoid of empathy. I heard a person recount a story of a former slave who became free and subsequently successful in business…who then purchased fellow African Americans to be his slaves. Now, this may sound incredible…but the freeman was imitating what he had seen his fellow white business colleagues do in order to be successful in an economy based on the ledger of financial gains and losses. Often consideration is not given to the many hurdles that millions of people have to overcome in order to be a success in America. Years ago our state and federal governments closed most of our mental health facilities. Those programs that remain are working with severely diminished resources. Many of these forgotten humans…now have their home on the streets of our cities and towns.

Luck has played a major role in the success of many in America. It is a bit of a myth that is promulgated by wealthy people that they are blessed by God and favored over those less fortunate. I have many friends who have been Christians for 50 years and still are poor…and happy in their walk with Christ.

We people of faith are a divided lot. Some are driving in fine limousines on life’s roadway…while others are walking on bloody feet…back to Jerusalem. We see the immigrant seeking sanctuary from oppression and abuse and rape and death…and we wonder why they do not want to seek the dream of freedom in their own country… We pass the impoverished and hungry person just outside the door of our favorite restaurant…and speculate where they went wrong…to have missed out on the American Dream that was so easy for us to access…

People who have little…and share it with those who are needier than they are…are those who Jesus is watching.

‘And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all, they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. Mark 12: 41-44. KJV

Five days until Halloween. Billy B. was excited regarding the Marionette Show that his friend Steve was going to put on this evening. Jane and Chet and Sally would be coming as well as Steve’s sister, Susie, who Billy B. had a crush on…and Danny and Pauly…his neighbors from the other end of the lane in Chicago. A few nights ago there had been the strange occurrences of the Hayride and the Halloween Party in the old barn…and finally the hairy condition of Chet when he walked out into the brilliant glow of the full moon. Billy B. wondered just what is happening this Halloween…as it was a season like none that he could recall. Tonight, Steve promised a regular Halloween puppet show…with marionettes of; Frankenstein and Dracula and the Wolf Man and the Mummy. There would also be the old favorites of Punch and Judy and that perennial star of Chicago…Bozo the Clown.

Ivy, Steve’s mom, had made Halloween themed cupcakes and cookies and brownies. Ivy and Billy B.’s mom were best friends. Neva Jane had told Billy B. that Ivy changed at night…and did not seem like the same person. Billy B. thought that his mom’s statement was strange. Ed, Steve and Susies dad, was a nice man who said little. He smoked Pall Malls…incessantly…as did Ivy. Billy B. wondered if he had ever seen Ivy and Ed…without a cloud of smoke around their heads. Billy B. remembered that he had seen Ivy late one evening last summer and greeted her…and she had simply stared at him with an unusual grin…and then turned and walked away. In fact he did not want to give in to his eyes…as he had thought for a moment…that she floated away…

Chet arrived at Billy B.’s house first and brought his marionette of Daniel Boone. He was hoping that Steve would use him in the show. Billy B. asked Chet if he had ever noticed anything different about Ivy or Ed. Chet responded that he noticed that Ivy talked constantly and the Ed said nothing…thus they made a good pair. He also said that Susie had asked him one time if had ever wanted to fly…and that she could show him how…if he wanted to stay overnight at her house. About that time Jane and Sally came in. Billy B. asked Jane the same question that he had just asked Chet. Jane responded to the question by noting that they were always surrounded by a cloud of smoke…and that at times their eyes looked sinister… As the intrepid group walked outside to go down the street to Steve’s house for the big show…there was Danny and Pauly. Billy B. thought what the heck…I’ll ask them the same question. When Billy B. asked the same question of the brothers…Pauly said that he had looked in their refrigerator once…and there was nothing in it…but packs of Pall Malls…

Susie greeted the Halloween Marionette Show audience with a warm smile and a hug for Billy B. Billy B. thought that what the others had said about the family…was a load of malarky. Steve said…’Everyone sit down and the show will commence.’ The first act was Punch and Judy. Then…on came Frankenstein and Dracula with Daniel Boone fighting them with his flintlock rifle. Finally…. came Marionettes that looked just like; Ivy and Ed and Steve and Susie. The Ivy puppet was talking a mile a minute and the Ed puppet was sitting in a puppet easy chair. The Susie Marionette went to answer the small front door of the Puppet Theatre…and in walked Marionettes of; Billy B. and Chet and Jane and Susie and Pauly and Danny. The Susie Marionette bent down to hug the Billy B. Marionette…and then the lights went up…

Billy B. rubbed his eyes and looked at his arms and legs…they had strings attached…and there was…Bozo sitting next to him…

Yesterday was a lovely day for me…full of light and laughter…and love. The Birthday celebration began for me on Friday when Ira Kaye and Ron asked us up for lunch in Centralia, Illinois. As an added welcome surprise our niece Tara joined us. I first met Tara when she was a wee young person…and I have always considered her…wonderful! We ate at a great restaurant that looks like a castle and the food was delicious. When I see Ron and Ira Kaye I see my good friends who we have traveled with and visited in Florida and New Mexico…and who have been a constant joy in all of the Brooks lives…

MJ has been asking me for some days if I did not want to open her birthday present to me…early. I kept declining in lieu of October 24th. Yesterday I knew why she was anxious for me to tear into the package…it was a pair of outstanding LL Bean Pajamas. I have not owned a set of pajamas for many years…sleepwear is a whole new experience for me…

Aaron knew that I wanted an Onyx bracelet. I think that I am taking after my old contemporaries…as I have always enjoyed rings…but now also bracelets designed for men. Mom loved the colors red and black and as I have aged…they have become my favorite as well. I have worn a black Onyx ring for many years…now with the bracelet to match…I am a bit of a mafioso.

Jonathon gave me a Seinfeld’s Kramer character in June for Father’s Day. He then mentioned that there was also a Newman Figure from the television show and did I want it for my birthday. I replied with a hearty yes as Seinfeld is my favorite TV show of all time. But yesterday there was a LP album from Jonathon of Norah Jones Christmas music. And…an original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle…with a great story to accompany it. The TMT came from our favorite Eclectic Emporium…Electric Larrys…

Lamb is the movie that we saw at the Landmark Theatre in the Plaza Frontenac in St. Louis, Missouri. It was very enjoyable and I will not spoil it for you…but it adds a significant twist and a new meaning…to parenthood.

At one time it made me angry for someone to refer to me as young. I had positions that were beyond my years…at the University…and I did not want to be considered immature. My first pastor told me when I was 15 or 16 years old that I had an old soul. The truth is that as I have gotten older…I see things that I did not when I was younger. There are nuances to life…there are opaque images and things that hide in the shadows…or just out of eyesight. We are surrounded by beautiful people…but we are so busy we fail to see the beauty. Others are looking to us for a word of encouragement…and a smile…a kind remark…a hand of assistance as we navigate the dimness and the darkness and the pain and the suffering of our human condition. I used to hear that others watch what you do much more than they listen to what your say.

‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’. Maya Angelou

The air was especially chilly after the unusual warm October days that had just transpired. There was just over one week until Halloween. Billy B. had awoken early on the rainy and cold Saturday in anticipation of the coming holiday week. Chet and he were going to go over to Billy B.’s cousin’s house and examine his Universal Studio Authentic Monster Masks. Cousin Gene had a plethora of masks displayed on shelves that were on all four walls of his bedroom. Chet had asked him, one time, if the masks made it somewhat difficult to sleep…and Gene replied that he could not see them in the dark but only when the blue light of the television shown through the gap in his bedroom door…or if the Moon was full. Billy B. called out for his mom, Neva Jane, but there was no answer. He searched every room of the house…and finally her bedroom. She was no where to be found…but there was a full length mirror near the bedroom window that he had not seen before. The frame of the mirror was ornate black wood…not painted wood…naturally black… It was obviously very old…as Neva J. was an antique aficionado…

Neve J. had been reading books by the American Clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. Cayce had given thousands of readings for people, while he was in a trance state. He would answer questions regarding healing, dreams and many on reincarnation. Cayce believed that all minds were connected in the Dream Realm. Billy B. thought of these recents discussions with his mom when he saw the black mirror…which he had seen one just like it in a photo of Cayce in his trance state. Cayce had died in 1945…and this was 1963. The sound of the doorbell ringing caused Billy B. to awaken from his thoughts and answer the door. There was his good friend, Jane, and she had some popcorn balls for them to enjoy. He remembered that Jane was planning on joining he and Chet at Cousin Genes. Jane was immediately drawn to the lovely and mysterious mirror. ‘Where is Neva J. at,’ Jane asked? ‘That is the problem…I have lost her,’ replied Billy B. Jane looked to her left…and there was Chet…drinking a hot cup of coffee. ‘I did not hear you come in…Chet,’ said Billy B. ‘Oh I have been here for some time, said Chet. ‘Your mom purchased the mirror from my mom’s antique store…and I delivered it before daylight, a grinning Chet said.

Neva J. had told Billy B. that she had seen an unexplained light in their living room when she was reclining on the sofa and reading Edgar Cayce’s prophecies…and that it had made the hair stand up on the back of her neck. He knew that his mom had been raised in a fundamentalist church with a strict interpretation of the scriptures. She went on the tell Billy B. that she had shared some of her thoughts and questions with her mother and that Billy B.’s grandmother had cautioned her to not read anymore of the Cayce material and to start attending church. Billy B. had told her that he thought what she had been reading was very interesting and that he was going to do some reading as well about ‘The Sleeping Prophet.’

Jane called out to Chet and Billy B….’Hurry come quick and see what I am seeing…in the mirror…’ They both ran to the bedroom and peered into the old silver backed glass. Before their eyes they saw a man laying on a couch and apparently asleep…beside him was a woman sitting in a straight back chair…Neva J….

October is a wonderful month to hike. The crisp autumn air is exhilarating. There are hayrides and bonfires and bobbing for apples. So, the decision to have a Halloween Party at Billy Bump’s old barn that was in the woods…was made. Chet was so excited about the upcoming festivity and its rustic location that he he declared that this time he was not going to be costumed as the Lost In Space Robot…but as Friar Tuck from Robin Hood. Sally decided to leave her favorite costume of ‘Sally on Peanuts’ and become Maid Marian. Billy B. would be coming as Robin Hood. The evening would be a three part affair. The first event would be the hayride through the woods to the haunted barn. The second would be the candy and bobbing for apples. The third would be the Ghost Hike.

Jane and Buddy joined the Hayride. Jane reminded Billy B. of last year when they had taken a Hayride to a haunted house and she had suddenly fainted when she saw the glowing orange head that looked both like and Jack-O-Lantern…and a human… Buddy was dressed like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The carriage driver was the tallest and thinest man that Chet had ever seen…and on top of his head was a Stovepipe Hat…and his nose was so long that it touched his chin. He looked around…slowly…at Chet…and winked. The hay was soft and scratchy at the same time. Jane passed around, from the thermos that she carried, hot apple cider with, what she called, a touch of spirits…for the occasion… Suddenly the carriage toppled to one side and everyone held on for dear life. Billy B. assessed the Halloween revelers and decided that they would be able to walk the quarter of a mile to the Haunted Barn. Chet watched as the carriage driver untethered one of the coal black horses and jumped on top of his back and rode off. When Chet walked around to the front of the conveyance…there was the Stovepipe Hat on top of the head of the driver…with the long face and the extremely long nose, now bent to one side from its fall from its home on the shoulders of the peculiar chauffeur, smiling and saying…’Do not worry…he knows the way back.’

Lanny was mixing the punch that the apples were floating in when Billy B. entered the barn door. He grinned and told Billy B., ‘This Punch is my special Halloween recipe.’ Buddy, or as he preferred to be called, Hunch, was especially good at apple bobbing. Sally told Billy B. that Daryl had just came in…although she did not see him on the hayride. Daryl was dressed as the Mummy. When Chet greeted him…he simply motioned with his hand…but did not speak. For the dance Billy B.’s mom had chosen the Chubby Checker number one song, The Twist. As everyone began to ‘Twist the night away,’ Sally accidentally stood on a loose bandage on Daryl’s Mummy costume…and he began to unravel rapidly…as he twisted enthusiastically… Before those assembled…lay the Mummy’s bandages on the dirt floor…but no Daryl…

‘Lets hike quick…while we still can, said Jane. So the intrepid group of 10 year olds proceeded into a brilliantly lit full moon night. ‘You look like you need a shave…if you were old enough,’ said Billy B. to Chet. Chet responded, ‘When the moon is full…I like to howl…’

One of my primary holidays is this Sunday…my birthday. I have always enjoyed my birthday…and I do not try to hide it. I am humbled and grateful that in the Pie of Life…I have enjoyed a sweet slice. I am also pleased to be about to reach another year…in the Golden Years. My father died when he was 60. Life almost always looks bright to me…and if shadows obscure the landscape…I open more drapes and blinds and shutters and shades…to let additional sunshine in. Life is a gift and outlook is everything in the application of having an enjoyable ride on the rollercoaster of human activity.

When I was working I learned, after many years, to take my birthday off. It seemed that no matter the year…something bad or unexpected would occur on my special day. Many management problems leak over into your off hours and can cast a cloud over a celebration. MJ used to tell anyone who would listen that I had 4 or 5 birthday dinners. There was an annual dinner with friends…a dinner with mom and my step-father…and 1 or 2 with the 4 of us. This year there will be 2.

St. Louis, Missouri has been our go-to city for my birthday celebration for many years. This year there will be the traditional movie at Plaza Frontenac prior to dinner at Bartolino’s Osteria on The Hill. Bartolinos will be a new event for us as my birthday dinner is almost exclusively a Cunetto’s House of Pasta. It never hurts to try something new.

Birthdays are a wonderful time of reflection for me. Plaza Frontenac has a calming influence on me…as well as the Landmark Cinema that is in the mall. I have wiled away many hours waiting for MJ as she shopped and I sat by the Grand Piano and listened to it being expertly played. We have spent so many enjoyable times in St. Louis that it is our city. It is relatively easy to drive in and many enjoyable venues including the St. Louis Art Museum.

Steve and I are born on the same day. I received a card from him yesterday…and it made my day. He and Faye and MJ and I have enjoyed many good times together.

I was never a member of he Hippie movement…but I have wonderful friends who were former hippies. Jack Weinberg, ‘who is best known for his role in the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964,’ said, ‘Don’t trust anyone over 30.’ That becomes increasingly more difficult to do…when you are nearly 64…

‘When I get older losing my hair Many years from now. Will you still be sending me a Valentine? Birthday greetings, bottle of wine.

If I’d been out till quarter to three. Would you lock the door? Will you still need me, will your still feed me. When I’m sixty-four?

You’ll be older too. And if you say the word. I could stay with you.

I could be handy mending a fuse. When your lights have gone. You can knit a sweater by the fireside. Sunday mornings go for a ride. Doing the garden, digging the weeds. Who could ask for more.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four.

Every summer we can rent a cottage In the Isle of Wight, it it’s not too dear. We shall scrimp and save. Grandchildren on your knee, Vera, Chuck and Dave.

Send me a postcard, drop me a line Stating point of view. Indicate precisely what you mean to say. Yours sincerely wasting away.

Give me your answer, fill in a form. Mine for evermore. Will you still need me, will you still feed me.

When I’m sixty-four.’

The Beatles

It is almost time for one of my favorite Christmas movies to return to the television screen…A Christmas Story. In fact Turner Broadcasting System plays a 24 hour marathon of the Christmas Classic from Christmas Eve Evening until the Evening of Christmas Day. Of course it is the story of Ralphie and his quest to receive a Red Ryder BB Gun for a Christmas present. The movie takes place in December 1940. ‘The Old Man’ as Ralphie’s father is entitled in the movie…receives a major award in a contest. When it arrives, shortly before Christmas, it’s carton is marked ‘FRAGILE.’ Inside is a table lamp shaped like a woman’s leg with hose on it. ‘The Old Man’ is overjoyed and subsequently places it on a table in front of a large window where it can be seen by all people passing by.

Fragile should be stamped on each of us when we enter this life. Not because we are helpless babies…but because we are helpless members of the human family. Our neighbor fell in her yard this morning. She and her husband have lived across the street from us for almost the entire 20 years we have been on Ash Wood Lane. I rushed over to see if I could offer any assistance and her husband told me that they had called the EMT’s and thanked me for my concern. I remember when they both worked in their yard all Spring and Summer and Fall. They sat out on their front porch in the evenings and were vibrant members of the over 60 Club. As I become increasingly older…I understand how they both felt with the helplessness of age catching up to them.

My friend, Bill, suddenly passed away a few days ago. I never really thought about how old Bill was…because he was always so active in our church. One of my first memories of him was when he was the Chair of the Trustees Committee. I had been a member of First Presbyterian Church of Carbondale for a few years…while he and his wife, Judy, had been members for many years. He made me feel welcome and at home on the Committee. I recall Bill mentioning that on an evening this past summer when MJ and Jonathon and I attended a dinner out with members of the church…that it was the one year anniversary of Judy’s passing. He looked lost without her. Pastor Kerry said today at Bill’s funeral that Bill was a story teller. Bill told us on the Session of the Church that he had been struck by lightning…twice…

I am a fan of the former television show, ‘Lost.’ The Rubik’s Cube Puzzle of the location of the crashed aircraft passengers…and when they where…and are they even alive…I found intriguing. I recall a scene where one of the characters was reunited with the Lost Group and she killed a threatening animal that was going to hurt some of them…and then she disappeared. I thought…that is just how quick that someone who you love or rely on or need in your life…disappears.

We are resilient and strong and courageous beyond measure…and we are weak and afraid and fragile…and seemingly eliminated by a change in the wind direction of…fate…

We are, ‘fearfully and wonderfully made,’ according to the Bible. Let us ponder and meditate on our actions and our words and our lives…before this Theatrical Production is done…and we are transported to the Performance that we have been anticipating…

Chet was dosing. Billy B. knew because he could hear him snoring. Soon he supposed that Mrs. B. would hear him too. He had been up late…for an 8 year old…planning the Halloween escapades in less than 2 weeks. He nudged him just as Mrs. Blackwell was looking annoyed in his direction. Chet suddenly sat bolt upright in his desk chair and said…don’t forget your grandmother’s cross. Everyone laughed accept Mrs. B. At recess Billy B. asked Chet what he had meant by the unusual cross statement? He responded that most people understood that vampires could not stand to look at the cross due to its religious symbolism. He asked if Billy B. had not noticed the actor, Peter Cushing, fight Dracula with either a ready made cross…or crossing 2 candle sticks…or even fashioning a wooden cross. He knew that Peter Cushing was Billy Bumps hero in the many Hammer Films of Gothic Horror. Hammer Films was a film company based in England that filmed Dracula and Frankenstein movies in vivid color. There seemed to be 1 or 2 new ones each year. When Dracula was just about to vanquish the good vampire hunter…he revealed the christian cross…and the evil vampire recoiled in fear and trepidation. So…Chet had been dreaming in class of the Halloween Play that they were going to perform before the school at Assembly…on Halloween.

Play practice was tonight…and Sally and Jane and Buddy and Daryl…along with Billy B. and Chet would be the performers. Chet was going to be Dracula and Jane and Sally were to be the innocent women that the undead was attempting to transform to vampires. Billy B. would be the Vampire Hunter and Buddy…Dracula’s assistant…who ate bugs… Play practice was at Billy B.’s house. Of course he lived in a haunted house. Sally asked if she could be ‘Sally from Peanuts’ and Billy B. said that he thought that was an innovative idea for a Vampire Halloween Play. Chet heard Sally’s request and noted that his famous Halloween character of the Lost In Space Robot…would be a nice twist on the rather tired Dracula theme. Buddy asked, ‘Where is Daryl?’ No one seemed to know. Buddy then noted that his mom had purchased some candy bugs…as he was not going to eat real ones. Billy B.’s dad had roaring fires going in the massive old house’s 5 fireplaces. The dancing flames and the prevailing warmth was a nice setting for a vampire standoff…

‘Did you bring the cross,’ Chet asked. ‘Yes I did…it was my grandmothers who lived in Romania,’ Billy B. answered. Suddenly there was Daryl floating down the stairs. He had on a black cape and he almost looked like a bat as he glided into the living room. The roaring fires were snuffed out by a cold wind… ‘I am glad that you could make it, Daryl,’ said Billy B….’would you like to see my grandmother’s cross?’ Daryl jumped back in fear and ran out of the front door into the strange beauty of the setting Sun…