Catch Up

They say that as you get older time gets away from you. Summer blends into fall and winter runs into spring and the year gets away from you before you've got the hang of it. I'd like to blame my lack of activity on the whirling calendar but that'd be disingenuous. There are tons of excuses for why I'm only just getting to writing about Halloween with November ripening into December, but I won't bore you with them. Instead, I'll focus on rectifying the situation.

As you know, we did the traditional Halloween Ball at St. Louis' Casa Loma Ballroom and it lived up to the raucous reputation it earned with us the first year we attended. There was rock and roll, there was drink, there were transvestites, and a good time was had by all including my in-laws. You've got to give it to a pair of octogenarians who are willing to brave East St. Louis on All Hallows Eve in a neighborhood like the one that the Casa Loma has matured into. They got out on the dance floor and shanked out a few WCS's before getting beaten back by the drunken revelers. I hope I'm doing the same at eighty but my inner crotchety old man tells me I'm more likely to be sitting with the wallflowers shaking my cane at the 'young hooligans' on the dance floor.

In spite of having a good time I believe we've decided to sample the Halloween revels at another venue in 2011. The Loma is a fantastic venue and it has an unparalleled pedigree but two years of ear-splittingly loud bands and beer-baptisms have taken their toll on our desire to dance there. This year the crowd was decidedly bawdier (one partier showed up dressed as a penis) and though it might be in my head there also seemed to be a lot more drunken foolery. I'm all for getting tight on occasion but when those getting wasted are also trying to dance, well…

So, in 2011 we're weighing our options. Maybe we'll decide on the Wilmington Ballroom outside Chicago with its haunted highway - remember all those stories about the lady in white hitching a ride by Resurrection Cemetery? Well, they originate from the Wilmington area, perfect for Halloween don't you think?