Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 It's that time of year again, boils and ghouls! Spooky season has officially arrived on the scene, and Summer Summers of Summerville is just sick about it. She and her cronies are out here acting like that ghost pillow in their local HomeGoods means the beach is now closed until Memorial Day 2026 and the sun will not be seen again until next June. Did you know Halloween decor in July actually shortens people's summers? What a phenomenon!  Obviously, this is not the case. It's still, sadly, meteorologically speaking, very much summer. But those of us who want to look ahead have as much right to do so as thought that don't wish to look ahead have every right to do a strange little thing I'll never understand called "enjoy their summer". It doesn't have to be a battle, and yet, ever year, it is.  Sometimes I think summer people dwell on autumn and Halloween more than those of us that actually live for it. If you're so focused on what other people are...

 I think I've always believed in ghosts. From monsters under the bed, to energies in particular spaces.  I've seen things. I've felt things. Some people believe it and some don't, and that's of no real concern to me. You can invalidate the existence of ghosts in the spiritual sense all you want; maybe it's hard to prove, for some people. Maybe it really can all be explained away, if you want it to be. Need it to be. But ghosts can exist in other forms as well. I think that most buildings are haunted. Not all in the traditional ghostly sense, but by the ghosts of what they once were, and memories left imprinted by the people who made them that way. As I walk through the corridors of an old hotel, one I knew long ago as a place where many prestigious events were held, the ghosts call loudly to me from every corner . The halls now house people on budgets; perhaps even those with nowhere else to go. The outside is overgrown; only a gazebo and an ornate gate to nowhe...