Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 Okay, so, today we’re going to be talking about Christmas.  No, I’m not about to make some grand seasonal switch as to what holiday I’m obsessed with. On the contrary, actually. Due to the constant invalidation of my feelings toward this time of year, and constant passive-aggressive statements eluding to me being some kind of “pick me girl” for staying so faithful to Halloween, I’ve decided I just want to straight-up talk about how Christmas changed for me, in detail, and why it makes me feel, or doesn’t make me feel, the way it does now. It will probably help to get this all off my chest, even if no one reads it. Though I do hope someone out there may find comfort in it in some way. I suppose you could say my descent into Grinchdom began the summer before I started middle school. Prior to this time, I was, more or less, the epitome of the “tiny tot with their eyes all aglow”, who “finds it hard to sleep” on Christmas Eve. No, Christmas was never my favorite holiday, but the ...

  This past Saturday, I received possibly the worst type of news someone can ever receive regarding a loved one. I was notified that my cousin was shot and killed.  For the sake of the ongoing investigation, and of course the privacy of my family and those closest to her, I'm not going to name any names here. But there is so much about her I want to talk about. For the remainder of this post, I will refer to her by a name she often asked to be called in childhood, as her absolute passion in life was ballet. Her name, for the sake of this post, will be Clara.  Clara was significantly younger than me, born in 1996. She was the first of my younger cousins whose birth I truly understood and got excited about. I remember being so happy that my aunt's due date was in September. I was actually hoping that the baby and I might share a birthday, but Clara wound up being born closer to the end of the month. Still, though, we wound up having quite a bit in common. My other cousins w...

    Several years ago, I went to the pumpkin patch at my favorite local farm, and picked what looked like a perfect pumpkin, right off the vine.  I proudly photographed it, and buckled it into the backseat of the car like a child on the way back home. It sat, beautiful and majestic, in the living room, until the day before Halloween, my traditional day for pumpkin carving in the years when I felt so inclined. This was a particularly trying year, as Hurricane Sandy had just happened and the celebration of Halloween was uncertain. Carving that pumpkin was going to be my salvation, if everything else got cancelled.  I stuck the carving knife in, and was devastated to find that my perfect pumpkin, that I’d been so proud of all month long, was actually rotten inside. This was devastating to me. I still loved that pumpkin, still was proud of my pick, and treasured the pictures I’d taken of it and the other memories from that day. But I was left to wonder if there was somet...

(by @mater.mortem on Instagram) The time has come once again to address an issue that doesn’t relate to Halloween, but is truly scary. As a horror fan, I can think of many terrifying things. Just last night I shared the monster from my scariest childhood nightmare. The day before that I talked about a chainsaw-wielding maniac. But I don’t think there can possibly be a more horrifying concept in the world than having to fear for your life on a daily basis, solely for existing as a black individual. As a white woman, I obviously can’t even begin to comprehend what it feels like, to experience the oppression and venom that black people have been forced to deal with, on a daily basis, for so long. But another thing I simply can’t comprehend is why  such a horrific, ugly attitude toward our fellow human beings exists in the first place. I grew up in a mostly white area. I was an only child with a strict Republican father. I can’t even recall how old I was before I had...

I try to keep things on the lighter side on this blog. There’s nothing I love more than sharing a spooky story or idea, or a random memory. But I created this blog as a public forum to talk about things that are important to me. Yes, the vast majority of what’s important to me relates to Halloween in some way and that is what keeps me sane and happy even during the worst of times. But there are instances where the worst of times still hits me, hard, and there are things I’d like to say right now. We are currently in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. My state has the second-highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the country. It is terrifying, and I’m not home surrounding myself with the things that make me happiest during this time. I am the assistant manager of the online shopping department in a grocery store.  To say that the workload has gotten out of control would be the understatement of the century. We are absolutely flooded  with orders, currently behind ...