Who is Ginger Makefield?

Yesterday morning, opening gifts, I received a flat square package from "Ginger Makefield." I rolled my eyes, knowing it was the same story every year.

So, what is this tradition and how did it start? 

When I was young, I liked to teach an imaginary class of dogs in the basement. It all started when I was writing random names in a Barbie notebook, imagining characters to go with them which eventually became a list of people who could be characters. I started to see it as a list of class students, pretending to make phone calls to confirm enrollment. Eventually I even got a pretend school kit, complete with a chalkboard, desk labels, attendance charts, reward jar, and much more. It was a blast. We had story time, geography with my huge book of maps, and every November I'd offer a choice of learning about families or farms. 

Eventually there was a whole list. Some of the dogs I remember were Golde (a favorite), Lober; a tall dark fellow, Abutisum (pronounced "Aaa-but-tie-some''; imagine a cross between Abu from Aladdin and an Afghan hound), Russell, Phona...and others I no longer remember. What a bummer for teachers to forget so many of their students. Shame on me!

But they were real to me, and we had fun.

One more name I remember is Ginger Makefield. Ginger didn't show up a LOT, but she was there for a while. I want to think she was fun and spunky. The name "Makefield" came, I think, from the name of the neighborhood of a family friend. 

I'm writing this story and it's occurring to me that I don't know why she always gave me a calendar. I think it was because I always liked the page-a-day ones, usually with dog photos on them. I kept one on my desk a lot as a child. 

Also what my mom did was to make gifts "from" certain people on the gift tags, real or fictional. They could be anything from "Hermey the Elf" to one of our dogs or cats. Ginger was obviously someone I mentioned quite a bit, because she "gave" me a gift one year. I guess it was the dog calendar, being a dog.

And somehow it stuck. Ginger continued to give me calendars. From 365 Dogs to Wheel of Fortune, she always came though. When I got tired of the page-a-days, she might give me something else. Perhaps something with dogs. These days, she's been giving me wall calendars. 

Though I haven't taught dog class in 21 years, Ginger still shows up in spirit every Christmas, this time giving me more useful wall calendars. Even this year...when the calendar featured a cat!  

Thanks Ginger. Merry Christmas.

R.I.P. Halloween (1994-2024)

 I am very, very late with this one but didn't want to wait another year!

This year, we finally had no trick-or-treaters. I went over to my parents' house to help hand out candy, as I've done. Since the dogs would go berserk, we usually do this by sitting on the end of their driveway and placing the candy on a table. (Now that I think about it, this may have started with the pandemic as they couldn't get too close). 

As a kid, our 30-house neighborhood had flourished on the evening of October 31. But since I got to college, the kids got older and the population dwindled. When I called home during freshman year of college, Dad said they got about 50 trick-or-treaters. That number continued to dwindle. Last year we got maybe twelve. This year, we got none at all. 

Looking down the street, so many houses were dark. Now that kids obviously weren't coming, people obviously stopped trying to be ready. Almost nobody was decorated.

That's not to say that it's dead entirely---everyone goes into the center of town where houses are many and close together these days. 

First was choosing the costume very early, in July or August. Did anyone else pick them in a catalogue? I often did. I wanted to be a "candy corn witch" for ages, but it always seemed sold out. 

Now during the school day: The air crackled with excited atmosphere as the halls were filled with pirates, the guy from Scream, princesses, and superheroes. We all gathered in the gym for a Halloween "parade," where we'd line up by grade and tell the crowd who we were. The first year I did this in kindergarten, I was Cinderella and croaked out the name of my costume (my voice gave out for a second). We were then shepherded to a retirement community shortly down the way. (Again, in kindergarten I had no clue about this and had no idea why we were in a pink lobby that smelled of skunk outside.) There, we'd parade for the residents. In the afternoon, it was party time! I often wore my costume the entire day.

Then it was time for a quick dinner (think a can of Chef Boyardee) and the fun would begin. The air always smelled differently that night---spooky and sweet. Also a little bit awkward at first, but I got over it. For a few years, we lived in a BIG neighborhood before moving to the aforementioned one. Here are a few houses to remember:

*The Dempsters, our next-door neighbors in the first place and whose daughter I thought was the coolest, always put a few goodies in decorated treat bags. Oh, what fun! Like unwrapping a present later.

*Popcorn ball house, which always gave out...well, popcorn balls obviously.

*Sheepdog Guy's house. He always was seen walking his sheepdogs without a leash. His wife always hung up a "wishing witch" where we'd do just that before getting our candy.

*Mrs. Miller used the old-time tradition: we had to tell a joke or share something that happened at school to get a candy. She liked me and sometimes told me to take two. My sister and her best friend were furious! (It more than evened out; all my friends lived too far away to trick or treat with, so I at least had this!)

 

And then it was back home to enjoy our loot and fish out any bubble gum that we'd give to Dad. Then maybe the Great Pumpkin, and bedtime. Sometimes, if we listened, we could still hear a few trick-or-treaters, and smell the sweet, candy-like night air...before going back to the regular homework and worksheets tomorrow. 

College had a fun tradition too---local kids came through the halls. Man oh man was that a blast! And we got many kids---about 600. I ran out of candy in a half hour the first year. But picking out candy and dressing up finally made me feel like it was Halloween again, especially when one little kid wanted to take a photo of me in my neon witch costume. (He'd be a teenager now. Goodness gumdrops.)

Complete list of Halloween costumes:

*Thomas the Tank Engine (don't remember this but there exists a photo)

*Marie the Aristocat

*A Dalmatian

*Cinderella

*Tinker Bell

*Fifties' poodle skirt girl (a few times)

*Medieval princess (I thought I looked glamorous but then one girl outshined everyone by dressing as a lobster in a fully decorated cardboard fish tank) 

*Regular pink princess

*Witch (regular black with hat that refused to stand up, and a neon costume later)

*Minnie Mouse

*Formal apology (gaudy dress with "I'm Sorry" sash)

*Flapper

*Butterfly princess 

*Wicked fairy where I teased my hair out in ponytails and wore black lipstick 

*And my work costumes: the Philly Phanatic, Cookie Monster, and a black cat (in 2024)!