Happy All Saints Day

Would it surprise you to know that Halloween is actually a three-day celebration? It starts October 31 with All Hallow’s Eve, November 1 is All Saints Day, and November 2 is All Souls Day. Just one of the many pieces of trivia rattling around in my brain. :-)

I usually enjoy Halloween, but I felt curiously let down this year. I think a lot of it had to do with the weather. We’ve been experiencing intense wind the last couple of weeks, sometimes with rain, sometimes without, but it put the kibosh on my decorating plans. The skeleton with the seven foot long trailing shroud and the witch for the front porch are both battery operated, so I didn’t want the electronics ruined by the rain. And the smaller bridal skeleton couple also had trailing shrouds, and not much weight to them so I didn’t want them to get blown away. So I didn’t put anything out until just before the trick-or-treaters started up. And as it was, the wind kept knocking over my witch.

Though windy, it wasn’t rainy or all that cold last night so I was surprised we didn’t have more kids than we usually do. Of course I remember the years when we had like 6 kids at the most. But the area has built up since then and there are more kids on our street. There are also a couple of big subdivisions off the next street over and the smart kids would hit that first. LOL

I think I remember last year that not only did I wear a mask, I used tongs to drop zip lock bags full of candy into the trick-or-treaters pumpkins. This year, nobody was wearing a mask and I just handed the bags over. But I’m not naïve enough to believe this means things are getting better, pandemic wise. Case in point, our shopping trip to Peterborough Friday.

I think we’re all getting used to wearing masks in public places, but what I found disconcerting was when we stopped for lunch. We decided to pick something up at the food court of the mall, which was fine, but when we went to sit down in the center court we had to show proof of vaccination and a picture ID. Seriously?

This was the mall. People were going in and out of stores and ordering food from the venders in the food court, all without having to prove they were vaccinated. Yes, they were masked, and I think that should have been enough.

I was at that same mall a couple of weeks ago and the only thing that changed was the cordoning off of the center court. There was one way in, and one way out. The seats were still spaced out and every other table had a “do not use” sign on it.

I understand that businesses and restaurants have the right to ask for proof of vaccination, but I always thought of the food court as a public space, like a park. I find it disturbing that if I wasn’t vaccinated I could shop in the mall and buy food in the mall, but couldn’t sit down for afternoon tea (or lunch) in the big open food court. It makes me think about the segregation of the 60s in the southern states where people of colour were only allowed in certain areas, only today it’s vaxxers vs. anti-vaxxers.

Is this what we’re coming to? Think about it.