Fright Week!

Oh...you thought I meant Halloween? I suppose. I was really talking about reading the Graves' Disease Facebook Page. My God...one could go mad reading all the information online about illness. My sister Cindo is right. She said Boldie's doc told her as much. Don't read about this stuff - it will drive your crazy. So why do I?

It's frightening. I've noted before on this blog that I graduated from the Evelyn Woodhead Speed Reading course (no...not really) and can therefore buzz through various topics and attached comments chop chop. In no time I've perused articles about the various diets and discovered that if one follows them, one may eat sea salt on spinach. Yum!

Seriously...in a book I ordered online, one chapter described a diet that ruled out fruit, beef, seafood, some veggies and greens. And of course sweets. Organic eggs could be introduced slowly. I began wondering if it might be easier to print the list of stuff one could eat....

I will change my diet. From all my reading, it seems like people with autoimmune disorders like Graves' disease often benefit from doing just that. I just need to figure out just what that should be! I've seen everything from Gluten Free to Paleo to the one described above where you really can't eat. More study is in order but I've identified a few things I can start already.

I'm supposed to cut out coffee. EEEK as Jane Buck would say. It's not like I'm a huge coffee swizzler, but I do enjoy a cuppa with creamer. Dairy? Soy? Iodine is supposed to be BAD. I've put the sea salt on the table - better than iodized. I need to hydrate more - tough for me. I am going to try to journal (shock! I am going to write. Don't worry - I am not going to Blog my Graves' Journal). At least not for now...perhaps it will prove fascinating.

So...back to Halloween. When I was a kid it was really fun! At our school we would walk home at lunch (like we did every other day) and return in our Halloween Costumes. Then we would parade through all the classrooms in Washington Elementary and the measly small gym where some of our parents were awaiting, beaming as we pranced by. I think I liked that day even more than pretend Christmas celebrations at school.

I only remember a couple of my costumes. One - was one of the only two things I know of my mother sewing. A black cat costume with a stuffed tail that dragged behind and a little hood with ears. She also sewed a clown costume but I don't remember ever wearing that. In the upper grades, I partnered with Chris and Paula to be Tom, Huck and Becky (I was Tom) and another year Paula and I wore my Dad's Korea army uniforms and boots. No guns.

On Halloween night in Atlantic, we'd fill paper grocery sacks with candy - going house to house in several neighborhoods. Returning home, I'd dump my stash on the floor and answer the door when a few stragglers came to our house Trick or Treating. The whole neighborhood was full of kids traipsing around in costumes - few as original as the ones people come up with today. Many were store bought costumes with cheapo masks. It was fun and all that sugar probably set off my Graves' disease today. LOL

My pal Robbie Dob phone me today - and pumped me up. Just what I needed - a former AHS cheerleader giving me a chance to talk about my recent downs and a pep talk! I'm so lucky to have so many great friends and family members who are there to help me get through this shoulder thing and to be there for me as I deal with Graves' Disease. Amy, Jud and Kara sent flowers to my work yesterday - there on my desk as I returned from physical therapy. Nice! Texts and Emails and visits with Susi, Cindy, Bets, Jane, Susan and seeing Deb and Mona - it all helps.

Halloweens of my childhood

Back the the day, at Washington Elementary, Halloween meant going home for lunch and dressing up in my chosen costume. Pat Bullock had a sewing machine, but the only things I remember her ever sewing was two costumes - a clown and a black cat with a long black tail.

I'm sure I was each of those two things sometime through the years. In sixth grade Paula Bacon and I dressed in my dad's Korean War uniforms, complete with boots. But I don't really recall many of my costumes. I think we often went the purchased costume with plastic mask and a rubber band to hold it on. After we'd walk back to school on Halloween Day, we'd await the younger classes to start the parade through each classroom, ending up in the gymnasium where parents were in the audience. It was quite exciting.

Then in the evening, we'd begin our trek around the neighborhood with brown paper grocery sack clutched in hand. We'd walk door to door, block to block, coming home with several pounds of candy. And oh we knew where the good stuff was. The Crabtrees always gave out quarters and popcorn balls.

Even back when I was young, people started doing evil things to candy to injure kids. Is there anything creepier? But hell, we considered our whole side of town our neighbors. Few people left their porch lights off. The "old folks" (they were probaby 52 years old..) seemed to be so tickled at seeing each costume.

One year tragedy struck Atlantic on Halloween. One of the Hackwell children was struck by a car and killed crossing the street in the dark. The Hackwells were a notorious family in town. They had lots of children and lived on the edge of town in a rickety farmhouse by the cemetery. Glen was in our class. While I didn't realize why at the time, we shunned Glen throughout grade school.

Today I realize it was a social class thing, but back then I just thought (as everyone in class said) Glen Hackwell had cooties and germs. We'd inoculate ourselves from the germs if he touched us. Poor kid. I feel bad about it today. I recall Glen attended our 20th class reunion, bringing his grandchild along. He was a trucker, and was featured in a news story for moving a home from outside of town into town.

As with everything, it seems, Halloween today is much more commercialized and flashy. I still like it, but a little part of me longs for the days when kids swarmed the streets wrangling sweets from willing townfolk.

This is one of my fave pics of my kids at Halloween.

Halloween

Even though I rarely dress up, I love Halloween. This a.m., I chuckled watching the Today Show. The whole crew dressed up like Star Wars Characters. Matt drove in, as Luke of course, in some type of rocket ship. His hatch popped open and he said "Gee I was busy on my laptop" aka Northwest Airlines pilots who missed their stop in Minneapolis. Clever!

Al Roker was Han Solo. He asked Darth - hey is Jabba the Hut related to Pizza? Funny stuff. Hoda was Yoda of course. Kathy Lee - C3PO. Meredith was Princess Leia, complete with face widening braids. It reminded me how much I love that movie. It was unlike anything we'd ever seen before. Al Roker said he saw it three times the first day. Yep, he's one of those! Nerd alert.

The show also had a costume contest. People are so very creative! My fave was the winner - a gal who spent a week on her costume. Her head stuck through a railroad track, which featured a little body with dangy widdo wegs and feet, and a train on it's way to smash the damsel in distress. What a hoot!

Another bit of media cleverness for Halloween comes right from our own Creston News Advertiser. The two young sports writers dressed as the old media curmudgeons of town - Creston Radio sportscaster Gary Bucklin and CNA newsbeat/sports writer Larry Peterson. See the photo below.