Hey there friends!

At my house we’ve actually had our first early morning frost just a few days after a weekend with highs in the 90. I guess now I can officially declare it wacky October since my neighborhood is filled with the spookiest Halloween decorations.

Those visual triggers always take me back to the 1960s-70s when I was out in my small town neighborhood raking in hoards of candy. Did you spread yours out on the floor when you got home to get a good idea of what you had? I did! I hope seeing all the neighborhood decorations has you feeling the memories, too, and maybe eager to capture some of them - before they are gone.

Today I’m sharing an excerpt from my book of seasonal story prompts to trigger your own fun Halloween memories. You can find “The Joy of Costumes” below.

This past week brought an unexpected event that had my daughter exclaiming “This is a bucket list check off for me!” Scroll on down to the end of this email to see what we got to experience together.

Happy weekend,

The Joy of Costumes

Enjoy this excerpt from The Simple Guide to Writing Family Stories.

I want you to write about a favorite costume that you wore - for Halloween or for some other event. My parents were very low key about Halloween, but my sister and I were dead serious about our costumes each year. Humble brag here, but one year we created costumes out of cardboard boxes that made it look like we were riding horses. This could only be accomplished because she was older and waaay more creative than me - but I was convinced other trick or treaters would be completely fooled into thinking I was riding a little horse. Seriously.

You may also have had costumes made by your mother for a school play or pageant. There’s nothing more fun than dressing up in a costume for just a few hours. You watched your mother struggle through the process of sewing or creating it and then felt her pride when you finally put it on.

STORY SPARK

Write a story about your favorite Halloween or other costume that was either crafted at home or purchased. Talk about why you loved it so much. Do you have memories of shopping for a costume at the “dime” store like I sometimes did in my small town every October? Or did you and your parents make original costumes that were one-of-a-kind and the envy of your friends?

ENHANCE YOUR STORY

There’s no doubt a photo or two will make this story more of a treasure. Find them if you can. If not, describe as much as you can what the costume looked like and how you felt when you wore it.

The photo above was taken by my dad in 1954 in Fayetteville, AR. I found just a few photos that he took of neighborhood children who came to our front door. Judging by the two girls with hats, I would say that this was a time when it was much more common for kids to grab some of their parent's clothing and just run out the door for some Halloween night fun. 👻

Available on Amazon for Kindle and as a paperback.

Things that delighted & inspired me this week ✨

My embarrassing habit of scrolling through my Twitter (X) feed before going to bed actually brought this week’s delight! I started noticing that our local TV meteorologists were sharing viewer’s submitted photos of a very rare instance of aurora borealis (northern lights) right here in NW Arkansas. We grabbed our iPhones and ran out the back door. Since our backyard view of the northern skies is mostly blocked by huge oak trees, we used the “night mode” settings on our phone and pointed them in the small gap we had open between the roof and the trees. And to our absolute delight, we captured those gorgeous northern lights. And Claire checked seeing the northern lights off her bucket list. ❤️

My inspiration this week is a quote from Sue Monk Kidd that reminds us all how important capturing our stories can be for us and for future generations. Whether they are stories of trick-or-treating with our childhood neighborhood gang of friends or going out in neighborhoods with our own children. Don’t let these fun memories get lost.

✨What is delighting and inspiring you these days?

#delightedandinspired

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