Prickly

Along with doodle monsters, I’ve been drawing a lot of comical Halloween-themed figures — playful ghosts, smiling vampires, and cross-eyed witches, among others. I’ve had fun with these friendly monsters, and for the prickly prompt I called upon one of my favorites — Grumpy Ghost.

Now, I could probably have used Grumpy as is for the prompt. Grumpy does have a rather prickly personality, but I sent my little ghost out to a bramble patch.  Oh, dear. Poor Grumpy. I doubt that I’ll ever be forgiven.

Looks like Grumpy will be needing a new set of sheets.

Drawing this disgruntled ghost brought back memories of childhood and trick-or-treating. One of the oft-told tales in our family was the one about me when I dressed as a ghost.

My sheet was a bit too big, I stepped on it, and the eyeholes ended up not quite where they should have been. I was making my way through the neighbor’s yard to catch up with my sister and I bumped into a small tree.

 

“Excuse me,” I said, being quite polite. I thought I’d run into another trick-or-treater, and apologizing seemed the proper thing to do. For years afterward, I had to hear the laughter that accompanied the annual telling of the tale. Folks seemed to think it was hilarious that I’d said “Excuse me,” to a tree.

Honestly, I never saw the humor in it. So I got a bit grumpy myself each year as the familiar story was trotted out once more, and for what it’s worth, I never dressed as a ghost ever again.

I’m not sure if this fact qualifies for “EDUCATIONAL INFO” or not, but according to a Fox News report, 60% of Americans claim to have seen a ghost. Really? Well, maybe or maybe not. Pew Research Center puts the figure at 18% which is a considerable difference.

Many of us will probably be seeing ghosts next week when Halloween comes around, and actually we have ghostly apparitions hanging on our front porch already, thanks to my husband and one grandson.

Now, I must ask the question. Have YOU ever seen a ghost?