Must be October

The pictured house on the 200 block of E. Jefferson put their Halloween decorations up on October 1, 2007, making them the first in the area to do so and winner of this year's "Eager Beaver" award. I'm wondering if they've already cleaned out their gutters for the fall, as well. Boy do I resent organized people.

For anyone who doesn't know, Lincoln Park is THE place in the area for tricker treating. Halloween is hands down the most celebrated holiday in town. This is yet another area where Claremont does not hold a candle to us, much less a bloodied skeleton. It is interesting that Halloween originated with the celebration of Sanhaim, which the Romans adapted to become Pomona Day, and which eventually became Halloween as we know it. I have no idea if this is why Halloween is such a big deal here in the Goddess of Pomona's namesake.

The 200 and 300 blocks of E. Jefferson are the most heavily decorated and traveled on October 31. The houses that do not go all out end up sticking out like a sore thumb, as compared to the elaborate-wrought-iron-fenced-front-yard-cemeteries and 25-foot monsters hanging from the more spirited homes.

Our first year here, it rained on Halloween and numbers were down. We were therefore not expecting the bombardment of tricker treaters that has followed every year since. In terms of numbers, I try to keep count, but inevitably things get too chaotic and I lose count around 300. I've heard Jefferson can get around 1,000. There's typically a lot of double and triple dippers (meaning repeat customers - it's Pomona after all), so that adds to the confusion of counting.

This year I will again be scaring the spider mans and princesses of Pomona by giving out non-candy. I found individually wrapped Halloween pretzels at Costco to help do my part in reducing the level of high fructose corn syrup coursing through the veins of our Pomona kids. THE END