I want to shout out to all those who still do honor and celebrate Halloween in Oak Bluffs, which has become a ghost town (pardon the pun) due to the exodus to Vineyard Haven. I have unknowingly participated in the abandonment of Oak Bluffs, having accepted the invitation to help lead the Halloween parades with my friend and fellow performer Bella (who has been faithfully, a resident of Vineyard Haven for several years now).

I’m not sure who sponsors this event but I know I have never seen a red cent from the work I have put into it and I am feeling like a total defector all of a sudden. A traitor. Never did I think for an instant I would be contributing to the downfall of one of the most wonderful opportunities for kids to dress up and act “as if” in my own home town.

I remember the days where all of Vineyard avenue was ablaze with ghosts and goblin sound effects and moving skeletons rising from front yard graves.

If I am to do volunteer work again this year as Coco the skating clown, I want it to be for Oak Bluffs and to its own townspeople’s benefit. The commercial community in Vineyard Haven that hands out candy by the bucketful to children with their families in tow are surely amused by the parading of young folk in costume, reveling in the candy. But are we not missing the point? We are encouraging the “more is better” adage while the whole concept of Halloween is being lost at home. (Just how much candy can a child consume anyway?)

Where did the days of attempting to make your house look frightfully haunted to scare off the evil spirits knocking at your door on All Hallow’s Eve in Oak Bluffs go? To Vineyard Haven. When did carving pumpkins become obsolete?

Let’s get back to basics and honor the traditions that have kept our community alive and vibrant for centuries.

In that spirit, I offer up the following poem.

•

For those who miss
An old-fashioned Halloween
I dare you to scream
BOO HOO!

Where are the pumpkins
Carved in candlelight?
Where are the spiders
We saw with such fright!?

Show all the kids
What it’s really about
Show us the vampires
In streets of Oak Bluffs

Haunting our neighborhoods
Giving a scare
To those who will venture
To those who will dare

Show up for old ladies
And toddlers too
Waiting there patiently
Just for you!

How scary can you be?
Creatively....
Remember all Vineyard avenue’s
Cemeteries?

Corinne de Langavant (a.k.a. Coco the clown)
Oak Bluffs