When decorations get disturbing

/ Jeff Cann

Susan walked in our house last night, pissed. “That house around the corner with all the body bags in their Halloween graveyard now has a girl hanging from a tree. Hanging! Like a suicide or a lynching.”

“Maybe they’re going for a gallows scene?” I tried to lighten the conversation. God, she was pissed.

Running out for a carton of half and half this morning, I drove by. I’m not sure what they are going for. There isn’t an obvious rope that I saw, so not clearly a hanging. I think the girl, by the looks of her, ten to twelve years old, long red hair, skinny as a rail, is hanging by string, but clearly by her neck. Her head cocks at an awkward angle, the rest of her body, limp and lifeless, like a dummy or a corpse, dangles straight down. Maybe she’s supposed to be levitating like Regan in The Exorcist.

Some people take Halloween too far. Decades ago, pre-kids and living in Washington DC, Susan and I went running on Halloween night. Living in a city, it can be tricky to find a safe and relaxing place to run, especially at night. We lived two miles away from the C&O canal—a 184-mile body of water adjacent to the Potomac River. It begins in Cumberland, Maryland near the western edge of the state and terminates in DC. Except for the half mile or so that extends into the swanky Georgetown neighborhood on the western side of the city, the canal is accompanied by a wide dirt path popular with runners, bikers and walkers.

On rare occasions, Susan and I would head to the canal for a nighttime run. On this night, equipped with flashlights, we ran out of the city on the desolate path, leaving the DC hubbub behind. The only remaining sounds were our huffing frosted breaths and an occasional car whining by on canal road fifty yards to the north. As we reached our turnaround point, something white caught our light beams ahead on the edge of the path.

We ran the extra forty yards and came upon a white cross hammered into the ground. At the intersection of the boards, someone had dolloped on a healthy, dripping splash of blood-red paint(?). A black and white photograph of a child was stuck in the center of the paint. After a gasp, a chill, and quick survey of the shadows surrounding us, Susan and I ran the thirty minutes back to our car. Every fifteen seconds, we looked over our shoulders to make sure no knife-wielding psychopaths stalked us.

A year later, as new homeowners, I hoped to impress our neighbors with inventive Halloween decorations. I mimicked the cross motif using red spray paint and photos torn from magazines, and I mounded leaves in front of the crosses like freshly buried graves. A few nights before Halloween, my neighbor Kevin, a serious, middle-aged dad with two preteen children knocked on my door. “Hey Jeff, those are some really scary Halloween decorations.” Instead of recognizing this as an admonishment, I took it as a compliment. On Halloween night, I relished in the droves of teenagers who stopped by for candy certain that we would be one of the good houses.

I stored those crosses in our attic for the rest of the year. Every time I climbed up there to retrieve some needed item, a glimpse of those creepy crosses leaning against the wall in the dim light caused my neck hair to stand on end. Slowly, across the course of the year, I began to understand the point Kevin was trying to make.

Maybe my neighbors with the hanging girl—who, like us all those years ago, just recently moved in—are zealous and overeager to make an impression. Maybe they’re clueless. Maybe they’re uncaring and meanspirited people. Regardless, I can’t believe there won’t be people other than Susan offended by their hanging girl, especially people who may have lost a loved one to suicide.

I thought about it this morning while I lay in bed. I decided that I won’t be like Kevin and say something to my neighbors. I sometimes express myself in ways that could be deemed offensive, and my neighbors should be granted the same privilege. But Susan is right, that decoration is pretty F***ed up.

Edited: Oops, never mind. My son Eli just showed me that it’s a scene from the TV show Stranger Things. Of course, if you haven’t watched that show, it’s just a girl hanging from a tree.

Photo by Charles Parker from Pexels

28 thoughts on “When decorations get disturbing”

    • I feel like the big shift to horror started with the Halloween movie franchise around 1980. Regarding candy, I’m 61, as far back as *I* can remember, Halloween has always been about candy at least in the US. Did you grow up with other traditions?

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      • I’m a history buff. Long ago, people wore costumes to ward off evil spirits and they used to welcome the return of the souls of the dead, including catching up relatives long gone on recent news. Now, hundreds of years later, it’s too bad that we don’t think of Halloween as a time to reconnect with our late relatives to even say a quick hello.

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  2. Like the C&O Canal, I began in Cumberland, Maryland. My hometown is so seldom mentioned anywhere, I’m always surprised to see it.

    Is there just something in human beings that craves the macabre? Or in some human beings? Something that delights in violence and victimization? I don’t know. As I get older, I have less and less tolerance for violence in movies. I still like a good horror movie, though.

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    • I’ve spent countless hours on the C&O canal including a bike ride from Cumberland to DC. I actually think about your hometown a good bit in relation to the canal. When it comes to horror movies, I’m the biggest wimp alive. They scare the crap out of me and then I think about them in the middle of the night for years hence.

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  3. Daughter, who was born on a Friday 13th, LOVES Halloween for the spooky decorations. We have the cheesy kind tho. Stuff like motion-activated skeleton and ghouls, a blow-up ghost, fog machine… Those kinds of decorations are fun, imo. The one’s that are a little too realistic… not so fun.

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  4. I can’t remember Halloween decorations being a thing in Australia much before the turn of this century. They still only appear in patches and the practice of Trick or Treat never caught on, at least not around Greater Dandenong. That Dandenong/ Springvale is one of the most diverse municipalities in the world might help to explain low decoration and begging rates.
    I reckon very few parents think it’s sensible to send kids out begging for lollies. Dress-up parties at home may be more common.
    The tawdry nature of the commercial kit sold at Coles and Woolies supermarkets might also help to explain why so few bother.
    ~
    I wonder if anyone improvises?
    I’ll keep my eyes open today, especially in ritzy inner city Hawthorn when I visit No. 2 son.
    I’ll be genuinely surprised to see anything like what you describe.

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  6. Great post Jeff! Halloween seems an invitation for people to bring out parts of themselves and their tastes they normally don’t, doesn’t it? For better or for ill. I remember a friend of mine and housemate dressed up as a woman and then changed genders about 5 years later. Maybe there’s a seed of something wanting to be said in those expressions. Maybe it’s just F-Ed up like you say.

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  7. as much as i’m sorry to hear that susan was offended by the halloween decorations, i do not think people should have to “worry” about offending individuals with their decorating themes (aside from hate speech items– i don’t condone that). it reminds me of when a friend’s daughter was killed in a car accident (tragic, yes) right before she moved into her college dorm, and my friend expected everyone to quit talking about their own children’s college experiences. not only that, but my friend would complain how inappropriate it was that they were invited to their neice’s baby shower or nephew’s wedding since their own daughter was robbed of ever having these “firsts.” idk, the world does not stop in times of grief, loss, suicides, murders, etc. We cannot save everyone from feeling their feelings– and i’m not even certain that everyone would want us to stop our celebrations and decorating events.

    but i get it, poor taste. (can’t save the world from that either!) ❤

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    • I generally agree with you, but I do think a hung child crosses a line. Of course, this was actually a pretty well recreated scene from a popular tv show, so it’s really just all a big misunderstanding. And an opportunity to write about that creepy cross we found in the park. Horrible about your friend’s loss. It would be very hard to see her peers hitting those milestones, but everyone can’t just stop living their life because someone died. I used to follow a lot of autism blogs (when I was still trying to figure out what my problem was). I sometime felt bad writing about my children’s milestones when other peoples kids we just trying to master potty training at advanced ages. But you can’t edit yourself all the time.

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  8. Since your post, I’ve kept my eyes peeled for Halloween decorations as I drive around Melbourne.
    They are fairly rare, except perhaps in older areas where the past residents have now mainly been replaced by reasonably wealthy younger families.
    (Is that somewhat ironic?)

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  9. Fantastic post, Jeff! Doesn’t Halloween appear to be an opportunity for individuals to show off aspects of themselves and their preferences that they wouldn’t typically show off? For the better or worse. My flatmate and buddy disguised up as a woman, and around five years later, they changed their gender. Those phrases could have a kernel of something that needs to be spoken. Perhaps it’s simply as you say—F-Ed up.

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    • My house has historically made a really big deal out of halloween. In fact while I still drank, I listed it as my favorite holiday because I’d bundle up, sit on the porch with a glass of wine and enjoy the parade of goblins and superheros. Now that my kids are adults (just this past year), it’s the first time we didn’t go all out with decorations. It really is a great holiday and it lets creative people express themselves and entertain their neighbors. Thanks for stopping by to read and comment.

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