When we lived on Roosevelt Ave., my brother and I each had front windows to our sweet little ranch house. My dad had got us each a pumpkin that was flat-faced and hung in the window with a suction cup. The pumpkins smiled big from our bedroom windows as strangers drove by for a Halloween greeting. I loved how my bedroom showed an orange glow on those nights from our little glowing pumpkins in our windows. I always couldn’t wait to plug it in as night grew close.
Roosevelt gave us so many sweet memories. As Kenzy and I left Heller’s from a ladies’ fall church dinner this Monday, I said to her that I wanted to show her a friend’s house off of Marydale Ave. in a cul-de-sac on Ridgedale Ave. A friend of mine had her house all lit up with “The Nightmare Before Christmas” Halloween blow-ups. We played the song “This is Halloween” as we drove by. (The theme song to this movie.) Kenzy loved it and said it was amazing. This was the neighborhood I grew up in, so I said to her about driving around to see what we could find for a few minutes. We found another neat one with a lot of fun things to look at off Wheatland. We had to drive by twice to look at everything! Then, we slowly made our way towards Roosevelt and ended on Mill Lane, which always has some great houses lit up going up that road. Kenzy trick-or-treats at the one house on Mill Lane every year, who always goes all out. She loves walking up on their “scary porch.”
Trick-or-treating in my old neighborhood with our kids gives me nostalgia. Our neighbor Nadine Kinley always dressed up and had her landing inside her home all done up for Halloween. She had this glowing owl that hung on her railing that I had always taken a liking to. He has neon colors and has such a neat glow to him on Halloween night, even though he has no lights. My kids still love going to see Nadine and her sweet doggie, who is usually in a costume now, too.
We love trick-or-treating at Bud & Dorthy’s, the Walkers, the Frys, and so many more in our old neighborhood. Not many who lived there 30 years ago with us are still there, but there are a handful. We miss seeing the Kochers who lived straight across the road from us. Dad and Tom always had our beautiful white birch trees all lit up at the top of Roosevelt for Christmas. Then there were Bill and Cindy Peck right next door. We always stopped there to trick-or-treat, and they always greeted us with a big smile. We truly had the best neighbors. It wasn’t just Halloween that was special, but Christmastime, summertime, and all of the above. Precious memories are on that street.
Now, we didn’t want to see too much that night. Driving around to find some cool Halloween lights each year is our thing with my husband as a family, so we kept the search limited. We will hit different cities. One night, we’ll go to Southside, Williamsport and Montoursville, and another evening in Jersey Shore and Avis. Some of you really go out, and it’s quite impressive.
There’s a house in Southside that had an entire ship built in their yard with skeletons everywhere. Another house near there with so much in their yard that you have to drive by a few times to take it all in.
Another house in Montoursville sits with a huge spider web and spider off the side of their home.
Jersey Shore on Main Street, up past Erv’s Meat Market, has two good houses right across from each other, but the one house is a total walk-through. You should see the awesome setup and everything they have on their porch. Hours and hours have to go into this house. You physically get out of the car and walk through everything. It’s incredible.
Avis has another good one, and Williamsport always surprises us, too. If you do a display that you think we would want to see or know of one, email me at lifestylefitnesscoach@yahoo.com! We would love to hear about it! We may even go to the Muncy/Montgomery area this year. We have never done that. We appreciate every house that decorates, no matter how big or small.
And just to add, if you enjoy Halloween and all the lights, you definitely have to go check out Hallo-fun at Knoebels! It’s so awesome! So much to look at and see. If you aren’t big on rides, you could just do the Haunted Train or Haunted Antique cars. If you like more speed, try a rollercoaster at night pitch back. It’s wild!! They play Halloween music through the park, and have it decorated everywhere you look. We go this weekend and can hardly wait. Trust me, it’s worth the trip! Do you have a special place you look forward to seeing in October?
RIP Dirt Cake
Ingredients:
• 7 cups of cold milk
• 4 (3.4 ounces) Jell-O French Vanilla Pudding
• 2 packages of Oreo cookies, chopped up in food processor
• 1 cup butter room temperature
• 16 ounces cream cheese room temperature
• 2 cup powdered sugar
• 16 ounces cool whip, thawed in refrigerator
• Graham crackers
• Candy corn pumpkins
• Gummy worms
• Black food marker
Directions:
In a large bowl, mix pudding and milk together. Let sit until thick.
In another bowl, beat cream cheese and softened butter with a hand mixer. Beat until smooth.
Add in powdered sugar. Beat again till smooth. Then slowly add the pudding to that mix on low until mixed together.
Fold in cool whip.
Layer the cookie mix and pudding in a big bowl or trifle bowl. You can add worms in the layers too if you wish. Start with 2 cups of crushed cookies, then add pudding to cover the cookies. Repeat layers until you end the top with cookies for the dirt at the top of the bowl.
Use graham cracker to make tombstones and write fun things on them like, “Here lies your diet” or “Death by chocolate”. Have fun with it! Decorate with pumpkins, worms and anything else you can get creative with. I had so much fun with this!
