Today is halloween, and this is my second time for the holiday in a retirement village.  I think, remembering last year that I have carried over to my retirement years the same slight dislike for halloween.  There is something about it that bothers me.  Perhaps it is the idea of having kids out in the community begging for treats that bothers me.  Perhaps it is the emphasis on pleasurable eating of the sweet candy that turns me off.  Anyway, it is clear that I am almost alone in my dislike of the holiday because the run-up to the day found people, old people like me, expressing excitement for the season.  Paradise Village was covered with reminders of death and goblins... bare bones on walls... pumpkins all over the place with painted faces on them.  At lunch today all the serving staff wore costumes.  I admit that they were cute... and it was clear that they were having fun.  In the middle of the afternoon the community had a costume competition.  Actually there were two competitions: The first one included residents who were dressed in costumes, and the second one was staff.  I didn't wear a costume, and I was relieved to see that many other residents didn't "dress up."  The winner of the residents' competition was a good friend of mine, someone whom I respect.  He was Charlie Chaplin.  Ben Taylor makes a very good Charlie Chaplin.  The staff were dressed beautifully and creatively.  The executive director of the village was a dinosaur... a perfect dinosaur.  Anyway... I won't come dressed up next year, but I'll come to the event feeling glad to be there... and glad some old people have an appropriate sense of humor... and I was completely convinced that I have been wrong to think the holiday is silly when I saw  one of the chefs dressed in a pilot's outfit... and the young women who serves coffee in the morning had painted her face and dressed like a performer... and the receptionist was "Rosie the Riveter"...  And the dinosaur was the perfect costume for a very serious man.