In Holland back in the 70s
most of the houses didn't do Halloween
so my mom would drive us around town
looking for lit lanterns in windows.
There might be three or four blocks of driving
before we spotted a Pumpkin House.
Fellow Americans or Dutch families
just being super nice.
And yes, I'll admit that I structured this
like a poem,
but really it's just a memory
I wanted to take a look at all these years later.
Enjoy your day. Enjoy your memories.
Happy Halloween!
This passage exhibits the whole gamut of emotions — nervousness, anger, sadness — yet the ridiculousness of it all left me feeling uneasy about believing in any of these emotions. Like so much of the book, there is a contrast between what is being said and what we feel.
“Outside, as a number of nervous patrolmen approached Hilarius, holding up strait jackets and billy clubs they would not need, and as three rival ambulances backed snarling up onto the lawn, jockeying for position, causing Helga Blamm between sobs to call the drivers filthy names, Oedipa spotted among searchlights and staring crowds a KCUF mobile unit, with her husband Mucho inside it, spieling into a microphone. She moseyed over past snapping flashbulbs and stuck her head in the window. ‘Hi.’”