Suburban Lament

As a resident and elected official I am going to have to enter a twelve step program to manage my disinterest in Halloween. (or as is understood around here- our zip code's Christmas.) I won't bore you with the complete list of offerings including historic properties staging spooky events, a famous story read in a famous church, a Village-sponsored haunted hayride through a landmark cemetery along with an eager coterie of public employees (police and dpw) who are pleased to be on the receiving end of a ton of overtime (thankfully mostly paid by the event operators) and this year's delivery of good weather brought a new level of satisfaction to all involved. I hate driving to town on any weekend in October because there are sure to be traffic jams and I hate all the people wandering around taking the same predictable photos in front of our landmarks- documenting their visit to Sleepy Hollow.

I probably sound cynical, and I am. It's taken most of the pleasure I once found in October and replaced it with carloads of tourists- not my favorite form of revenue creation. But, the Legend goes hand in hand with living here. Luckily, when Halloween finally arrives, the trick or treaters make up for the onslaught of hype.