Usual Suspect

When I was a child, I regularly had the same nightmare. I arrived at school, all my friends were wearing strange looking clothes, and I was totally nude..... The absolute horror ! I had a variation of this nightmare. Everybody was wearing regular clothes, including me, but I didn't have on my ''normal'' shoes, I was in slippers... I'm sure, with my luck, when I was a child, I would have made this mistake, and it would have been a sports-day at school...

Almost a year ago, the nightmare became a reality but with one modification, (the most important,) I wasn't naked, thankfully, for you...

Halloween ! If you live in Europe, you can't imagine the importance of this day in the USA... By the end of August, you can find all your halloween decorations in the different stores... three months before the date ! If you are a person who is panicked by deadlines, no problem, Halloween is the holiday for you, you can relax. Perhaps the stores are afraid to see a customer leaving with nothing, and disappearing on the horizon....

Why ? Why is this date so important ? I am a fan of crime novels, police movies, thrillers, or, when I am exhausted, even Colombo (it's not too difficult for my foggybrain.) I imediately pose the two important questions ? ''Cherchez la femme ?'' and ''Whodunint ?"

Having some doubt, I decide to forget about ''la femme''. I focus my mind on the tradition of halloween : The children don costumes of spider-man, pirates or witches and they make a racket around their neighborhoods for a few candies. If the costume is not scary enough to frighten people, the children do not hesitate to use threats. Trick or treat has hidden meanings ! Of course all of this is with parental approbation. The children are not alone in using disguises. The adults also dress up... and then process.... on a pub crawl ! Perhaps the adults could use the same stratagem as the children, and save themselves some money !

I scout around the streets discretely, submerging myself in the crowds while looking for a suspect... my usual suspect... After many wild goose chases and dead ends (and popping many pills for my headache,) I recognize them ; The fancydress stores, the candy factories, the dental and psychiatric offices.

One by one, I consider each motive and alibi.

The first supect, the costume store, hibernates during most of the year. Halloween has become essential for it's survival. This day is "the fix" of the book balancing. No, it's a "light-motive" !! Regretfully, my first supect is my first non-supect.

Next, the candy factory : Same motive but the music moves into a minor key. During this day the children are treated to an enormous range of new candies with legions of chemical flavorings. Perhaps they become sugar addicts for the rest of the year, increasing the profits of the candy factories... My instinct screams to me " This is too simple, the candy factories are not guilty... they are only the puppets ". But who is pulling the strings ?

My third supect is the affluent dentist. He rubs his hands in anticipation of huge cavities in baby and adult teeth. Candy is a meal ticket... So evident it must be true. However the country is littered with vending machines selling sugary-soda, in railway station, schools, movies theaters... So he doesn't need Halloween to get bucks and be scared...

So, after this reflection, my mind becomes clear, the guilty party is... Not Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with the candle stick but... the psychiatrist in the street with the candies !

Psychiatrists use Halloween to secure the loyalty of the patients starting in childhood providing years of steady income. For the children, the terrror of witches, monsters and ghouls is insidiously translated into their spirit. It's the fuel for the future nervous breakdown. In adults the tradition of the costume feeds their fears and allows the multiple personalities to flourish and fill up the pychiatrists'appointment book. Now the cherry on the cake. When the adult becomes old, all these fears are still present, and the most terrifying monster is the child on Halloween night. Indeed the old person remember his own despicable behaviour on Halloween nights when he was a child, harrassing older people and terrorising the vulnerable.

To conclude my theory, I am sure that the psychiatric's mafia rent a private town house over looking the parade to see if the year will be profitable or not...

Anyways it's a perfect day to shoot pictures with excited people happy to share the fun and show off their costumes and creations.