La Bella and I went to see Shrek the Musical last night. It was great fun. La Bella is entitled to go into the special room for serious patrons, and I got to go with her. They gave us wine and ice cream bars (not at the same time) and we hung out amid the spider webs and hanging bats and had a good time.
The show was amusing — silly, but well done.There is a puppet dragon big enough that it takes half a dozen people to control it, and a wonderful big voice. The songs weren’t really memorable or catchy — I doubt that any of them will have a life beyond the show. The staging was nice, though, and the sets and costumes were cute.
La Bella was amazed at how good all the children were. I wasn’t amazed, because I always took my kids out in public when they were small, and they were very good. I think that most kids want to be good and will cooperate if you treat them sensibly.
Hallowe’en slipped past quietly. We had class, without any particular fuss over the holiday, and I worked all day. We had a couple of families for Trick or Treat and I went to choir, where the director mentioned Reformation Day and quite a few people were missing.
By the time I got home, it was too late to watch the spooky movies I had gotten for the kids and never gotten around to watching.
Hallowe’en used to be a lot of fun. When we were kids of course we got to roam far and wide in packs filling our bags with candy, dressed as gypsies and princesses and things like that. Later, Hallowe’en was a major party day. It’s commonly said that girls take this day as an excuse to look slutty without taking responsibility for it, but I think that there was a feeling of being outside of normal time, an air of freedom because we were in costume. Maybe that’s the same thing.
Later, with my children and other people’s children, we got back to that playfulness, the excitement of being given unlimited amounts of candy and rushing about in costumes (which may not be so far from dressing up in lurex) mixed with the “awwww” cuteness of little children in costume.
Now I suppose I’ve grown out of it entirely. Perhaps someday I’ll rediscover it again with grandchildren or something.