Tag Archives: Mirth and Musings

by

Mirth and Musings Part 14 – Love Boney Bunch Love

bony bunch collection

“The Incredible Mr. Bones and the Boney Bunch”

Click pic to visit site.

August.  While I realize that the Autumnal Equinox isn’t until September 22nd, making that first day of Fall weeks off, I do appreciate feeling like August is the pre-season.  I am starting to see it creeping into shops, into stalls, into consciousness.  The retail scope of the holiday merely allows us to view it that much sooner – but there is a collective audience standing in the shadows waiting for the curtain to draw up entirely on our beloved time of the year.   I applaud those few of you out there standing with us but are stand-outs too – Pumpkinrot of course, and if you are reading this, in this most obscure and little known of blogs, you’ll know who I mean.  But there is another, Boney Bunch Love, a Facebook entity who has established an amazing site for this “niche within the niche” of skeletal spectacle from Yankee Candle which I fear may be on the decline.  I have been following the page for years now, lurking as I do, have posted a poem in my original post from September 2013, and I am constantly surprised and delighted by the originality, the dedication, the friendliness of the page and it has been and I hope will continue to be a touchstone for staying connected to at least one aspect of our Season annually.  If you haven’t heard of the Boney Bunch, which launched in 2008, visit the page and spend a little time with it and you will gain an understanding past my ability to impart here.  The 2016 line is due in stores on August 27, and is always much anticipated by its ardent fan base.  It’s never too late to join the party, as Boneys past, present and future are always of much interest.  Hope to see you in line in front of your local YC store.  The door is opening, slowed by creaking hinges, but beyond lay delights and devilry, bonfires and beasties, mist and magic.  Forward!

Shall I tell you a tale of why I love so much
these black and orange figurines called the Boney Bunch?
They show up every August to herald Halloween
Their Boney faces grinning wide as they appear on scene.
Boney Sir presenting Boney Bride her spider ring
Charon Boney in his boat dead and ferrying
Gypsy Boney gazing deeply into her sparkling globe
Reaper Boney keeping time with his scythe and robe
Headless horseman Boney riding hard on english saddle
Baby Buggy Boney making ruckus with his rattle
Lady Boney prim beneath her spider parasol
A juggling Mr Bonehead with his top hat very tall
Eternal Slumber Boneys read as off to sleep they drift
Bobbing apples Boney using his peculiar gift
Organ player Boney playing organ tunes to fright
Submariner Boney floating by with his flashing lights
Witchy Boney on her broom, hat adorned with spider
and Monster Bride waves “hello”, with her Frank beside her
So why do I love Boneys? The answer seems so clear
I love that they remind me of Halloween throughout the year!

– A.E.

by

Mirth and Musings Part 13

charlie-brown-5-800

I bid you all a wonderful, magical, terrifying, spooky, surprising, delectable, beguiling, bewitching, shivers down your spine All Hallows Eve!  Hope at the end of it you all get what you were hoping for, with a fair share of surprises along the way.  No haunt for me this year, finances prevented, but for the first time in years I am out and about.  Trying new things can be exciting, though I admit to some trepidation as I venture beyond the yard.  I will miss the doorbells and knocks, the shrieks and costume parade.  As the curtain rises on all the hard work of you Haunters out there I will light candles (placed inside pumpkins) to your diligence, creativity, and perseverance.    I applaud you all and wish you well.  See you on the other side.

by

Mirth and Musings Part 12 – Waxing Nostalgic

charles-e-martin-the-new-yorker-cover-october-26-1968

Going to age myself a bit here, but couldn’t help it.  While sorting through my TNY  collection this Charles E. Martin cover made me smile wistfully as I remembered something from my childhood; something I couldn’t wait for when school days began in September as Halloween usually prompted the first one of the year.  The classroom party.  The chalkboard covered with the list of necessaries for a decent shindig and Mrs. Gresham or Mr. Argast signing up kids next to each one, invariably the “paper plates and napkins” and “cups” would go to that same kid in the front row whose arm would shoot up the moment the teacher asked.  I don’t know, maybe he was baking challenged.  The rest of us divvied up the cookies, brownies, other varied treats of no name, bottles of pop, etc for the Friday party. I remember classroom games, like heads up seven up and chalkboard hangman.  I remember a parade of students walking around the quad proudly displaying homemade costuming.  Teachers dressed as their alter egos (or true natures) best suggested.  Trick or treating room to room with each classroom decked out along its own theme.  The truncated lessons to make time to just enjoy the holiday undiminished by political correctness.  Madcap and mayhem would eventually ensue in the sugar tide, everyone going home clutching a paper plate with various goodies to enjoy over the weekend shared with family, if they survived the bus ride or walk home that is.

by

Mirth and Musings Part 11

A lovely New Yorker cover from my collection. Edna Eicke has captured a wonderful moment.  Everything the night should be, the “ghosts” peering through the gate to judge if the walk is worth the risk.  I think the lighted windows highlighting the porch seal the deal.  I love the importance of the porch, the threshold, the approach to the door.  So much anticipation, exhilaration, consternation.  You get it.  Sometimes with haunters its meant to be a very long walk, even when its a hop, skip and jump to the door from the sidewalk.  Like running the bases through a gauntlet, real or imagined.  With only the thought of reaching the porch, the door, safety always to be found at home, even if for just a moment, someone else’s.  A lovely tradition I think.  Thanksgiving has the turkey shared with family and friends, Christmas gets the tree with thoughtful gifts to be given out amongst nearest and dearest.  On Halloween we invite neighbors and strangers alike to our doors.  We wait upon the knock, the doorbell, we pause and savor the shrieks and hesitant approach of children and adults through the keyhole or from between the blinds.  The magical ‘say “trick or treat!” and enter’ that signals a kindred spirit whereupon we open our doors and distribute rewards for stopping by.  Simply marvelous.

NYH

by

Mirth and Musings Part 10

100th Post! For you all out there thank you! Hope you will all hang in there with me through the months ahead.
Serious withdrawals this week. Its now 320 days until Halloween 2014.
While I don’t plan on posting a running countdown, I can’t help but look around at all the red and green and cast my mind back to just a short while ago when orange and purple and acid green were the colors of the day. To be honest, I still have my orange and black lights up (inside my dining room), along with a few other Halloween decorations I couldn’t bring myself to take down, yet. I’ve a couple of weeks, right? Anyway – as I un-bubblewrap ornaments from years past I pause and reflect just why I try to drag it all out as far as I can, simply the place never feels so cozy than in the Fall and I try to keep that going well into Winter. When it is mostly packed up and the upcoming holidays firmly take over, I still long for and compare subsequent manifestations of my homes decor to those three months in Autumn, the highlight of the year. Time to start planning. Really never too early, I think. Themes and plans and lofty goals. Looking forward.
Here is another lovely New Yorker cover, the intense orange is simply wonderful.

New Yorker Magazine, Kovarsky, 1961
169319

by

Mirth and Musings Part 9

The holiday season provides ample opportunities for socializing amongst family and friends, coworkers, club members, and others and I look forward to such occasions with heady anticipation.  I’m usually a homebody, so this time of year is nice to step out and experience the excitement and expectations in the wind up to the big day and New Year beyond.  I hum carols to myself as I get ready to attend an event, package goodies to deliver as host gifts, wrap small gifts for friends I won’t see at the end of the month.  There is much that is undergoing change at present and just now it feels the time will slow briefly so that we can savor the season, I hope that you all find a little downtime to do just that.  Between parties, of course.

The New Yorker Magazine, Charles Addams, 1987
6a00e54efdf1128833017c32b2147c970b

 

by

Mirth and Musings Part 7

The weather here on the west coast is definitely Fall-like at last, chill temperatures and brisk gusts of wind remind me of why I prefer this time of year.  Time to break out the scarves and mittens, flannels and fuzzy slippers.  Just to make cozying up that much more enjoyable.  The approaching Thanksgiving holiday makes me pause and reflect, as I still see pumpkins decorating porches and sills and tabletops.  We always save one or two from October to enjoy through November – a bright orange reminder – it’s interesting how the pumpkin, the idea of it, transitions from the herald of giving treats to the herald of giving thanks.  Many of us will close the holiday with that slice of spicy sweetness.  It’s a fitting way to bookend Autumn. Enjoy this New Yorker cover from 1973, a house simply celebrating the season.

New Yorker Magazine, Stevenson, 1973

whitehaunthouseNYC

by

Mirth and Musings Part 6

13 days past Halloween and I’ve decided it all went way too fast.  The outside decor has been removed and the interiors are nearly back to pre-Halloween state.  Though not entirely as there are some aspects of the interiors that I liked too much to take down.  I maintain the house never looks so well than it does in October.  In any case the neighborhoods have begun to transition towards the next holiday season and soon Thanksgiving will be here. The color palette is still where I like it to be, greens and oranges well represented and Fall weather steady even for the West Coast. Everywhere I look I still keep an eye out for those hidden Halloween touches still peeking out from behind other decor, always so exciting when spotted. Holdovers and clearance tables. Or just avid conspirators like myself determined to keep it going as long as possible. I often look to collections around the house to inspire me – like my New Yorker Magazine covers. I’ll highlight others in coming weeks, but here is the first I framed and its still my favorite. She is obviously getting ready for a big night out.  It keeps me smiling and looking forward.

Artist Abe Birnbaum, 1967
147892

by

Mirth and Musings Part 5

I hope that everyone had a Halloween filled with rare wonders and spooky spectacles. Professor Auds and Doctor Enns Malevolent Mercantile was a big hit, we had visitors from as far away as Connecticut and enjoyed folks coming right in and looking over the rooms that were decorated for our shoppe concept. Photo ops were high and we were really excited by the turnout this year, the neighborhood was lively with great displays and one of our neighbors was handing out bbq hot dogs to the parents! The weather was what you hope for, crisp, clear, just a hint of breeze (helps with candle flicker). Our “Party” was last night and its nice as a kind of dry run for the Big Night. Many thanks to all who support and assist. Hope all you Haunters out there had equally splendid evenings.
I look up and down our street, the porches have gone dark, the jackos have been pulled in, so far I’ve resisted the leftover candy. That good kind of exhaustion is settling in. 2013 a very good season. We had a skeleton theme to support the Malevolent Mercantile concept based on a weathervane designed by the great Edward Gorey. I received one for my birthday last year and it was our mascot of sorts. I wrote this in honor of that, and I post it here to close out Halloween 2013. (Pics and vids to follow in coming days). Into the Cauldron will continue throughout the year so I hope you keep coming back.

Twilight heralds the coming Eve
and hastens Spirits to reprieve
as boney denizens take flight
Along the Currents they alight
Above the cloudveil of the skies
that masks Their path from gazing eyes
On whirlwinds They softly drift
Exulting in this yearly gift
If clustered cloud should clear a view
And chance should cast your eye on through
Perhaps you’ll glimpse Their spectral trail
Outlined by Moon set low and pale
And should you happen to espy
These knobby specters gliding by
Don’t wonder why They’ve passed the Gate
’tis Halloween They celebrate
They’ll skim the coasts and float o’er hills
Defiant in Their ardent wills
They’ll fright the throng, a fitting task
Down lanes bedecked with mischief’s mask
This flight, this dance, this soulful weave
This Queen of Nights – this Hallow’s Eve!

A. E.
Skeleton Flight