I know Halloween does not have much to do with Conservation, but what I saw the other night was inspiring, and relevant to this dialogue.
A friend of ours in Town sets up his house every Halloween with a graveyard, and flying ghosts, and magically opening gates, and a gorilla in the shadows. Every year it gets more elaborate. We go every year to watch the fun, and this year, it was an astounding spectacle.
Hundreds and hundreds, if not a thousand kids showed up at the house, most with their parents. It was a mild night, and folks were having a blast, outdoors, their imaginations running full tilt.
Especially fun was the local school assistant head dressed up as a ghoul chasing his eighth grade students with a running chainsaw (sans chain). The guy in the gorilla suit scared a few too. Little kids were subjected to less shocking things, and were loving it, outdoors.Older kids were taking turns making the ghosts fly down a long fishline, and other scary tasks, so everyone was had a role and was engaged. It really was something to see.
There was no tv, no computers, no Gameboys, no X-boxes. I suspects at that moment, any one of those kids would have rid themselves of any of those things in exchange for this much fun.
It hit me hard that if we could have activities like this Halloween night once a week, where kids were outside, with their friends and parents, using their imaginations, we would be making some progress.
