Am I just a 'Grumpy Old Woman' ?

You are a normal person in a brain addled world.

These shops are getting more and more desperate to separate us from our money.
Nothing wrong with being a 'grumpy old woman', I quite enjoy it!

I wonder why they did it yesterday and not today if they had to do it at all. I sometimes feel embarrassed on their behalf when they are "encouraged " to dress up.

Yes, no doubt, you are a grumpy woman.
Fancy meeting up with a grumpy old man ?

Halloween - Ba Humbug, another money waster from the States.

Mrs. P has persuaded me to buy some sweets for the Trick or Treaters (little does she kno about the bucket of water over the door

I used to hate dressing up in the Nursing Home at Christmas, I'm just not that sort of person!

But talking about Sainsburys. I was in our local branch yesterday, and at the checkout there was a bottle shaped notice with there words printed on it. "Lay bottles this way" with an arrow pointing in the direction they wanted the bottles.
I said to the lady on the checkout, "if I could lay a bottle, I would be clever".
I know that hens lay eggs, but people laying bottles?

THESE words.

What next? Halloween cards?

It appears to be a big business now and you will also have seen in Sainsbury's, apart from outfits for children and adults, decorations for the house and the garden.

This is supposed to be a grumpy thread but I am finding it hilarious. It's cheering me up no end, especially pompa's bucket of water and the proposed bottle-laying session in Sainsbury's!

Thanks everyone

Sorry - it should have been

Lay used as we use lie is another piece of 'immigrant' usage from the States.

I'll join the Bah Humbugs group and GOWs with regard to Hallowe'en overkill.

People talk of austerity and then we see all this money-requiring crap indication of affluence. It does make me wonder.

Pompa, I have just shared your post with DH. BIG MISTAKE. He is on a roll now, Halloween, Christmas, retail festivals........oh my poor ears

I have a Bah Humbug placard thingy that floats around the house all year, not just at unowot time. It's currently hanging next to the pooter. Does that make me a grumpy old woman? [alas, I fear it does ]....

I don't like Halloween one bit. I'm getting too old now to enjoy flying around on my broomstick entertaining spoilt children. And have you seen the price of broomstick fuel?
It's just another commercial opportunity for supermarkets to fleece us,
but I must say I don't really care if their staff dress up.

You have just given me an idea Tegan. I will buy a plain white T shirt for DH, have GD's write BAH HUMBUG with fabric pens and present this to Grampa for Christmas

I have one friend in particular that, when we greet each other at 'that' time of year always start with 'Bah Humbug'.

Halloween dressing up for adults FGS have they nothing better to do ? having said that my 73 year old sister bemoaned the fact that she couldn't purchase a Halloween card in our town centre

I was feeling decidedly grumpy trying to find a parking space in town yesterday and thought the council was wasting money stringing hallowe'en decorations across the road. Then I looked closer and spotted a snowman, lantern, Christmas pudding, reindeer.........FFS, it's still OCTOBER.....just

Can't join the GOW group. Yes, there's loads of crap that grace the shelves in an effort to part one from cash, but it's not just at Hallowe'en that this happens. I just pass on by. All the stuff is v. garish & ghoulish though which I dislike, along with the dressing up. Don't feel grumpy about it. Feel grumpy about the harrumhping.

And if I was fortunate enough to have my stateside grandchildren around at this time of year, I would be happy to buy into a bit of trash for a bit of fun - though thinking about it, I'd probably make it myself.

Halloween comes from Celtic tradition. Even trick or treating was practised in this country before it was reimported from the US.
Halloween is older than America.

I quite like Halloween although I would never dress up. I do put a pumkin outside the front door just to show that we are "Halloween friendly" and always buy heaps of sweeties for the local children. I can't see the harm in it at all.

So we spent hundreds of years trying to pass it off on someone, then we found America, hoora they wanted it, good riddance.

THEN, we go and import it back again, are we stupid or what ?

DD and a friend are holding a Halloween party this afternoon at a local hall (so there is no mess at home!). I am ambivalent about it all but, nevertheless, have been on a hunt for lychees this morning (eyeballs) and was persuaded to buy nasty things to attach to fingernails . The children are so excited about it, so no doubt I will join in as the Wicked Witch with gusto when the time comes. I am usually a GOW and if I were at home, I would be turning off the lights and pretending I was out rather than endure a stream of little visitors on the doorstep...

I think you'll find, pompa, that we kept the essence of it here, as Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Samhain and guising. It was to do with the harvest. The church took it over to encourage lots of illiterates to darken their doors. It was originally a pagan festival, much like Christmas.

Well, I'm up for it - any excuse for a party. I'm about to decorate the house with the tasteful but pricey Emma Bridgewater witches and bats I invested in last year and the huge pile of jolly Hallowe'en tat I bought yesterday in Poundland for £14 (I retired in September - taste the difference!). Then I've got two pumpkins to carve. We don't get many trick or treaters as we're off the beaten track - just the littlish ones from our street - but I'm keeping it all up as we're having the grandbabies and their oldies round on Sunday for a spooky tea.

We'll be having pumpkin and tomato soup served in a plastic cauldron, with a cream spider's web drizzled on top if my hand's steady enough, mummified frankfurters and pizzas, spider buns and gingerdeadmen, strawberries disguised as ghosts in white chocolate, banana ghouls, mini pumpkin tangerines and whatever else my devious mind can think of. I'm really looking forward to it, sad nana that I am! Oh, and I shall certainly be wearing my witch's outfit and brandishing my broomstick. I've already got the cantankerous, hissing black cat that the children know to keep well away from.

I do remember taking part in some Hallowe'en traditions back in my 60s childhood. Apple bobbing, throwing peel over your shoulder to find the initials of your true love, looking in the mirror at midnight hoping (or not) to see his face over your shoulder (gulp!). Games that involved the dark and a dead witch and passing round grapes for eyes, wool for hair etc. Carving turnips - now that was a labour of love, and the house stank for days once the candle inside had scorched the flesh. [thismile]