“The farther we’ve gotten from the magic and mystery of our past, the more we’ve come to need Halloween.”
—Paula Curan
The countdown to Halloween this weekend is getting shorter. As you approach the stoplight that marks the entrance to downtown Saratoga there is a large black sign with gold lettering that says: "Welcome to Historic Saratoga Village EST 1848.”
On either side of the sign are a colorful stuffed character. To get into the Halloween spirit each year downtown merchants place a character outside their shop that best describes what they are selling. Cecile and I like to have lunch and walk off our meal by pausing at each establishment on Big Basin Way and take a photo of each of some of the characters. One of our favorites are the four creative stuffed characters in front of the Gilbert Dupont Salon doing whimsical yoga headstands. Others that we like are firemen, an astronaut, and the bee keeper.
The other photos were taken at the Queens Saratoga Pumpkin Patch, a one acre lot that features a petting zoo, a cow train, a boat ride on a large plastic inflatable pool, pumpkins of all sizes for sale, a gift shop, all sorts of stuffed animals, and colorful painted murals on wood of the likes of Homer Simpson and a variety of other cartoon characters.
It has been a great fall tradition for over 30 years. We used to take our kids to visit here, buy pumpkins and get them ready to carve their jack-o’ lanterns. This year we took our granddaughter Lyla here after preschool to keep the tradition. The patch is favored by Halloween enthusiasts who love to decorate their homes for the season. The pumpkins are locally grown including by growers in Half Moon Bay. Bales of hay, corn and gourds are also for sale. Our favorite photos are of our granddaughters Lyla and Emmy with our daughter Michelle and of Kyle with them on their outing to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch in San Jose.
Happy Halloween to family and friends near and far.
