Happy Halloween, Grandpa

This is my grandpa, Albert Johnson. He passed away before I was born so I never met him. He was born on Halloween. No, that's not his real hair.

I never met him and yet I feel his spirit all the time. My mom tells me he would have adored my brother and I. I often wonder if his birth on Halloween is part of the reason I love this holiday so much. It has been my favorite for years as I believe you would all understand by what I have written here.

Love you Grandpa, Happy Halloween.

Oh! fruit loved of boyhood — the old days recalling,

When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling;

When wild, ugly faces we carved on its skin, Glaring out through the dark, with a candle within...

~ John Greenleaf Whittier, "The Pumpkin"