Girls Only weekend ...

Marlene Terry

Gearing up for it as we speak.

In a few short weeks my girls (daughters, daughter-in-law and granddaughters) will travel south to Salt Lake City, on a "girls-only weekend (GOW)."

This will be our second trip. And I fully expect it will be filled with enough stories to keep us talking until it repeats in another few years.

The last time, we arrived there with the first snowstorm of the season. It was just mid-October, but the snow put us all in a festive mood and had us thinking about the "holidays ahead."

I'm pretty sure we'll visit Gardner Village again, a unique shopping complex that utilizes the olden days homes and the homestead of a pioneer family of the same name.

If you like heirloom items and things of a "country" nature, you can be sure Gardner's Village will deliver. But the best part will be the decorations that, for our weekend, will be in the colors of fall and especially Halloween.

Nothing sinister at all there, but you can count on a fun time for kids of all ages, who as pretend ghosts, goblins and especially witches are invited to come in costume and participate in a variety of "never done that before" activities.

I still smile with memories of our last GOW, when getting into the spirit of things at the village meant that Lora (the head witch in our family) would enter the cackling contest. ... She practiced during the day in one shop after another and had more than one prospective audience member laughing (cackling).

... Lor is a great cackler. Comes from the practice she got being a witch, complete with a broom up on our roof every October. It was always to the delight of hundreds (really) of trick-or-treaters who after the word got out, were anxious to brave the dark and the long scary walk down our country lane just to see what other characters and monsters were lurking there.

Halloween became a family project for us that multiplied greatly in fun over the years. In fact, we maintained a lengthy waiting list containing names of several neighbor kids who wanted to join the cast of The Grime Reaper, mummies, several witches, vampires, ghouls and I think we even had a few ninjas participate from time to time.

... Suffice it to say, cackling was a given.

Our GOW event never fails to bring back those good memories and create many more!

... Now all I have to do is find my floppy black hat, stripped bloomers ... and my camera, of course!  

♦ Hope you'll let me share your stories and photos here at my new residence "In a Nutshell." Email me at nutshellstories@gmail.com.