Dear Shirley,
October is getting scarier and scarier, earlier and earlier. There are ghosts and goblins all around here when it gets dark. And Halloween is still more than two weeks away.
I was just reading about the Haunted Lab that looms again out on the fourth floor of O'Kelly Hall on the UND campus. The Forensic Science Club will be frightening people on Friday Oct. 21 and on Halloween, Oct. 31. These students are ready for a fresh round of screams, gore and scary darkness.
All this horror will be available for $5. Except for late night. Then you can get scared out of your shoes for $2.
I see they are offering soft scares and hard scares beginning this weekend over by Red Lake Falls, Minn. I guess there is a place called Haunted Woods and they say to "come if you dare."
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If you want to try it, Shirley, you can find out more on their Facebook page. But then, you probably have plenty of things that scare you to death right down there in Tucson.
The Myra Museum and all the buildings around it will be decked out for Halloween, too. The grounds of the Grand Forks Historical Society get scarier every year. They'll have a night for kids and another night for adults with strong hearts.
We're into the leaf raking mode around Grand Forks this week. The city crews will be around with their enormous machine that swallows leaves. It needs no salad dressing. It just keeps going.
I am hoping the cold weather holds off until all the leaves are down. Some of those trees like to hold on longer and not undress for a couple more weeks.
I wish you could have been here in Grand Forks to go with me to the play "Time Stands Still." It's at the UND Burtness lab theater this week. It is a show that makes you stop and think what is really important in life. There's a very strong cast of four - Emily Hogenson, Nick McConnell, Jordan Wolfe and Daniella Lima. Lima was especially delightful in her role.
I guess Susan Oltmanns Koozin is blazing a trail in theater in Houston, Shirley. She is the daughter of Ron Oltmanns who used to teach here in Grand Forks.
A critic for the Houston Chronicle wrote after the opening Saturday: "Susan Koozin is so blindingly brilliant in Stages Repertory Theatre's 'The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead' and so perfectly and completely inhabits seven distinct characters in this story of life that we forget it is her. This is the must-see play of the millennium."
Ron sent the review on to friends here. Though he now lives in Las Vegas, he is down there in Texas this week busting the buttons off his suit coat.
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Do you still get to the plays in Tucson? I like to go to all I can manage to around here. We both agree that seeing live people on stage is far more appealing than watching a screen.
Love from your sister Marilyn wondering how many thousand leaves are on that big elm tree in my back yard...and when they will come floating down.
P.S. I made it through my job as a judge with Police Chief John Packett at the Circle of Friends Humane Society Sunday. It was the All 4 Fun Festival. We chose a dog named Daisy Mae for the best costume. Fancy looked most like the owner. Lizzy did the best trick. Zeke was the cutest dog. Josie was the best tail wager. We chose Jigg and Lacy as the most disobedient dogs among the 40 contestants. The owner laughed and said, "Oh, how embarrassing."
One dog was running around wearing a John Deere cap, Shirley. There was a Great Pyrenees dog that weighs about 150 pounds and has long white hair. The owner is Nickala Squire of Grand Forks. She wants to go into the study of animal behavior and have a career with dogs.
I left Dot.Com at home for fear she would be the most rambunctious dog out there. I was amazed at the well trained dogs displayed by the Grand Forks Kennel Club.
Reach Marilyn Hagerty at mhagerty@gra.midco.net or at (701) 772-1055.
