For me, as a kid, the start of October immediately ushered in Hallowe’en vibes. Autumn meant chilly mornings waiting for the bus, dried cornstalks fluttering in the neighbour’s field, and rusty leaves covered with a silver sheen of frost. At school, construction-paper jack-o-lanterns and crouching black cats began to appear on classroom windows. We learned songs about witches and broomsticks, and pumpkins on a fence. This was long before the days of Pinterest and pumpkin spice lattes.
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Trick-or-treating was a challenge in our rural area; houses were too far apart to go door to door. On Hallowe’en night, my dad would tumble a bunch of neighbourhood kids into the back of his Ford Bronco with the tailgate down, and we’d hang on to each other and our candy as the truck lurched slowly up and down driveways and corduroy roads. We could never get away with that in today’s world!
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October has never stopped feeling like that for me. It’s still delightfully full of spooky promise, changing leaves, and the witchy comfort of black and orange. But as I’ve gotten older, the treats are a little different, and I don’t mind that one bit.
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Laurentian Chief makes sheepskin-lined moccasin slippers in deep chocolate brown, as sweet as any Hallowe’en candy bar. Hand-crafted in Canada from luxury moose hide and genuine shearling, they feel incredible to wear — soft, yet durable. The velvety suede outsole allows me to pad around the house in comfort and peace as I savour the last golden weeks before winter.
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