Autumn Lala,
Creative Writing and
English Major
“Setting up decorations at my house and buying lots of candy—and I’ll have to buy more. There’s these little ghosts that stick out of the ground. There are spider webs that are kind of like a cottony material and you spread them out over your bushes. There’s one that hangs over my mail box. I like the [fall] weather. It’s just not too hot, not too cold. [For Halloween], we’re going camping, like we do every year. We go to East Fork and they have Halloween-themed weekends—I think they have them twice a month—and we just go out to the campsite and they’ll have different kind of contests, like pumpkin carving contests. I’ve won every year I’ve entered since I was a kid. Then usually that night, you go out trick-or-treating, all the different loops, and you get a lot of candy. My last [carved] pumpkin was a cheeseburger. We glued the pumpkin seeds from the inside on the top to make it look like sesame
Ethan Hale,
Undecided Major
“I just finished up a bike ride going through Tennessee, down to see all the leaves in the mountains and everything, it was pretty nice to see. I’ve always had more of a scientific mind about it, so I like seeing how the different trees, the different species, have different times that they change, and different colors. That’s what fascinates me more than the actual changing of the leaves. I’ve been trying to go to a couple haunted houses, but I’ve been having trips and emergencies and stuff, everything happening every time I get invited to go or start making plans to go. Soon, hopefully, I’ll be going to a haunted house. I’ve never been to one, so I was thinking trying to go to Land of Illusion, which is like the six-in-one place, or there’s a couple of small mazes in Springfield where I live—we’re out in the country so you get farmers that do that. . . I like fall, but it just starts getting cold and you just can’t do as much.”
Nolan Couch,
Paralegal Major
“I mean I’m kind of into sports. Football started, I’m watching a lot of the baseball playoffs right now, there’s a lot of pumpkin-related stuff going on, I’m going to a bonfire Saturday, I’m carving pumpkins in a couple weeks. That’s kind of what I do, just enjoy the new change of season, watch the new sports that are going on, watch the end of baseball. I would consider [sports to be a part of] fall. I [will be] carving pumpkins. Other than that, there’s not really much I’m doing to get in the Halloween spirit. I’m not planning on going to any parties or anything. The only thing I plan on doing on Halloween is sitting out on my porch and just enjoying the day off. I live in a townhouse complex, so I’ve never had [trick-or-treaters] come to the door anyway. If I did, I wouldn’t even have the candy.”
Joe Sjoberg,
Applied Math Major
“My favorite thing about fall is the cool weather, most definitely. I love fall evenings, I love bonfires. In the summer, if you are sitting outside at a bonfire, it’s very hot. I was actually at a bonfire last night—I hate the campfire smell though, because it stays with you for hours and days and weeks. I like scarves too, which is kind of odd, but I like [them]. I like hot chocolate and coffee, especially in the cold weather. I don’t think I’m doing anything differently actually to get into the fall spirit. My family never traditionally did anything for Halloween, we just never did. I did go to an event one time, and I dressed up as Dr. Who. I actually am going to an event in a couple weeks, and I need to dress up in another costume. I don’t know what I want to choose yet. I do know I still have the Dr. Who one in the closet, so I can get that one out if I want to, but I’m thinking about it. It’s still a ways away. I think my favorite thing about Halloween is definitely the costumes, because it’s really an opportunity for people to be creative.”
Maggie Stacey
Reporter