Halloween is right around the corner here in the U.S. What’s not to love about a holiday that includes costumes and snacks?! What makes you think of October? Caramel apples? Popcorn balls? Pumpkin spice, right? Not me. Mold, not pumpkin spice.
When I was a preschooler, my older cousin and his wonderful girlfriend took me to my first haunted house at a carnival. I don’t remember too much because every time something scary popped up, they covered me protectively. (Incidentally, I suspect they covered my eyes every time they wanted to kiss as well. For years, I wondered what was so scary in the Tunnel of Love. It seemed much worse than the haunted house. I saw almost none of it.) Since I saw so little of the haunted house, my strongest impressions came from other senses. I remember the air felt humid and there was a distinct smell that I now equate with all things frightening – mold. I remember the beginning and ending of that haunted house were decay-green and the light was pale.
Many years later, as an adult, I enjoyed working on haunted house projects as fundraisers for charity. That particular smell of mold never seemed to show up. I’m not sure what it came from, but it is imbedded in my emotional memory as the smell of decay and all things scary.