Season 1 Episode 3

It's almost Samhain! Our favorite crabby ladies discuss the origins of the holiday and their memories of trick-or-treating, costumes, the relatability of witches and the carving of turnips.

SPAR Productions

Transcript

GOML - Episode 3 - 20241024

[00:00:00] 

Shelly: Hey everyone, I'm Shelly. 

Ann: And I'm Anne. 

Shelly: And, welcome to our podcast, Get Off My Line. It's that time of year again. My favorite time of year. How about you? Oh yeah, 

Ann: the best time of year. It's fall. Lots of colors here in Montana. Yeah. We were out driving the other day, and Well, most of the colors are past their peak, but there are still a few spots here and there that are still brilliantly yellow and scarlet.

Shelly: Yeah, I just love, I love all the colors, and I remember actually back when we used to work at, that building over by Mount Helena, remember? And they had that big red tree. burning bush tree that neither of us have ever been able to grow. 

Ann: Oh, I know, I know. 

Shelly: It's a bummer, but, , I always loved that tree.

Shelly: It was like, it was a flash one week and then it was gone or something. But one of my favorites. 

Ann: Oh, it's such a brilliant scarlet every time ever. I think I have a picture of it every year Just because it's so cool to look at it when it's that color [00:01:00] Yeah, 

Shelly: I had a ton of pictures of that view of the parking lot.

Shelly: Yeah It's like why do you have all these pictures of the parking lot? 

Ann: Well, 

Shelly: the bush is pretty. Yeah, it's a pretty bush Come on, and and actually whoever designed that Little area. Mm hmm. It was a neat combination of colors. So anyway getting off on that Crazy thing, but it's also cooler. Yes, and there's not as much smoke.

Shelly: So we've been talking about fires a lot In the last couple months. No, no fires right now At least i've noticed 

Ann: and the only smell of smoke is when people are burning their fireplaces Right, which is cozy. Yeah, it's cozy That is oh, I love that. So I noticed because when I was coming here or walking in somebody Out there is burning some wood and it just It makes you feel like, ooh, cozy, like you said, so, I love it.

Shelly: You know what else I like about fall, Anne , it's my favorite holiday. How about you? Coming up pretty soon. I'm 

Ann: excited for it. 

Shelly: I got my [00:02:00] decorations out. ?

Ann: So when? 

Shelly: Yeah, that's it. That's it. Let's wait a second. 

Ann: Hold on. Raise your hand if you first thought it was pronounced Samhain because I was one of those people. Oh, 

Shelly: absolutely. And I was so glad to get the proper pronunciation , of this wonderful , Celtic holiday, 

Ann: yep. That's our favorite holiday though. I love it. It's the end of the harvest. But, okay, not really, because I still have all my potatoes and beets and turnips and carrots out in my raised beds because it hasn't been cool enough in my garage. Oh, to be able 

Shelly: to store them. 

Ann: Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah, so they've sitting out there.

Ann: But, everything else is done. Yeah. So. 

Shelly: So, I'm sure that our listeners are wondering, what the heck is sowing? Sowing. So, you wanna, or, or. Samhain, not Samhain, [00:03:00] that's how it's spelt, but it's Samhain. Do you want to explain what, this holiday is? 

Ann: It's a really ancient Celtic holiday that celebrated the end of the harvest and the end of , or I will say the beginning of winter.

Ann: So, at this particular time, it is believed that the veil between our world and the other world or the um, afterlife where all the spirits live is the thinnest. So people were a little wary and they wanted to be sure that there was no evil spirits. So they would dress up to scare evil spirits away. They would have bonfires to ward off the evil spirits.

Ann: And, in general, just celebrate, the end of 

Shelly: harvest, going into winter, and just a [00:04:00] big opportunity to have a big party. Right. Right? Sounds an awful lot like Halloween to me. But it kind 

Ann: of is . . 

Shelly: Yeah. I mean, we looked this up and Mm-Hmm. and, 

Shelly: and at first I started thinking, well, Halloween came from it. But it really is the same thing. Mm-Hmm. ultimately, right., it's not, ., they're not two different things, they really just are the same thing, and Halloween is the North American version of Samhain, which is a Celtic, Celtic ritual celebration, 

Ann: right?

Ann: Yeah. So we kind of incorporated Samhain into our tradition, and named it Halloween, which is All Hallows Eve. Right. Right. And where everybody dresses up and goes around and gets candy. Yeah. 

Shelly: And there's a bunch of other holidays that follow that , same , time frame and the same, whole [00:05:00] celebration of the dead.

Shelly: We've heard of those like, uh, Dia de los Muertos. The Chinese Ghost Festival, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day are kind of the Christian counterparts of that, but they're really celebrating, the passage of life is, how I look at it, you know, and that fits really well with the whole idea behind End of Harvest.

Shelly: And then going into winter when, 

Ann: you 

Shelly: know, there's nothing. Life exists and then it's gone. 

Ann: Yeah, um, fortunately, yep, but that is the reality of it. Yeah, Halloween next week. So, are you dressing up or doing anything for Halloween? I am dressing 

Shelly: up. Halloween's one of my favorite,, Halloween costumes.

Shelly: times of year, things to do. So yeah, I have a costume. How about you? No, I don't. I am dressing up as the wavy arm guy, you know, like things outside of, yeah, it's an inflatable costume. [00:06:00] 

Ann: So are you going to a party? 

Shelly: Yeah, I have kind of like a little party that we're going to. If I wasn't going to a party, I probably wouldn't dress up because since I work from home most of the time, there's not really a reason.

Shelly: I know. 

Ann: I feel I'm scary enough not dressed up. I don't need to dress up to scare people. 

Shelly: I will say back in the days when I was going into the office and as a kid and stuff like that though, yeah, that was like, one of the most fun activities is figuring out what costume you want to wear.

Ann: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Do you have a 

Shelly: favorite? 

Ann: Um, I do like it when I dressed up as, the Day of the Dead lady, and I, God, I can't remember the name of that particular, the deity, , I'll have to look that up and get back to you on that. I just thought it was really cool, though, and really pretty, so I got the white makeup for the skull, , the sugar skull type thing. Um, yeah, that was fun. A lot of our costumes, though, were [00:07:00] constrained by weather. Like, uh, oh, look, look, Katrina. That's who it was. 

Shelly: I remember that costume, I think, or at least seeing pictures of it. Yeah. 

Ann: Yeah, I think you were there. Uh, but, but like when I was growing up, weather really dictated on what we couldn't couldn't wear.

Ann: We couldn't wear anything like light and easy when it was sleeting or blizzarding out, which you still go trick or treating in a blizzard. It's just 

Shelly: not as fun. Well, absolutely. We'll do anything for candy. Yes. Right. So, yeah. I mean, I remember, uh, we always, we always spent so much time figuring out, okay, what's the.

Shelly: Perfect Halloween costume because you know and spend all this time on it and then go out trick or treating With our down parkas over it which kind of defeated the purpose right except for them We just would go to parties and stuff like that. Mm hmm. That would that would be kind of fun, but Yeah, so one of my favorite [00:08:00] costumes.

Shelly: Well, let's see. Was it a favorite? I don't know that it was a favorite costume, but it was kind of one that was A one and done, I was never gonna do it again, is I dressed up as Smurfette. Do you remember that costume? Oh, 

Ann: yes, I do. 

Shelly: And I put blue body paint all over my whole body. Well, everything that was exposed and um, there was blue paint everywhere.

Shelly: Like in my office, in my car, just like it took months to get that all gone. But 

Ann: it was a good costume. It was a good costume. 

Shelly: It was fun. It was fun. You 

Ann: Yeah, we've had some wild parties though, too. Oh, yeah. As adults. Did you ever bob for apples? 

Shelly: Um, yeah, I did. And there's some significance to that.

Shelly: It's like symbolic of, the harvest and, and all of that. That's a tradition that comes, definitely comes from Samhain. Samhain. [00:09:00] 

Ann: Samhain. Samhain. Samhain. Samhain. 

Shelly: . Yeah, I, well, no, we don't need to talk about that. Never mind. Thinking about parties. 

Ann: Oh yeah, some of them get pretty wild, but it's a pretty fun time.

Ann: Everybody can just kind of cut loose. I've gone as Silk Spectre from , One of those, not cartoons, but comics. So she was a superhero. And Yeah. And my husband went as Rorschach, who is, uh, I'm drawing a blank on what those, comics were. , The Watchmen. That's Oh, yes. Yes. 

Shelly: Didn't we dress up as, farmers one year?

Shelly: Yep. Because we worked in a place, we called it the Cube Farm, because we were in cubicle rooms. Do you remember when we were zombies? I do remember when we were zombies and we scared little kids. Yes, that was fun. 

Ann: Yeah, 

Shelly: well, I'm not remembering that we had this [00:10:00] many common costumes. But that's right, we did kind of, we did do the zombies, we did the farmers.

Shelly: I feel like we might have done one other one, but I can't remember. 

Ann: Yeah. 

Shelly: Yeah. 

Ann: No, good times. 

Shelly: Yeah. So, , the other thing, especially as a kid, was all about the candy. Oh, absolutely. I remember as a little kid,, you'd have this cute little plastic pumpkin, or whatever, and you'd eat candy.

Shelly: But it didn't take too long to figure out that, screw that, I want a pillowcase. Yes. Because I want to get, like, a pillowcase. As much candy as possible. And , then I remember coming home and dumping all that candy on the floor. And I believe my brother felt it necessary to put like a jump rope down to create a divider so we didn't mix candy.

Shelly: Oh, can't do that. No, he didn't want me getting any of his candy. And then mom would come and look at it all and like pull out things she didn't think looked like we should eat or whatever. Like? Oh, like things that could have poison or [00:11:00] razor blades in them. Are things that 

Ann: look especially tasty? I don't know, maybe, 

Shelly: maybe, that could totally be , what went on in her mind.

Shelly: I don't know, we'll just have to think about that. So did 

Ann: you have a favorite candy? 

Shelly: Oh, you know, I really like Skittles and Reese's candy bars. Uh 

Ann: huh. 

Shelly: Yeah, those are my favorite. How about you? 

Ann: I liked the Milky Ways. Those, you know, the little, little milky way bites and skittles were always good, um, 

Shelly: Smarties.

Shelly: Oh yeah. Smarties. Well, and back in the day, Pop Rocks. Oh yeah. I loved Pop Rocks. Those were fun. Not only tasty, but, , you know, it's a whole experience. in your mouth. Exciting experience in your mouth. What 

Ann: Were some of the worst candies? Like I could not stand those bit of honeys and some clown would always be passing those things out.

Shelly: Or just like peppermints, which I love now. Yeah. But like little peppermints. Or those 

Ann: [00:12:00] butterscotch candies. Did you ever eat 

Shelly: those? Oh, like the little, um, Oh, I like those now too. So I guess when you're older, you like 'em, you know, like the,, oh, what are they called? Like the worths? Yeah. Is that what you're thinking?

Shelly: Yeah. Yeah. Weers originals. I love those now. Kind of, I, I mean now. Mm-Hmm. like as an adult, I liked those and, , but no. Yeah, it wasn't crazy about that. We had a dentist that lived down the street from us. Oh no. And they used to hand out toothbrushes and little things of toothpaste. Which, I feel like that was just wrong.

Ann: Yes. 

Shelly: Totally wrong. Doesn't fit with what the whole point of Samhain is at all. At all. 

Ann: Where you have to scare away evil spirits. 

Shelly: Yeah, and provide an offering to those. So that's the whole idea is, you know, providing an offering to, uh, to the spirits so they stay in their own little world and don't bug us.

Ann: Right. 

Shelly: Right. 

Ann: I'm pretty sure that my neighbor is an evil spirit, but, [00:13:00] well, moving on. 

Shelly: Hmm, yeah, maybe it's a, maybe it's a, um, synonym. Neighbor, evil spirit. Neighbor, evil spirit. I don't know. Could be., yeah, I mean, I do think there's, uh, there's just been, a lot of happy memories around. This time of year and the holidays.

Ann: Oh, yes. Yes when you can break out your sweaters 

Shelly: yes, that's true and um, and how's your harvest going? Yeah, 

Ann: we did talk about 

Shelly: that 

Ann: i'm still waiting for it to get cool enough to bring it in otherwise It's just going to sit in a warm garage So i'm trying to convince my husband to keep the door between the house and the garage shut And then we can Keep the other garage door open so we can get the cold air to come in and keep it cool out there Yeah, so I can finally bring in my [00:14:00] potatoes Since I've got like six boxes worth of potatoes.

Ann: I finally started digging in there Yesterday and oh my god, I've got so many potatoes. It's gonna be crazy But that's good, it's a good problem to have. Because we love potatoes. Potatoes are yummy. The RTSD, I've got Russian Butterball and the Fingerlings. The Yukon Fingerlings? 

Shelly: Something, I forget. The little yellow ones.

Shelly: Yes. Yeah, they're kind of long and 

Ann: skinny. Yeah, those are good. Yeah, so those are the two kinds I have. Yeah. And um, I don't know if I want to bring in turnips because I, I plant them because I had the seeds. 

Shelly: Well, you know, I'm going, as I was looking up information about,, Soen and Halloween and all of that and, we have this whole history of carving pumpkins right.

Shelly: In North America. 

Ann: I still, I still haven't carved my pumpkin yet, by the way, so, 

Shelly: yeah. Well, [00:15:00] it's really pretty. I like it. Without you carving it, if you carve it, then it's gonna not have as true. Yeah. Anyway. Okay, that's another story. , anyway, the, the whole history of jack o lanterns, it started in Ireland, but they didn't use pumpkins because pumpkins are really native to North America.

Shelly: So, so since this is an Irish based , holiday, , what they used were turnips. And I think you were saying something about that, and they call them jack o lanterns, right? So, we carve pumpkins, we use that term jack o lanterns, but , the original, vegetable was a turnip that they carved into a little lantern.

Shelly: Isn't that interesting? 

Ann: Yeah. I'm trying to picture it. So, say I have a turnip about four inches diameter. 

Shelly: It's pretty small. 

Ann: Yeah. 

Shelly: I don't know. Maybe they just put a little candle in there. I'm guessing. Yeah. Do you have to 

Ann: hold it in your hand or something like that? How would they? I don't know. 

Shelly: Maybe we need to look up a picture and see what [00:16:00] it looked like.

Ann: Yeah. 

Shelly: That would be kind of interesting. But, yeah., I don't know about you, but if you're going to pick a vegetable, turnips are fine with me. Yeah. Use the, you know, I don't, that's not my favorite vegetable. No. Let's use it as a, use it as a lantern. Whatever. Yes. Oh, and fall, I mean, just fall in general, I just, uh, it's just really, for, to me it always feels like the busyness of, summer, it has settled down, especially where I live, out on a lake, it's quieter, you don't have all the buzzing boats going on and all of that.

Shelly: , I just really love the, Peacefulness it feels like it's a peacefulness going into winter season. 

Ann: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree The tourists are gone. Mostly. Oh, there you go. Yeah, that's 

Shelly: probably why it's people people are just annoying in right? 

Ann: Yes Yeah, Like when we were at the bookstore yesterday and I swear it just felt like every time I turned [00:17:00] around this lady Was just right, right there.

Ann: It's like, where do I have to be for you to not be next to me? She must 

Shelly: have felt a kinship with you in some way. So, 

Ann: did you ever dress up as a witch? 

Shelly: Yes, multiple times. 

Ann: Were you a good witch or a bad witch? 

Shelly: Well, bad witch, of course, because what's the point of dressing up as a good witch when you're trying to scare off evil spirits?

Shelly: Okay, true. Right? 

Ann: Okay. I will accept that argument. Okay. So, I was kind of interested, about, , witches and stuff like that, and I've been watching a TV series about witches, so I asked the guy who worked at Barnes Nobles, do you have any books on witchcraft? Just to see what there was and it's, he gives me this look and takes me back to this whole life affirmation section and it's all witch type stuff, you know, the [00:18:00] crystals, the tarot cards, all that stuff is life affirmation or life changing and I'm like, huh.

Shelly: Well, that's interesting. You know, as you're talking, I'm going to take back my statement a little bit, too, though, because while I say I dressed as a bad witch, I think that witches get a kind of a bad rap sometimes. I think witches in general, while I say they're a bad witch, I'm thinking of like, you know, uh, 

Ann: What's her name from the Wizard of Oz?

Ann: Glinda, 

Shelly: yeah, the pink fluffy dress versus the black dress. 

Ann: Yeah. 

Shelly: Yes, I dressed with the black hat and the black dress. But I think, I think witches, are misunderstood. And then we talk about this life affirmation. Are they afraid to say the word witchcraft? 

Ann: I just remembered, wasn't her name Elphaba?[00:19:00] 

Ann: Elphaba. Elphaba. Yeah. Okay. 

Shelly: Well, I mean, I don't know. That's how they pronounced it in the, in the play Wicked. So I'm assuming that's right. I've never 

Ann: seen that. I've read the book, but I have not seen the play. 

Shelly: Yeah. It's really good. Okay. Really good. If you get a chance, go to it. 

Ann: All right. So yeah. I just found that interesting because, you know, witches and Halloween, they're kind of like one in the same, but I mean, It just seemed like a very strange place to put books about witchcraft. Life 

Shelly: affirmations? Well, but if we take, you know, a lot of people who were considered using the term witches historically were not necessarily really witches.

Shelly: They were just wise women, right? We had that conversation before. Or they were, um, You know just spiritual people who were [00:20:00] more connected with the earth versus some kind of religion or Or something of that nature. 

Ann: Yeah, 

Shelly: and in that sense Maybe it makes What you described that was in the section makes sense But the title just kind of is weird.

Shelly: Yeah, right life affirmation Because I would have 

Ann: never looked for witchcraft in that section. No So, 

Shelly: I mean that seems like a self improvement yeah 

Ann: something like that maybe that's That's what witchcraft is, self improvement. I don't know. Hmm. 

Shelly: Yeah. , let's dive deeper into witchcraft later.

Shelly: Yeah. Let's not talk too much about that right now because I think I'd like to do some research and, and, because I remember thinking of, you know, the trials that happened a lot on the East Coast and all of that stuff. And I think there's some light that could be shed. Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, 

Ann: absolutely. I actually think that most of that was, it had nothing to do with witchcraft and just vendettas.[00:21:00] 

Shelly: Well, in just, I mean, we could go there. It could just be the patriarchy being afraid of intelligent women. Yeah. , and threatened by that. And so they needed a way to vilify, um, uh, you know, , wise women that were coming forward with ideas and thoughts that didn't fit their box. I agree.

Ann: Oh yeah, we're definitely, yeah, yeah, yeah, do a future podcast on that. Yeah. So, but I do find myself thinking a lot about, witches and stuff like that this time of year and how it all kind of fits together. Going back, to the, I think it was what, the 10th century, where they have the first actual record of Samhain.

Ann: So it's an amazing holiday and it's an amazing time of year., I'm so glad we're here [00:22:00] to experience it. 

Shelly: Yeah. I mean, it really is, , it's a special. Passover or changeover of time that is pretty significant. I mean you're going to the time from the time where there is an abundance to a time of scarcity.

Shelly: And so even getting beyond the whole evil spirits and costumes and all of that really to the core This is really about that passing of time right and moving into a different time of year a different frame of Reference which you know was probably more significant in You know the past But um, it still is today.

Shelly: Yeah, you know, I mean, uh, just harder to find Fresh vegetables, unless you've done a great job of,, having a huge harvest and storing all your food, [00:23:00] which Ann does, so I think that is, 

Shelly: that seems like we've talked this topic to its conclusion. 

Shelly: Happy Samhain, Ann! Happy Samhain!