Sunday, August 12. I’d call it the best day of the year so far, and it’s all thanks to K-Mart. Going to K-Mart can be a depressing prospect these days; the proliferation of Wal-Mart in recent years has left the competitor in a bad way. The employees usually seem unhappy, like condemned prisoners hoping for a last minute call from the governor they know in their hearts will never come. Things are often disorganized in the store, with stacks of unshelved merchandise here and there in the aisles. But none of that matters anymore, because K-Mart offered me my salvation.

I was in the store at about 8:30 or so on Sunday night. I don’t even remember what I went in there for because once I saw what I saw it completely consumed my entire being. While most of the seasonal display section was devoted to that phrase that strikes terror into the heart of every child, the dreaded “Back to School,” tucked carefully away in the middle of it all was one little rack that brought a smile to my face rather than a grimace. It was a rack of candy, all surrounded by pictures of bats and the words “Happy Halloween.”

It was only the twelfth of August, but already there was the beginnings of what I hope will become a huge section devoted to Halloween. It did my heart so good to see it. In the last few years it’s seemed like Halloween has really gotten screwed at the stores, with any display being cripplingly small and being up for hardly any time at all. Usually, the Christmas stuff goes up sometime in mid-October. Much as I love Santa Claus, I don’t need him poking his nose into things that early on, usurping the public’s attention before Dracula even has a chance to curdle your blood.

But perhaps this year things will turn around. If they’re putting up the candy already, maybe K-Mart at least will go all out for the devil’s party. Maybe it won’t be long before every store is black and orange to the core, with screaming pumpkins and animatronic mummies and severed heads on pikes and cardboard coffins filled with gummi body parts as far as the eye can see. Oh dear god, I hope so.

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

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• Heaven in a Bright Orange Wrapper
• Halloween in September