In my house, October is the time for a fiesta. Our first big party came in 1997. Susan and I were married for about one year when we started building our house in Pinehurst. It was a disaster. We fired the builder four months in, because we were only to the basement walls, and should have been almost complete. I stepped in as the general contractor and proceeded to finish the house apace. It only took me eight more months. When October, 1997 finally rolled around, we were ready to be done with the stupid thing and have a party to celebrate.
I had been working at Triangle Building Supply during this time, so I was able to get all my building materials at a discount. More importantly, I was able to find all my subcontractors. It was my previous job at Burlington Industries, however, that hatched the party plan.
Hervon "Snowflake" McCollum was a friend of mine from work, and he had a pig cooker. His mama made her own Barbecue sauce, and even Hervon didn't know the recipe. His buddy raised and slaughtered hogs. All I needed was a location and a date. Check and check.
About a month out, I called him and set the date for the weekend. Susan invited all her friends. I invited all my friends. We invited all our friends. We invited all our neighbors. Then I invited the guy beside me at the gas station. And the waitress at "Mac's Breakfast Anytime". And the sheriff's deputy at the jail. She actually came. I invited all my family from South Carolina. Susan invited her girlfriends from elementary school.
We had well over 100 people for that first pig pickin'. It became an annual Askins tradition, along with epic "Total Makeover" birthdays , Christmas and New Year's Eve parties. We have hosted literally 1000's of people in our home. We know how to throw a party.
So we decided Halloween was the right time for us to host a fiesta here in Spain. Our family has never really made a big deal about Halloween. We don't especially like the celebration of death and evil that is often associated with it. Here in Spain, Halloween isn't even celebrated much at all. It's about as big here as Cinco de Mayo is in the USA. The girls and Susan, however, have been OBSESSING over it for about three weeks. I think they are just groping for a little bit of American-ness.
Well, I invited my friends. Susan invited her friends. Elizabeth and Katherine invited their friends. Then I invited the guy at the pump...You get the idea. We had a relatively small turnout of about 40-50 people, but still big by Spanish standards.
Susan cooked up some really scary looking food, and I got our grill going with salchicha. We had anchoas, tortillas patatas, atun, olivas, jamon y asparago. We also introduced them to deviled eggs, pound cake and a token veggie tray, to assuage our guilt over feeding people so much stuff.
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| Dados de Brujas, Witches Fingers |
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| Oranges decorated like pumpkins and a pound cake |
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| My buddy, Julio, helping me get ready for the party |
Los Chicos had a sugar binge with all the carmelos. They don't give their kids much candy around here. After the party our salon was covered with candy wrappers, strewn about like so many beer bottles at a college frat party. The last guests left at 3:30 AM. A few of us sat on the terrace, discussing the merits of capitalism and its effects on China. At that time of night, there really isn't much more ground to cover.
Susan and I staggered to the bed and slept 'til noon, exhausted after three weeks' preparation. It was awesome.
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