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The big day came, here in my town anyway – even though trees had toppled over on my street in the storm, one of them squashing two cars as they sat in the driveway of our very nice neighbors…
An eight-person posse of little Trick-or-Treaters showed up right at 6:00. I thought I was ready this year but – whoops! – I had forgotten to turn on the front porch light. I sprang for the switch and lurched to the door, giving two fairy princesses a bit of a scare I fear.
“Um can we have some candy?” one of them said unsmilingly as if I needed help understanding how things were supposed to work on Halloween,
As it happened, I did. I had candy enough to feed three Boy Scout troops and the right kind this time too, since I was advised twice over thusly:
“Where are the Dum Dums?” a kindergartner had said to me Tuesday, inspecting my stash and trying to disguise his contempt.
I went right down to CVS and loaded up on them.
Then, “Don’t get Three Musketeers !” I heard a guy at the supermarket say to his wife just as she – and I – were hauling Three Musketeers bars by the armful into our two carts.
“No kid wants a candy bar that’s just nougat!” he exclaimed.
I quick put them back.
“That’s right,” he said to me. “Stick with your Snickers, your Reese’s Pieces,” which I’ve noticed a lot of people pronounced “Reesee’s Pieces.”
In the end we had maybe 30 kids, inlcuding a wild little band of ten-year-olds who had the brass to show up twice. “My, what a lovely house!” said the boldest of these, stepping right inside past me as his buddies helped themselves to fistfuls from the bowl: Snickers, Kit-Kats, Skittles and on and on. “Whoa, be moderate !” I said.
“Yeah, be moderate!” echoed a masked ninja impishly.
And the funny thing is when they rang the bell again not ten minutes later,that stepping-right-inside kid did the same thing again: “My, what a lovely house!” he said with a twinkle in his eye, knowing right well that this gave them away as repeaters and scam artists.
I love a kid like that I have to say. Plus you’re supposed to be a little naughty on Halloween., right?
And tell ya what it’s a lot more fun to be the one answering the door than the one dragging around after his little kid yelling Tiffany! I said No running!” Who ever heard of Halloween without running AND trying to grab all the loot in sight?
