Trick or treat!

I am not a big fan of Halloween -- for me it means running back and forth to the door and (on nights like this) freezing before it's time to turn off the light.    But I love it for kids.    I have always said that I don't care how old they are, because it's just such good, clean fun.   I mean seriously, who are they hurting, even if some of them drive themSELVES to my house!   Most of the older kids don't dress up at all, although most of the girls put a flower in their hair or wear a hat and (I hope) some extra make-up.  And every few years I have some clever older boy in a white t-shirt, hair slicked back, with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve.  But every once in awhile, some kid will go all out.   This year I had a big kid dressed as a really cool, homemade refrigerator.    Or something.

In my community, we trick-or-treat from 6 to 8.     Things were sooooooo slow in the beginning that I was giving out handsful of candy to each kid.     I ate a couple myself.   And then, just before 7 pm, cars started to line the street and the kids were coming so fast that I hardly glanced at them.    I started giving them only 2 at a time, and then started handing out only one.   By 7:03 -- no kidding -- the street was empty again.   After that, they came in dribs and drabs.   My candy-handing got capricious, some kids got one piece of candy and some got two; it sort of depended on  how cute, or polite, or cold they were.    I have no idea how many kids came to my door by the time I turned out my light a little before 8.   I do know that the first who came got a lot more candy than the last ones did!

There were some really cute kids out there tonight but,  oddly enough, the cutest of all were my grandchildren, a handsome young Batman and an adorable, even littler Bedtime Witch who knew exactly how she should be treated.

No, seriously, you don't think I rigged this contest, do you?

In the remaining categories, the first to my door was a teeny tiny Minnie Mouse.   The youngest trick-or-treater was an itty bitty little one bundled up in a stroller.     I had visits from several dogs in costumes.   There were more adults with candy-collection-bags than I've ever seen ever before - not just high school kids (although there were some of those) but flat-out adults, in their 30s and 40s.   But the oldest, my oldest trick-or-treaters ever, was a pair of women in at least their 50s, who knocked on my door and silently opened up their purses.