My little secret: Halloween is not my favorite holiday. These days, of course, big business has wrapped its possessive claws around the day and you can get any costume in any size for your kids. No need to panic when your girl says she wants to be Princess Red (Snowdrop and Primrose), your boy a black cat (Sparrow), or a pilot (Sandpiper). No problem in getting candies in small sizes. And plastic jack-o-lanterns for your front yard. All there for you with a click. Just give the kids a shove and send them running door to door, collecting candy that they mostly will never eat from strangers who have no idea what kids covet. (Snowdrop: tootsie rolls, Sparrow: kit-kats... and so on.)
What's there not to like???
Oh, there is, too, the intermittent ringing of the door bell if you're in a neighborhood with kids. You open the door and you want to give them more than just a piece of candy. I mean, they are so cute after all! A compliment maybe, a kind word, except all they really want is that candy, given quickly so that they can go on to the next door, and by the way, why does your front door have all those steps to climb? Parents shouting from the curb "dont forget to say thank you!" while their child and her pack of wild friends (were they always so wild?) are already climbing the steps to the next door.
What's there not to like?
And of course, the best part (for them, not for you) is the exhausted squabble among sibs afterwards -- who got more candy and will you trade two of those for three of the other? No? Come on! I gave you your favorite! I didn't get that one! And -- mom, dad, can we have just one more? Go to bed! You have school tomorrow!
Kids, gorging on sugar. Fun!
What's there not to like?
Here, at the farmette, all is quiet on Halloween. No ghosts, not even a black cat. No trick-or-treaters. But the wind! Oh, the wind!
I'm up to feed the animals and I note with great satisfaction that we have nearly two inches of water in the bucket. If we get more rain next week, the drought may well be a thing of the past. I am relieved.
(the robins are going hog wild over the crab apples)
(birds of a different feather)
It is still mild outside, but by evening the temps will tumble. Precipitously. Which is a shame. The kids will be out in their light costumes and within an hour they're all going to be cold. I suppose the one consolation is that it wont rain. To the litany of grievances I have against this "holiday" please add being a parent of an enthusiastic trick-or-treater on a blustery and wet October 31st.
Breakfast? Back to the kitchen. Here now until... I'm guessing May.
I've become a reluctant mover and shaker. Meaning I'll choose couch over a nice walk in our county park. But, I believe in calendar beginnings. Tomorrow we leave October behind and start in on November. I will resume a more active lifestyle. I hope.
In the afternoon I pick up the kids. They are on a Halloween high for sure. All they can think about is the trick-or-treating that's ahead for them. Why, I want to ask, why?? You get candy, and candy that you actually like on most days of the year. What is so special about begging for it on a cold October night? But I say nothing. I'm excited for them. Just a little.
(Inside, Ed shows the girl how to read wind charts when you're sailing...)
I pack lots of fruit into them. And protein. For the night ahead. After that, it's up to them, their parents, their friends. And strangers, pushing candy into their outstretched bags.
(I drop them off at home, where the two older kids and the two older parents get ready...)
They split up then. Parents and Sparrow go to pick up Sandpiper, Snowdrop is off with friends.
I'm hoping every trick-or-treater has a wonderful time tonight. And that the candy loot brings joy. The craziness of it all is reason enough to smile. Harmless and ridiculous as this day has become, it still does bring happy moments for the little ones. And sometimes their parents. Reason enough to feel good about Halloween.
