I Found Halloween

When I was a kid we lived in a fairly rural area. The houses were a good distance apart, and the road was windy, narrow, and hilly. It’s not really the kind of place you want your kids walking around after dark, so the only trick or treaters that we had were people we knew. And we always had to go into town where the neighborhoods were lit and the houses were close together for our own trick or treating.

When I moved out of the parents’ house I moved into apartments. When I was a youngster I always thought apartment complexes would be the best place for trick or treating. I had day dreams about all those doors to knock on with only a few steps between. Maximum candy for minimum effort. (Even then I had a little engineer in me.) But sadly, most apartment dwellers get surly if you knock on their door and expect something.

So I’ve never experienced Halloween from the other side of the door before. Until last night. I spent Halloween at the Lady Friend’s house. She lives in a nice quiet neighborhood in the Old Hickory area. It’s a prime trick-or-treat location. Our first costumed youngster showed up at 5:30 and we had a constant stream of them until 7:30 when we gave it up and turned off the light. The crowd was so bad I gave up trying to sit down in between knocks on the door. We ended up outside, sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

The highlights of the evening:

-While we were still inside one 10 year old came to the door. When he saw a Ford for Senate commercial playing on the television behind he gave a cynical sigh and said “I see Ford is on TV again.” At that point we had an entire conversation about politics. This ten year old was at least as cynical as me. The conversation ended with his comment, “Well, at least the battle for Washington will be over soon.” Best kid all night.

-This one guy had to be at least 15. He came to the door dressed as a gift box. When we opened the door he showed us the tag that said To: Women, From: God. Fortunately for him, I was in charge of candy, so he got extra. If the Lady Friend had been in charge he might have gotten the hose turned on him.

-A gang of 14-15 year old boys came to the door dressed as characters from Napoleon Dynamite. It was pretty surreal to see the cast of the movie coming up the sidewalk.

- Watching the Lady Friend's giant dog eat a sucker. He's part golden retriever and part husky. The husky part is only in his build. So he looks like a double size golden retreiver. Watching him try to eat a sucker was comedy gold.