I am not looking forward to cleaning out two large pumpkins today. However, I am looking forward to lighting them up this evening. October is warm here. We sit outside on the front porch and wait for the neighbor kids to arrive for treats. They are cute, and I enjoy talking to them. And I'm probably one of the few people who enjoys teenagers who show up in packs. Yeah, I know they are too old, but so what? Halloween is a neighborhood event, and I like the idea of teenagers still wanting to be children who are a part of this fun community ritual. I'm glad they are begging for treats instead of wreaking havoc throughout the neighborhood. Honestly, I wish I could still dress up and trick-or-treat, too.
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| Halloween Florida style |
I love your attitude. I wish I had it! Happy Halloween!
ReplyDeleteI love your attitude, too.
DeleteIf you dress up and trick or treat, I'll never tell.
ReplyDeleteOh yes you will!
DeleteI have also gotten into the bags of candies. There is a good chance that I will not give out the Reese's cups. I will tell myself that I am saving them for the last of the kids but will hope that they will come after 8 pm when I have turned off the lights.
ReplyDeleteI never mind the teenagers coming. It is hard giving up childhood, heck, I am still working on that myself.
I like the way your mind works. Reese's are my downfall, too.
DeleteReece's are my weakness, too. I've already gotten into the bag of them I bought for the kids!
ReplyDeleteThey are the best. Now I want one. :)
DeleteI've gone thru 2 bags and I'm now on a sugar cleanse to apologize to my body. I hope it will forgive me.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, one family in the neighborhood would host a party for the kids so all the other parents could go out trick or treating. Seems like a tradition worthy of revival.
That is a tradition I can get behind.
DeleteNo candy purchased because I knew how little will power I have. Kids don’t come round my neighborhood as it is older with no sidewalks. So no lights on tonight. Hope you enjoy your Halloween 🎃
ReplyDeleteI will! Thanks.
DeleteWe get no trick-or-treaters here. The children go to the next town over because there are more people there. I really miss them.
ReplyDeleteI bet.
DeleteI don't even buy candy anymore. Kids here in the city don't go to houses anymore. They go to the stores and they are safely in their homes before dark.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. Probably a good change in many places, glad the kids still get to have fun and enjoy the holiday.
DeleteWell, no wonder you like Halloween. You have wine! :)
ReplyDeleteHahahaha.
DeleteWhat's stopping you? Oh, I get it you already ate a few bagfuls of candy......It IS better than Halloween in the snow though!
ReplyDeleteI had adults come to my house trick or treating last night. I almost asked if I could join them.
DeleteWe didn't have a lot of children last night but it was lovely to see the ones that did come by. The weather was mild, no wind, no snow, it was lovely. I took the dog for a walk after supper and the big guy gave out candy. It was so wonderful to see parents and children out walking in the evening, to hear people talking and laughing, outdoors, usually the last nice evening before winter sets in. Why don't we spend more time outside in our neighborhoods?
ReplyDeleteLily, this is a great comment. I really enjoyed reading it.
DeleteIt's not really catching on here in Germany. But we have the feast of St Martin on 12 Nov when kids walk around with lanterns after dark and force you to listen to them sing at your doorstep and give/share your sweets to/with them the way St Martin shared his sweets some time long ago. Wait. He just cut his coat in half to warm a poor coatless beggar? Never mind.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of that. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteIt's actually quite nice if it doesn't rain on the day.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin%27s_Day#Germany
I was not bred into Halloween and found it difficult to rationalise its funny/frightening ethos. But I had two daughters, one seven, one two, and I had come to the USA intent on diving into the complete US experience. Mount Lebanon, a Pittsburgh suburb, was essentially middle-class and I didn't foresee any of those apples embedded with razor-blades I'd heard talk of. Nevertheless I told the kids that they would have to knock on the doors while I stood down the driveway, since this seemed to be the heart of the deal. OK with my rambunctious elder daughter, not so with the younger who ran forward to catch up and get it all over with. Unfortunately she tripped, skinned her knees, started to snivel but completed the visit.
ReplyDeleteIt was at times like these that being an alien was useful protection. It was known within the neighbourhood that the Robinsons came from "another place" (this was the late sixties; I'm told things are more sophisticated these days) where tribal practices were beyond comprehension - especially the curiously distant relationships between parents and kids. To open the door on a US kid trying to suppress its tears, possibly bleeding, hand outstretched for a Tootsie Roll would have evoked a predictable reaction. To realise that this same child was not US and came from "somewhere else" (One person, possibly confused, had earlier guessed Albania) encouraged withdrawal. Best let the foreigners get on with their lives.
I wasn't unsympathetic towards my daughters but both had been attracted by this ritual when it was pure theory and I wasn't sure that my presence at the door with the discomforted child would have changed things for the better. As it was things mended themselves and my daughters were soon greedily revelling in the growing weight of their pillowcases.
I suspect my family's subsequent re-emigration from Mount Lebanon was all for the best.
Sounds like it. The 60's were still the 50's in many parts of the U.S.
DeleteBecause we live in Florida we sit on the front porch and wait for the children. I've seen many little children fall and skin their knees, crying as they come up. I have never ignored their pain. Once, a macho neighborhood policeman asked me not to respond to his little boy who fell at my feet. I ignored the father, not the little boy who I picked up and hugged. People can be so strange.
I should add I never resented the misunderstandings. I'd crossed the Atlantic expecting something exotic and wasn't disappointed. The shared language tended at first to disguise the fact I was in a foreign country but very quickly I realised I would always be seen as weird - at least in the suburbs. There were some big pluses too, notably the incredible generosity, especially when our second daughter was born, far away from our extended family.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, regarding that second daughter... The guy who took me to work before I acquired a car told me, in all seriousness, that were I to drop down dead his first act would be to rush over to my apartment, grab the baby, and have her christened. Her unchristened state actively horrified him. I tried to imagine that happening in London but nearly burst in the attempt.
Hilarious.
DeleteI got up earlier this morning, about 06.15. Turned on the computer, learned what there was to be learned, and felt I had to send you some kind of message. Not cynical, not jocular - just an extended hand. I'm sorry, grievously sorry, but there is at least some very good news.Vaya con Dios.
ReplyDeleteHow kind of you, thanks. Still lots of very good news, though. You are so right.
DeleteWhen I was a child, trick or treating was a neighborhood event. When my kids were children, trick or treating was a neighborhood event. Now, that is not so much the case. Many neighborhoods and municipalities are invaded by hordes of outsiders. It is not the most pleasant of experiences juding by the news reports.
ReplyDeleteOur town hosts a parade. I happened upon the event and was treated to entire families joining in with dressing in costume. So fun.