halloween done right

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. Oh, sure, it can be fun. The decorations are cool. I have to say I have enjoyed making costumes for my favorite - and only - daughter, too. Still... it just isn't.

When I was growing up, my brothers and I had a great time dressing up and wandering up and down all the streets in our neighborhood trick or treating. We knew a lot of our neighbors, and we would check out our friends' houses, and some neighbor or another who had a particularly scary set-up. It was all in fun.

Then came the days when car-loads and truckloads of people would cruise through the neighborhood, and keep coming past 10 PM. Adults, who just should have been buying their own candy, if they wanted it. You would hardly see anyone you actually knew. Not so much fun any more.

Now, I live in a different neighborhood, one with a lot of families. It's not a pretentious neighborhood, that anyone is likely to just go cruise through. There are lots of young kids who go to the same school my daughter does, and Halloween seems more fun again. Not every house goes in for passing out candy. Really, that's OK by me. We get lots of family groups. Elementary and preschool kids, in cute costumes. They get mesmerized by the decorations. They stretch to reach the doorbell. I even get an occasional "Thank you, Mrs. Honeycutt!" They start a little bit before dark, and by 8PM, they're done. Well, after all, most of us are off to school or work in the morning.