It's All Tricks

The Boy came home today with red spots all over his face, neck and hands. He drew them on himself. That was his Halloween costume - a guy with chicken pox. He really had me there for a moment.

The Boy is 15. He can pass for 12, because he's cute like that. Tonight, he wanted to go trick-or-treating badly, but he didn't want to go by himself. His friends had abandoned the practice years ago. He went over to a neighbour's and discovered they had a dilemma. One parent had to stay home to hand out candies, the other had to take the girls out trick-or-treating. The girls didn't want to go with their 5-year-old brother because he's too slow. 5-year-old didn't want to go with them because they're girls. So The Boy offered his services. He came running home to beef up his costume. I put a night shirt on him, touched up the red dots on his face and hands, and gave him a pillow case for candies. He was so happy to go off with 5-year-old, 5-year-old was so happy to go with him, and neighbour was so happy The Boy came to the rescue.

We received a lot of compliments on our pumpkins tonight from trick-or-treaters. These are kids paying the compliments. The Boy carved a Leafs flag with Toronto Maple Leafs written in the leaf. I put stars on mine. It was the Leafs and Martha Stewart flanking our front steps. But once I lit the pumpkins and put them outside, I realized we didn't have a scary theme at all, unless you count the Leafs losing to the Sens 8-0 on Saturday scary.

No one's ever commented on our Save Our Trees - No Flyers Please sign before. But this year, about 10 kids must have asked me why we have that sign, or I hear them walking away and saying "Look, a Save Our Trees sign". I wonder what's being taught in elementary schools these days.

One kid, a teenager actually, came as Edward Scissorhands. He cut out cardboard for scissor hands, wrapped them in foil, and taped them to his hands. He had the makeup and the suit. He looked fantastic. I vote his the best costume of the night. His two friends I think dressed as characters from The Matrix.

Another kid came in a monster costume with a bunch of ninjas and ghouls. I handed out the candies and as he was leaving, he called back, "I shovelled your walk last winter." I said, "You doing it again this year?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "You still gonna charge $15?" The parents around laughed. You had to be there.

I often can't tell what many of the costumes were. Over the years, I've developed this as my standard line: My, don't you look scary/cute/interesting. Happy Halloween!

The demographics in the hood has changed. Not a lot of kids out these last two years. This year, they didn't start coming around till 6:30 (it used to start as early as 6:00) and by 8:00, it was mostly over (it went till 9:00 in past years). At 7:30, I started giving out 3 pieces of candies instead of 2. We're still going to have so much left, not to mention what The Boy will bring back.

What was it that I heard on the radio today? It's okay to eat all the leftover candies because winter's coming and you need the extra layers of blubber to keep warm.