Trick or Treat

Halloween is just around the corner - never my favorite holiday. I don't like masks, even those half ones that only cover the eyes and nose like the Lone Ranger wore in the Saturday matinee serials. I want to see animated faces, not flat, blank stares. While some of the costumes are clever, especially on the little folk dressed like bumble bees or ladybugs, there's something eerie about teenage boys (girls too) who are taller than I am, showing up in expressionless Scream masks or dressed as zombies and mummies. So, when the night arrives, I turn on the outside lights, turn off the inside lights, bolt the doors and head to my daughter's house. It feels safer there.

Before I became a woman who had outlived her husband, Trick or Treat night was fondly anticipated. Not because I liked masks any better then, but because my husband was the biggest kid on the block and he made it fun. We'd sit on the front porch, candy bowl in hand, and wait for the hoards of ghosties to arrive. He'd place handfuls of goodies into their bags, admire each and every outfit, even the blue jean overalls and straw hat of the "farmer", and he'd greet the parents standing on the sidewalk with a hearty "Happy Halloween". We gave out good candy like mini-Snickers and Hershey bars - not those awful Gummy Bears or Sweetarts. Have to admit, we didn't give out ALL the good candy. There was always a dish inside the house where our personal stash was kept.

This year, as I have for the past nine years, I'll leave my house before the "witching" hour (pun intended) and head to my daughter's. Her husband and brothers will accompany the grand kids around the neighborhood pulling a wagon just in case the littlest one gets weary before the evening's over. (The wagon is also a good spot for the required beer cooler.) Daughter and I will take turns minding the candy bowl on the front steps and stirring the chili on the stove top. We'll enjoy the evening because we have a chance to visit with each other between visits of witches and goblins and jack-o-lanterns too.

The men will come home with tales of the other guys they've met along their route with whom they may have shared a brewski. The kids will be wired from all the sweets they've already devoured. We adults will eat our bowls of chili while the munchkins empty their pillow cases of sugary treasures into piles on the floor and the trading will begin. Halloween night is not the same as it once was, but it's good... really good to be with family. I never have to worry about any of them wearing a mask.

Sandy