Halloween - the day after

     To love Halloween means being an eternal child; I disliked the hiatus between having a child who trick-or-treated and having grandchildren who did the same, because it meant I had no excuse for traipsing through the leafy neighborhood streets in the moonlight, ringing doorbells expectantly and then later separating and piling up the candy and goodies while a good scarey movie played on the television.

     To love Halloween also means to love children. In those hiatus years described above, my consolation was  the enjoyment of each and every costumed kid who visited my front door. I have a neighbor, (a teacher no less!) who for years would darken her house, lock the front door and leave for the evening because it bothered her when teenagers trick-or-treated. In my opinion, since children grow up so quickly these days, they should be allowed to have childish fun as long as possible. What is the harm in handing a candy bar to a fifteen-year-old and why should he not be having fun? What else is there for teens to do these days? Another plus is getting further acquainted and even befriending the local kids, which is a plus in our world of seclusion and suspicion.

     It is with regret that I foresee the trick-or-treat era fading as less people hand out candy, less parents allow their children out, and other "safer" rituals are adopted. I mourn the fact that future generations may not have the great fun that mine experienced. I think James Whitcomb Riley understood what spooky fun was all about:

"An' little Orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue,
An' the lamp-wick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo!
An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray,
An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--
You better mind yer parunts, an' yer teachurs fond an' dear,
An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear,
An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about,
Er the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!"