Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Oooh, Spooky!

So, when did Halloween trick-or-treating become a carpooling affair? The streets, rather than crammed with groups of giggling kids and mischievous teens, was crowded instead with overloaded SUVs and soccer mom minivans. It wasn't too cold, it wasn't raining. The skies were clear. It was a bit nippy out, but a perfect Halloween evening. And all these moms were carting their kids from house to house in. a. vehicle. Where is the fun in that? At that point, you might as well have just loaded all the little buggers up and hauled them to Wal-Mart to pick out their very own bags of candy instead. I can't decide if it's simply parents being insanely lazy, or children being wussy about walking outside in the dark in the slightly chilly evening. Whatever it is, it's just not what I consider trick-or-treating to really be. You're supposed to have a cold nose and icy fingers by the time you've had enough of knocking on doors and begging for candy.

Unruly and I walked up and down darkened streets for an hour and a half. I held her chilled little hand cradled in my warm jacket pocket as we trekked from lighted door to lighted door. We crunched through leaves and admired people's Halloween decorations beneath a bright gibbous moon. She ran up to doors, did the trick-or-treat thing and raced back to me, thrilled to have yet one more sugar bomb awaiting her in her bag. She shakes when she gets really excited and I thought she was going to shake her bag of candy until nothing was left but a few raggedy crumbs. We talked a lot, we chatted about other kids' costumes, the witches, princesses, devils and hookers, and what she wants to be for Halloween next year.She saw many of her friends from school and was ecstatic about each one she spotted. She had to run up to each one, hug her tightly and compare her haul to theirs. She wouldn't let me walk up to the doors with her this year...I had to wait "on the crack in the sidewalk" or "near the pumpkin, mom!" so she could do her thing all by herself. She was so cute, running around in her big, green dragon costume. By the end of the hour and a half, she was exhausted and ready to head back to the car.

It was how Halloween is supposed to be and I got to spend some much-deserved time with my youngest ghoul.

Wild of course spent the evening hanging with her friends, not wanting to be anywhere near me, heck, she refused to even walk in the same neighborhood where Unruly and I hit people up for a diabetic coma in a wrapper.

No comments: