Same Old, Same Old

 

I had this bright idea that I would discretely photograph the trick or treaters last night. I would get some cute and candid shots, and then on second thought, that I could get sued by some paranoid parent lurking in the dark recesses of my driveway.

 

Then, the very first guy who brought his young child to the door, whipped out his digital camera and snapped a photo of me as I was handing a mini chocolate bar to his kid. I had a sudden realization that I had made the right decision to keep the camera in the bag. I felt a little outraged that this guy mistrusted me so much that he was taking evidence against me lest there be a problem with the mini Coffee Crisp that I dropped in the bag. Halloween can be a bit complicated.

 

We had over a 100 kids and there was nothing noteworthy other than getting my picture taken. My pet peeve of past years was not reinforced as there were almost all small goblins this year. The last guy of the night, with his girlfriend, was an adult in a skeleton outfit, 6'2 and way too old to be doing this kind of nonsense. I suppose that some people's craving for chocolate overwhelms their sense of pride. Me? I just buy too much chocolate and indulge in that way.

 

 

Pumpkinville

 

Every Autumn we travel to Keromeos where we have a favourite fruit orchard from which we buy apples and pears or whatever else is in season. Many years ago when we first discovered 'Gumpert's' Orchard across the road from the Grist Mill attraction on Upper Bench road, it was operated by the parents of the young family who own and operate it now. We have become familiar with each other over the years and ask about the kids and the fruit season and other small talk. They give us a really good price on cases of apples and we help each other out. We were passing through on our way home a few weeks ago and discovered a sign at the apple barn that said they would return in a few hours. We had an appointment with friends who live in Hedley so we could not stay. That left us with a dilemma as we did not know where else to get apples without paying huge prices at the roadside fruit stands. We did stop at a few and discovered much to out delight that someone had an imaginative moment with the pumpkins this year and put up a unique display.  

 

We did find a fruit stand that gave us a price somewhat comparable to farm prices and we were soon on our way. It is always very colourful in Keromeos this time of year and the efforts of the stands  attract many visitors. Some are there for fruit and some just for a 'last time of the year' drive through some very beautiful country. It is my favourite time of year on the #3 highway.

Pumpkin Day

 

If all pumpkins were cannibals, they would go extinct!

 

I am not a huge fan of Halloween. There seem to be more negatives than positives regarding the celebration. Here is a list of  positives, lest I be labeled as a negative spoilsport.

 

1. Retail stores and junk food manufacturers rack up huge profits as the packages get smaller each year and the prices go up.

2. Dentists will rack up huge increases in business in the months following the ingestion of sugar during Halloween.

3. Firefighters will be run off their feet, giving them plenty of exercise, putting out minor fires and chasing law breaking igniters of the illegal fireworks.

4. Our dinner will be interrupted many times and will end up being eaten cold and I will not burn my tongue.

5. We will get to see teenagers doing something valuable with their time as opposed to hanging out at the mall.

6. I will eat as much chocolate as I give out, also adding to the bottom line of my dental office.

7. We will be driving over broken pumpkins the following day, breaking the monotony of driving over wind blown leaves every day.

8. We will run up and down the street picking up garbage, keeping the neighbourhood neat and tidy and getting plenty of unexpected exercise the next day.

9. We will see children as young as three dressed up as ghouls, witches, ghosts and zombies, ensuring that they do not grow up thinking that they might become a princess or Robin Hood.

10. I can blog about the unforgettable moments in the days after.

 

There. Halloween is not all that bad.

Annual Halloween Assessment

As I write this, the last of the ghosts and goblins have vacated the streets and all is quiet except for the rowdies and their illegal fireworks. Last year we had more that 100 kids come to the door so this year I was prepared. I purchased 2 bags of 120 treats each, hoping it would be enough, with some left over for the biggest trick or treater of all, me. Let's see now. 240 treats, less what is left over, around 40, less what I ate before, during and after the onslaught of beggars .... wow! We had more than 150 come to the door tonight. It is a new record. But what is also a new record is the number of teenagers who unabashedly held out their bags, and their hands, for a freebie. One very large fellow and his friends came trudging straight through our flower beds and when it was his turn, simply held out his hands. I asked where his costume, or mask, or loot bag was and grunted that he had none of this things. I told him quite bluntly that when he did have the required items, he could come back for a treat. He did not take it well so I am half expecting some trouble from him later tonight.

One fellow was almost 7 feet tall and as he was walking away, down the driveway, another older kid asked him if he was nineteen. "Only seventeen", was his reply. Do these kids have no pride? This night is for the little ones, dressed in their princess outfits, or Star Wars costumes. There were way too many teen aged girls, and many of them dressed like sluts. (Pardon my English, but that was their intent)

My favourite little visitor, looking like a mini Spider Man, said, as I placed a small box of smarties in his bag, "I'm not allowed to have Smarties." Off in the shadows, down the driveway, a playful adult voice said,"But his dad is allowed." I gave him the Smarties and a Kit Kat.

It's always fun if I don't let the big kids spoil it for me.

Trick or Treat

This container holds about 100 + treats for the Halloween beggars that come around every October 31st. That is usually the amount that is required to satisfy the number of children we get on a typical Halloween night.

They started early this year. Maybe they heard that rain was coming. The very cute princesses came first, with mothers lurking in the background. What sweet little darlings most of them were. As the time progressed, the older children came, usually with adult supervision just out of sight. But then came the young adults who are way to old for this little charade, running from house to house, monster sacks already full to the brim with colourful wrapped sugar. I'm sure some of them were older than sixteen. There was one very large group of kids that had, hidden in its center, a suspicious looking character. He was a short fellow who had on white pants, a white short sleeved T-shirt, and a white plastic shopping bag over his head with a hole cut out for his face. As he came forward, just as I was dropping a Snicker's bar into his large loot bag, he said,  "I'm the bag man". It was only then that I realised he was about 50 years old. I watched through the glass window on my door and as the kids headed down the driveway, he parted company with them, they went north, he went south. So he was not a parent or chaperon, but a 50 year old 'trick or treater'! 

Is that worse than teens doing it? I think so.

Anyway, the kids came thick and fast tonight and about one hour into the feeding frenzy, I hauled out my secret stash because the original 100+ bin was empty. The 'stash' contained another 50+ mini bars, Coffee Crisp, KitKat, and Oh Henry. Ten minutes later they were gone. No, I did not eat them. I hastily made a big sign to put on the door "Very Sorry, We Ran Out Of Treats" I really don't know how many more would have come, but I do know that this is a record for us.

In the 'old days' this would have called for some mischief, but I don't think the kids today know what "Trick or Treat" really means. If they do, I may be in for some vandalism tonight.

Carve that Pumpkin

Carving a pumpkin is not an easy task. For starters, you need a lot of artistic talent. Beyond that, you need imagination and a good set of extremely sharp carving tools. It looks like someone found a good use for one of the pumpkins I photographed at the Mariposa fruit stand. (Thursday's post)

We are not big on Halloween at our house. When our children were small, we would often take them on a special outing to avoid the begging madness. I have great memories of Halloween from young days as a boy growing up in a small prairie town. It was lots of good clean fun, at least until one of us fell into the pit when were pushing over outhouses in the dark. 

Today, we just kind of go along with it and hand out all the diabetes and tooth decay inducing goodies to the cute little kids that come to the door with their parents lurking in the background. We will see what happens tonight. 

If you happen to come by with your humongous pillow case open and ready to accept more sugar, don't expect any of those mini Coffee Crisp bars from the mulit-pak. I have already eaten all of them.   

Chocolate Overdose

Tonight was Halloween and as usual, we had many children, some of them quite large, actually, come to our door wanting all my chocolate. I am a chocoholic and as a result, try not to have it in the house too often as I tend to binge. There was a rather large tub of the stuff by the front door, handy to throw into the sacks of the little goblins, princesses, and spider men. Who would notice if a few were missing?
"That was a big group of kids and did they ever use up a lot of chocolate", I would say in defense, as the pile grew smaller by the minute.
After sampling every one at least twice, I settled in to the final three and began to sort through the bin, separating the really good ones from the others. Handing out the inferior ones to the kids would leave me the choice pieces at the end of the evening, if only 'they' would stop coming in droves.
In the end, I need not have concerned myself as my daughter brought a huge box of even better ones that she wanted to get rid of.
It is a good thing that I did not keep track of how much chocolate I actually ate tonight. It would be embarrassing as well as being downright unhealthy. (They were not all dark chocolate, in fact, none of them were)
I tried to look up the word "restraint" as I battled my addiction, but unfortunately, my dictionary was lost somewhere under a massive pile of chocolate wrappers. I will try to do better next year. Maybe.

Scarey Pumpkin Night

The little ghosts and goblins are home loading up on sugar by now and the only riff-raff out there now are the idiots who do not know or do not care that fireworks are illegal in our city. We had to shut off the lights early tonight as we actually ran out of goodies, for the first time ever. We had a box of 100 treats and there is not a single one left. If you take away the ones that I pilfered, that still makes a new record for numbers of kids trick or treating on our street. Some observations.

The spookies out numbered the cuties by about 2 to 1. The older the kid, the more blood and gore and knives that were evident. The wee ones were mostly princesses and spider men. I caught one little girl coming around for seconds but hey, how can you turn away a chubby cheeked cherub in a skunk outfit. Her parents at the end of the driveway needed a good talking to, however.

The surprise of the night was a buxom teen aged girl dressed in a slinky/sleazy outfit with a little too much cleavage showing (not that there is anything wrong with that). She had the appearance and the attitude that made me think she would be willing to turn a trick for a treat!

Halloween! Don't cha' love it.