Trick Or Treat Fun

Such a nice day – too bad I didn't use it! We did our podcast this morning and walked, then I ran uptown and got my hair trimmed. I do now have 25% of my Christmas ornaments done (that would be 3 out of 12). But I did take the time to go through the instructions for the rest and deciphered the thread color codes. That takes awhile.

Even today's mail didn't amount to much. I did get an interesting catalog. I don't think it was interesting when it was put into the mail. But by the time it got to our mailbox, it must have had quite a journey. It was mangled, folded, and taped together. When I cut the tape and tried to sort things out, it was more of a puzzle than a catalog. I had the outside cover – with my name and address – of one catalog, the cover and first inside page of a second catalog, with no name.....and then an entire copy of that second catalog, again with no name or address. I'll never know what was inside the catalog I was supposed to receive. Hopefully it isn't anything I can't live without!

Halloween's coming up next week. That was always a fun time when I was in school. We would have classes as usual until early afternoon – or at least as much as the teachers could contain a bunch of excited kids. Then we would take time to change into our Halloween costumes. Then the Halloween fun would begin.

The unique fun of going to school in a small community was the way we could celebrate these holidays. There were no permission slips necessary, no fears of bad things happening. All the grade school kids would line up by class, and we would have a Halloween parade from the school down the street to downtown, circle across the street and parade back to the school. This was a grand total of maybe six blocks. It was always something we looked forward to.

Trick or treating was fun, too. It took a bit of time because of being out in the country. On a good year, we would work the local gravel road on our way to Coloma and my great aunt's, then work our way along the blacktop to Mandeville. Most people didn't take a really long time with their trick or treating, because you wanted to get home before the neighbor kids came by. Sometimes it was a delicate balance!

When my kids came along, times had changed. When the first two got old enough for trick or treating, our home was in Portland, Oregon. I wasn't comfortable taking them out to households we didn't know. So I bought some Halloween treats just for them. Once we got moved to a smaller community where we were acquainted with people, things were more like the trick or treating of my childhood.

I lived in so many placed when the kids were growing up. Each place was unique and special in its own way. But when it came to Halloween, I can easily choose my favorite place – Winchester, Indiana.

Winchester was a town of about 5,000 on the eastern edge of Indiana, the county seat of Randolph County. And at some point in history, a very wise decision was made. Every year the mayor would declare the Sunday closest to Halloween as Trick Or Treat Day. The mayor further stated that official hours for trick or treating in the town would be from 2 until 4 pm. That was so great.

By the time I lived in Indiana, the kids were in elementary school. I had a friend who lived in a nice part of town, with a circle street just a block behind her house. All the kids needed to do was walk down the sidewalk to the corner, hang a left, and they could hit a whole bunch of houses close together. It was a stellar trick or treating area! And my friend and I were comfortable letting her son and my three kids go together without an adult – small town, light traffic, and a lot of parents had the same idea we did.

My friend and I weren't totally naïve – I'm sure once they got over to that circle street, my girls went one direction around the circle and the two boys went the opposite way, just meeting up to come back to the house together. But they were safe. It was not a situation where a parent would need to be concerned. The kids got great candy, and Ellen and I would enjoy a cup of coffee and a nice visit.

We don't have many kids in our neighborhood, but we buy hubby's favorite Snickers bars – just in case. If you're going to be prepared, get the best!