Trick-or-Treat Night!

Last night was trick-or-treat night where I live. Well, it was sort of a late afternoon, early evening trick-or-treat that went from 4:00-7:00. Still, it was definitely getting dark and spooky by 6:00. I think that sets a whole different mood. When I was a kid, we'd go trick-or-treating in the afternoon. I imagine I would have liked going later!

So, I sat out there in 40-some degree weather with a crisp wind that made it feel like it was in the 30s. But I was a witch of many layers, so I did fine.

I had my candy bowl out there with a special guest inside. Some of you who follow me on Twitter might know that I scored this rat for only $1 at Dollar Tree this year! Those rats went fast, as did the birds and bats. The rat was pretty popular. All the kids looked at it, some patted it on the head.

I picked up a bird too. He was also partaking of the candy.

I'll post some pics of how the light changed and the candlelight started showing up as we go. I was inspired to put out a few little candle displays this year after going to a Day of the Dead event. (I'll blog about that later.) There were a lot of skeletons lit only by candles at the event I went to and I wanted to create a little bit of that for trick-or-treat night.

So, you guys know I like to share stories every year about the kids and parents who came by. No one scared me this year or tried to, as far as I could tell. I had about 50ish kids, which was less than expected. As the night went on, the lucky late-comers got a handful of pixy stix.

The vast majority of the kids were super polite. Even the rambunctious ones said thank you. Many were chatty. They wanted to talk about my costume, their costume, and the rat in my candy bowl. A good half wished me a Happy Halloween on their way out. So it was an incredibly pleasant experience that I think I could do happily every night of the year. Maybe not in the dead of winter, but you know.

So here are the highlights as I remember them from last night:

🍬 The kid who came over dressed as a slice of pizza and wanted to stay and chat. He ran up yelling "Ooooh witchy!" He had questions like "Can you really fly?" I said yes and he said "Really?" I thought at this point that the kid might ask me to demonstrate or something so I said I was kidding. Then he had questions about the rat. Then he wanted to know why I was sitting outside. I told him that I thought it was comfortable sitting out there and liked chatting with the kids. He said "Oh, well I'd be sitting inside!" At this point, his grandfather called to him from the street to get going because I think he was getting tired of standing out there in the cold, waiting for the kid.

🍬 The girl who gestured to a person in the street who was wearing a giant, inflatable dinosaur costume. She said "See that dinosaur in the street? That's my dad." I asked if he had trouble walking in that costume (because it looked like he was having issues both in walking and seeing). She said he was OK. I sent her with some candy for him, since he went to all that effort. She said "OK, but I'll have to take it, because he can't carry anything with those little arms." I guess his actual arms were at his side somewhere in the costume?

🍬 The teenage boys who got a good laugh as my witch hat got stuck in a string of lights. One of them was in a Ghillie Suit and I asked him if he stood in people's yards pretending to be plant life. He kind of nodded and laughed somewhere in that suit. Hopefully he isn't really doing that. Someone actually had the police called on them for doing that around here! There was a guy who would stand in this lady's yard like he was a big shrub and move to another part of the yard every now and then.

🍬 The girl who came up wearing a turquoise sequined hoodie with a bunny face on it. I said "Ooh, a glittery bunny" and she told me she was a zombie princess. She wasn't being sarcastic or anything, she said it like she meant it. So I guess this girl could be dressed in a cute costume, but in her mind she's going to be what she wants to be!

🍬 A kid dressed as Michael Myers who was shaking his knife at a neighbor man. It was one of those knives that looks like it fills with blood as you shake it. He was running all around acting up. He ran up and I said in what came out as kind of an authoritative tone "Michael Myers". And he just looked down and said "Yes, Ma'am". So either that came out a little more authoritative than expected or I got some witch cred.

🍬 The Michael Myers kid was with some teenage girls, his mother, and their Rottweiler. Of course everyone was running every which way. One girl was an angel and the other was a devil. Their mom was taking pics of them up against a neighbor's house. She was taking a really long time, the girls were trying all kinds of poses, and it seemed kind of weird. The Rottweiler meanwhile wandered into this same neighbor's yard and left a little something. So... there's another reason to stay outside during the trick-or-treat hours.

🍬 There was a kid dressed as Captain Underpants. It was a sort of inflated costume with, I don't know how to put this, a lot of underpants. I think that was the only place where there was still some air. I'm laughing as I write this. He looked pretty bottom heavy. I asked if he was Captain Underpants, he said he was, and I said "Good, because I didn't have a second guess!" If he wasn't Captain Underpants I don't even want to know!

🍬 There was a girl dressed as a Voodoo doll. That I'd never seen. She had a heart that looked sewn on the chest of her dress and there were what looked like two syringes sticking out of it. It's weird, they should have been pins or something. Anyway, I pointed out the syringes and she pointed to her friend saying "She did that to me". And her friend (who seemed like a not very nice kid) nodded! I don't even know where to go with that.

🍬 And lastly, the kid who was trying to sneak Pixy Stix out of the bowl saying "Oooh sugar sticks!" I shooed him out of the bowl but then decided that he and his friends could have some extras. It occurred to me that I don't even like Pixy Stix much! You can get 43 for $1 at Dollar Tree, and the kids seem excited about sugar in a tube, so I get them. So after I gave him the Pixy Stix, the kid starts yelling "I'm Captain America, if Captain America went Maaaaaaad!" and starts flailing around. I'm thinking he had a lot of sugar in his system by the time he got to me.

I ended up with a bunch Pixy Stix left over, actually. A lady and her son came by after 7:00 and I gave her son a handful of them. She said that she had to work and could only get him out at that time. I feel sorry for him missing the experience, but I'm not worried about him not getting enough candy. I overheard a neighbor telling him that she was giving him all her leftover candy! So he was probably done after two doors.

So there was my night! It was lots of fun. I read that Rosemary Ellen Guiley book about Vampires and Werewolves while waiting for trick-or-treaters. I've been learning all kinds of wild historical trivia from that, and I'll pick some highlights to share in a future blog post.

I assume most of you were handing out treats or taking someone trick-or-treating this past weekend. Did you have a lot of kids drop by? I had less than usual, but I heard some people on the radio today with real complaints. One lady said she bought $25 worth of candy and only two kids showed up! I hope she bought some candy she likes. I'd like to hear any stories from trick-or-treat night you'd like to share!