This year, we had the rare occurrence of having trick-or-treat on the actual date of Halloween. It was in the evening from 4 to 7 pm. Aside from somehow squishing dinner into the middle of it all, it's a cool span of time to hold the event. That's because you can go from light to dark and see the neighborhood lit up. I think I would have enjoyed trick-or-treating in the dark when I was a kid.
So this year, I was stocked with a lot of candy. I was excited to find Pixy Stix, or rather "Silly Stix" at Dollar Tree this year. I think there was a break in them being available because I haven't seen Pixy Stix under that name or any other name for years! So that was exciting both for me and one of the Dollar Tree employees who agreed he hadn't seen them for some time. If you're around my age, this candy will mean something to you. I have a few stories about the Pixy Stix I'll share in a bit.
Other than the Pixy Stix, I also found Bubble Gum Eyeballs, Dum Dums, and Gummy Bears at Dollar Tree. These were the best deals around. At least, until I went to Ollie's and found those same eyeballs for only 99¢. 40 eyeballs for 99¢, not bad. And I also found those Mamba's for 99¢.
The eyeballs are pretty good gum! And I ended up kind of hiding the gummy bears at the bottom of the bowl for myself... Same with the Mambas.
I had a pad of paper out there with me and kept a count of how many kids dropped by. Would you believe the number came to 63? Pretty good turnout. It didn't hurt that my neighbor was out there waving the kids to come over.
All the children were super nice and polite. I'd say more so than ever. Many of them wished me a good rest of the day or a wonderful day.
I had my skeleton rat in the bowl, as usual. It got a little attention. One little girl asked what was up with my hamster.
The porch ghoul was out keeping me company. I'll be telling you more about him in a later blog post. I'll be including him in a before and after craft blog post. As it got darker, I heard one boy say to his friend "Oh, there's two of them up there" So I guess I managed to fool one kid. His friend was quick to clue him in that the ghoul was not a person.
The new spooky flip sign was out, which I'll also be talking about in a future blog post. I've gotten a little ahead of myself with some of these pictures.
So, I'm going to share a few trick-or-treat stories, while transitioning into some night photos. About an hour before trick-or-treat, I went out for a walk. While walking, I ran into a pack of pre-teen boys all dressed in matching green outfits. I realized as I got closer that I was walking up to a pack of pickles. So I said to them "Are you a pack of pickles?" and one said "Yeah! Except he's a cucumber" pointing to a boy in front. The "cucumber" was wearing a darker outfit with no bumps on it. He twirled around proudly to show off his cucumber outfit and I got a good laugh.
So, fast forward a few hours and a pack of pickles walks up to me on the porch. As a funny side note, one of them says to me "We're a little turned around. I swear GPS is my savior" I say to them "Hey! It's the pack of pickles! Remember, I saw you while walking?" They looked a little confused, so I said "You know, you were with the cucumber". That resonated. They all said "Oh yeah! No, that's the other pack of pickles." I said there are two groups? And they said, "No, there are three groups". So I guess there were 20 or so boys dressed as pickles (and one cucumber) out there? I wonder if it was a whole sports team or something.
The kids were pretty happy with the candy. Those eyeballs were a hit. I happened to be chewing one of them at the time a little girl walked up. She asked what the eyeballs were. I said "Oh, they're gum. I'm chewing on an eyeball now." I gave her some and she excitedly ran back to the street yelling to her mother "Look mom! I got bubblegum!"
As for the Pixy Stix, they got a lot of interest. Mostly this was because the kids didn't know what they were. We've officially hit that generation! Now, the parents, they knew. I heard one mom say "Ohh! Pixy Stix! Nice!" and I got the feeling she might be the one who would be eating them. One little girl asked what they were and I said "Pixy Stix. They're basically sugar in a tube. You'll love them." Her eyes lit up and she yelled "Sweet!" She ran into the street to report this find to her mom and I heard her mom exclaim "ALRIGHT!" while pumping her fist in the air.
There was a teen boy who walked up in a black robe. I said something along the lines of "ooh... it's Mr. Spooky" and he looked behind himself like "Who, me?" I said, "Yeah, you in your black robe" and he said "Oh, yeah I'm more spooky when I have my mask on but I left it somewhere. It's that one from Scream but with the tongue out. From Scary Movie." I said I'd never seen any movies in the Scary Movie franchise but should get around to it at some point. He said he hadn't either. *side note* Should I see any of those movies? I've probably watched every movie they're parodying, so I'd get it.
Every year I get clued into something the kids are into that I've never heard of. This year I learned from a teenage girl who wasn't wearing much, especially for how cold it was out there! I asked her what she was and she said "Stargirl" ??? She says "from Teen Titans". I said "Still, nope. I'll have to google that." So, I just did and you know what? She was dressed nothing like that character! Oh, wait. I take that back. She seemed to be going for what the cartoon had on with that little purple outfit, instead of the live action character. OK. But it says "Starfire" instead. I don't know. Anyway, she was dressed like this: Starfire So yeah, this girl must have been cold. I was out there thinking "how many pants and skirts can I fit over each other?" I mean, it was comfortable for Oct. 31, but only for Oct. 31 in Wisconsin.
My absolute favorite costumes of the day were Beavis and Butt-Head. These two boys who looked about 10 years old were more or less getting their act together behind some tall grasses. By getting their act together, I mean Beavis had to pull his shirt over the top of his head. And they had to get their laughs going. So there they came around the corner "Heh Heh Heh" "Heh Heh Heh" along the way. One had his ACDC shirt on and the other had written Metallica with a sharpie on his t-shirt. They had the shorts and the sneakers going. It was hilarious. I said "Beavis and Butt-Head!" and I was laughing. So then they really revved up the routine. They never broke character. I heard the guy across the street laughing so I think he got the act too. I was wondering what anyone would make of them if for some reason they weren't familiar with the characters.
I had this pumpkin pail hanging out on a plant hook. That tap light from Dollar Tree was in there again.
As the night went on, my neighbor started to really crank the fog out of his fog machine. It looks like he's having some sort of house fire in this photo. Looking back, I wish I'd taken some photos of what was going on inside that garage. He had some pretty scary talking figures in there. I watched kid after kid walk up and stare at them in fright.
