Tonight was Caroline’s first serious foray into that festive day when, all across America, America’s youth goes door to door, their faces hidden, begging for food. This violates several laws regarding trespassing, vagrancy, mask wearing, and harassment. Indeed, on any other day and practiced by adults, the authorities would be summoned and the perpetrator taken straight away. Amazingly, the police turn a blind eye to it and thus is Halloween and trick-or-treating perpetuated.
Ariel dressed as Dora the Explorer, the animated pint-sized adventurer who’s got my youngest speaking Spanish before she’s got English down. And Caroline, in a home made costume courtesy of mom, was dressed as Dora’s simian companion, Boots…so called because he wears boots (presumably before he adopted the footwear, his name was “Feet.”) Caroline’s patience for running door to door was exhausted after three houses because, once she realized people were giving her stuff, she got so overanxious that she kept sprinting and thus tripping over either her boots or her tail. Fortunately, I’d brought the stroller along, and so her highness rode from one house to the next in a typical “awwww” inspiring outing.
Best moment was when we encountered a six year old girl also dressed as Dora. But she looked at Ariel and Caroline in amazement, as if she’d actually run into the genuine items. Ariel dutifully collected candy for her little sister as well. Once we got home, we sorted judiciously through the candy to see what, if anything, Caroline could eat. Anything that presented a choking hazard was right out, but I figured we could let her have a Kitkat bar. I unwrapped it for her, and she carefully began sucking on it. Her eyes lit up (not literally, but close) and she started “mmm”ing. And then, as she chewed on it, the Kitkat bar split lengthwise into its two pieces. Caroline immediatley let out an alarmed yelp, thinking she’d broken it, and started trying to mush the two pieces back together again. But then she realized she could hold one in each hand and suck on both, and she was happy. Goldfish crackers were also a big hit.
Boy, she’s gonna have a festive diaper by tomorrow morning.
PAD
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Great story PAD, well until the crappy ending anyway….
Sorry, Jay — that’s a ten-post penalty for bad poop-related puns.
Unless you’ve also got a little one, of course. Then it’s not only allowed, but mandated. 🙂
Fun story! Katherine’s a bit too small to have a real Halloween this year (just over 10 weeks), but we’ll aim for something huge next year.
TWL
Ahhhh, KitKat love. Only slightly less addictive/ obsessive than Ferraro Rocher love.
Thank mans, that last line made me laugh/spittle all over my laptop…
This was the first year for my youngest girl, 3 years old, and she was super excited. As soon as she would get the candy, she would say “thank you” and immediately after that “let’s go to the next house.” Unfortunately she’s allergic to milk and soy so I guess I will have to eat the candy for her. If I have to.
Ahhh….Hallowe’en! The one night of the year when adults let their children run wild so that later we can (ahem) “check” the candy. (nudge! nudge!, wink! wink!) Boy do I love Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!
I just wanted to throw this out there: anybody ever notice that the Hallowe’en “Kisses” candies — usually wrapped in a wax paper wrapper that is decorated with spooky pictures –is as hard as a rock!! I swear that these candies are never eaten! They just get passed from one year to another! Kids who get these thrown in their pillow cases must moan: “I WISH I GOT A ROCK!”
(All apologies to Charlie Brown & the gang.)
Definition of disappointment: 4 year old, who has been planning her Cinderella costume for, literally, months, who has asked every day this week “when is Halloween?” and who got up at 5:30a this morning with a *HUGE* smile on face, throws up her breakfast, finally catching the stomach bug that’s been going through her pre-school class. The look on her face when we told her she couldn’t go out and Trick-or-Treat broke my heart into 50 pieces.
Peter, you realize we need to see pictures of Ariel and Caroline in their costumes, right?
We considered dressing my four-year-old daughter up as Dora, as she’s a major Dora fan (and hey, she’s already Hispanic — though much lighter skinned than Dora — and has the dark hair, so we were talking an easy outfit that would be made up of clothes she could actually wear regularly after Halloween). But she had her own ideas. First she wanted to be a princess. Then it specifically became Princess Leia (who she calls “Princess Layla”). Then she changed her mind and wanted to be Spider-Man. Then she wanted to be both Spider-Man and Harry Potter. We could not find a decent-looking Spidey costume, so she ended up going in Gryffindor togs.
“Unfortunately she’s allergic to milk and soy so I guess I will have to eat the candy for her. If I have to.”
Wow. From a heroic point of view, that’s practically the same as throwing yourself on a live grenade to save your buddies…except, y’know, higher calories…
PAD
Jeff L.-
Oh that is heart breaking. And telling the kid that there will be other Halloweens doesn’t really cut it at that age.
To All-
Yes, I have pictures and will post probably tomorrow.
Kath
And my adventure consists of a stray cat trying to get in my house, every time some kids came to the door. Each time I swore, each time the kids gasped in shock, and each time I flung, I mean I threw this cat with everything I had across the friggin road. It got in twice and I figured if it got in one more time I was gonna give it the olo cassidy treatment, you know, stuff it in the toilet and put something heavy on the lid…then fluuuusssssshhhhh.
The cat never came back.
My daughter is 13 1/2 months and my wife took her out to a few of the neighbors house. I have some great video footage of her dropping her basket of candy (which, because it was shaped like Spider-man’s head, was quite surreal watching it bounce and roll down the sidewalk.) She liked the goldfish crackers too!
I had a similar experience as the previous poster. When I was in 3rd grade I came home from school on Halloween very excited to go out trick or treating. My Mom thought I looked a little peaked and discovered that, gee, I had chicken pox, so I couldn’t go out! I was heartbroken, but my sisters were actually nice to me and took an extra bag out with them to get candy for me. Amazingly people gave it to them! These days I think most people are much too cynical to believe a story like that!
By the way, I had to change the festive diaper this morning too! Joy!
I went to Chapel Hill with my wife and stepson for the annual Franklin Street halloween extravaganza, wherein about 70,000 people show up and, well, just walk around. It was unseasonably warm so my stepson baked inside his Frank The Bunny outfit (from Donnie Darko) but he was happy since so many goth chicks wanted to have their photographs taken with him. I was dressed as a masked Mexican Wrestler and got lots of reaction from the Latino kids, which was way cool. My wife went as a drag queen, making me doubly glad that I was wearing a mask. I even got interviewed a few times and a coworker tells me she heard my voice on NPR this morning! God, I love Halloween.
Actual coversation:
Hispanic Male– “Hey, are you Rey Mysterio?”
Me- “Sure!”
Hispanic Male (pointing at my wife)- “Who’s that?”
Me- “Um, Mrs Mysterio.”
My Wife- “I’m a drag queen.”
Hispanic Male (genuinely alarmed)- “Rey Mysterio is married to a dude?”
Me- “Hey man, the heart wants what the heart wants.”
Very nice Halloween story, folks! My Halloween was spent working retail for 7 1/2 hours (horrors, to be sure, but not the sort you’ll see in an October anthology), but there were plusses. Beforehand I saw the movie SAW (ehh — too much MTV-style editing, plus the movie was more flashback than present time) and afterwards I caught the Vincent Price film THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (a decent adaption of Richard Matheson’s extraordinary vampire novella I AM LEGEND).
And as I think of all the massive bags of smaller treats being sold this time of year, I’m reminded of one trick or treater’s comments in John Kovalic’s comic SNAPDRAGONS: “Why do they call it fun size if it’s smaller? That’s not fun. That’s sad sized.”
I hope y’all enjoyed the coolest holiday of the year! And a belated BOO! to all.
Ah, the joys of parenthood.
Someday I still hope to be as blessed as you are now Peter, but the possibilities in that department dwindle every day.
Enjoy it while you can, for Caroline will be off to college before you know it.
Hi! Peter’s sister here… Sarah (3 1/2) and Emily (19 months) also had a great time. Sarah was a witch (in a homemade costume) and Emily was a wizard with a purple pointy hat, cape and fuzzy white hair. They both looked great. Emily had a great time walking from house to house for 3 houses then got tired. She went in the stroller. Sarah enjoyed saying trick or treat and got candy in her caldron. After a while Emily got her second wind and walked again and Sarah got tired and rode in the stroller and got out at each house to ring the bell. I wore her witch hat in between houses. Emily chose this moment to learn how to say thank you (tank too). Well timed, I must say… At one house I said “what do you say?” and Sarah responded “I want candy!”
Ah, there’s nothing like the celebration of the Americanized version of a pre-Christian harvest and New Year’s festival through the act of putting on costumes and stuffing oneself with candy. Isn’t Halloween great?
It’s been so long since I’ve really done anything for Halloween. I’m too old to Trick or Treat and I don’t have any friends who throw Halloween parties. I’m not about to throw a party myself, especially since I live in my parents’ house. Usually, the extent of the festivities is watching a great number of old monster movies. I now have all the Universal Monster Legacy Collections. Yesterday I had to work, though. In fact, they called me in early. I was only supposed to be working the evening shift, but it ended up being half the day shift plus the evening shift. Oh well, there’s always next year.
So long and a belated Happy Halloween.
Adam,
If you haven’t seen it yet, Les Yeux Sans Visage (aka Eyes Without A Face, The Horror Chamber of Dr Faustus) just got released on DVD. One of the greatest horror films of all time, horrifying and poetic in equal amounts. Highest recommendation.
I got absolutely no trick-or-treaters at my house. And since I had to work my regular overnight shift, I couldn’t even see Pleasure Island’s once-legendary, now merely-okay-and-prizeless, Halloween costume contest.
However, I did play a few hours of the online game “City of Heroes,” in which your superhero character could knock on the usually locked doors in certain parts of the city. You would either get a “treat” (usually a small “inspiration” or power-up) or a “trick” (one or several vampires, witches or walking pumpkins, monsters made specifically for the occasion).
I got killed twice, and ended up deeper in “experience point debt,” until I joined a “trick-or-treat crew” that ganged up on the door monsters. Some groups (not mine) even dared to fight the three-story-tall walking pumpkin that appeared in several city zones – a creature even the regular city monsters would flee from.
My daughter had a lovely time in her princess garb. She dazzled them at the preschool “Costume Ball” and then impressed all at the homes she went to. She came home with her bag o’ goodies and declared Halloween to be her favorite holiday!
Jeff, can I suggest asking friends, neighbors, maybe other parents in the pre-school if, after your daughter’s feeling better, if they’d be willing to let her trick or treat in costume at their houses some night this week even if it’s not Halloween? You could even provide the candy for them to give to her. Even though it wouldn’t capture the whole spirit of the night, might make her feel a little better.
Bill, I’m apparently indirectly responsible for the Franklin St. bash. From what I’m told, it started off very small a number of years ago as the UNC-CH sf club wandering around en masse in costume. And, well, I’m the one who started that club…although the Halloween stuff was after I left.
I hate this “holiday.” It’s strictly for kids so once you don’t go out trick or treating (and after 13 years old YOU SHOULDN’T BE) it loses it’s luster.
Maybe having kids brings some of it back, but since I don’t have the little rugrats let my mother hand out the candy while I hide in my room typing inane messages on message forums.
Ahh…what a day.
Tom says:
“Bill, I’m apparently indirectly responsible for the Franklin St. bash. From what I’m told, it started off very small a number of years ago as the UNC-CH sf club wandering around en masse in costume. And, well, I’m the one who started that club…although the Halloween stuff was after I left.”
Tom, a grateful North Carolina salutes you! You are one of the unsung heroes of middle aged horror movie geeks and/or younger men eager for a glimpse of drunken female flesh.
About the only folks who DON’T love the annual bash are some of the store owners in the area who complain about having 70,000 potential customers all in one place. Where did they go to business school, Havana?
“Jeff, can I suggest asking friends, neighbors, maybe other parents in the pre-school if, after your daughter’s feeling better, if they’d be willing to let her trick or treat in costume at their houses….”
Thanks for the idea, Tom. My wife had the same thought, except she’s thinking of doing it at work. But Sara, being oh-so-very 4, was upset for a while, but now, a day later, she’s moved on to planning what she’ll say on Santa’s lap!
Something that my Dad did for my nephew (who’s 1 and a half & was dressed like a scarecrow–very cute BTW)and his next door neighbor’s 1 yr old child–he filled a decent sized bag full of animal crackers, golden fishes, pretzel rods, licorice, pudding & TastyKake’s krimpets.
Pretty much what little kids that age can eat for snacks, and things they already enjoy.
Supposedly my nephew has the Halloween trick-or-treat thing down to a science already. He’d reach into the bowl of candy, take one and place it in his bag. One person, who didn’t have many visitors, kept on telling to grab another (about four times) and he did each time.