An overwhelming Halloween. Maybelle Crabtree here. We thought our first Halloween on Primrose Lane would be quiet and kind of boring. Boy, were we wrong.
Our house was part of the first phase of the tract; eight houses total, 4 on each side of the street. Due to the fact that most of us moved in just a couple of months before and two homes sat empty, some of us hadn’t completed the landscaping yet. For example, our house only had the hardscape pathway from the sidewalk to the front porch. No grass, plants, or trees. Just dirt. No lawn decorations. But a couple of Jack-o-Lanterns did sit on the porch.
Should We Buy Halloween Candy?
Tom and I often wondered if we should even buy candy. Who in their right mind would take their children down a road with bulldozers, dump trucks, and excavators on it; not to mention the piles of gravel, broken roof tiles, and bent nails scattered over the ground? But we realized that at least the kids on our street would come over and probably some kids from the surrounding, fully-developed tracts would come also. So we bought candy. Two bags of it which was enough for a couple of hundred kids. We hoped there wouldn’t be too much left over.
Finally, Halloween night came. Tom arrived home early from work carrying a pizza box. Our dinner for the evening. I told Matthew, who was three years old at the time, he had to eat one slice of pizza before we could go out trick or treating. He gobbled it down.
Then I helped him put on his Ninja warrior costume, grabbed my heavy-duty jacket and a flashlight, and headed out the door while I yelled at Matthew to wait for me. Tom was left behind to pass out candy in case anyone knocked on the door.
The Surprise of Halloween Night
We visited the other occupied homes on our block and then walked up the slight incline to the next street above ours. As we rounded the corner, sounds of joyous laughter greeted us. Groups of dressed-up children strolled on both sides of the street. They were followed by smaller groups of adults most of whom were pushing strollers. Others held mugs of steamy beverages in one hand and flashlights in the other. Laughter and merriment surrounded Matthew and me.
The houses were decked out with various Halloween décor. Skeletons, witches, monsters, spiders, and dry ice-filled cauldrons littered the lawns. Also, huge, inflatable characters hummed. Amid the adornments, creepy noises and spooky music permeated throughout the neighborhood. They all put my two carved pumpkins to shame.
As I held Matthew’s hand, we made our way through the throngs of children. He quickly toddled up the pathway of each house, proudly said “Trick or Treat,” and opened his small, Ninja imprinted pillowcase for the obligatory piece of candy. His eyes danced with delight every time he showed me his treasure..
Our Way Home
Soon we finished one side of the road. Then Matthew held up his hands which was his signal to me that he wanted to be carried.
“No way, Buddy,” I said. “If I carry you we’re going home.”
For a moment he had puppy-dog eyes. Eventually he dropped his head and we crossed the street to the other side. He did two more houses before we headed home.
As we walked in the front door, I heard cabinet doors banging shut. Tom rushed in from the kitchen; a bewildered look on his face.
“Do we have any more candy?” he asked.
“What?”
“The Halloween candy! It’s almost gone. He pointed to the floor near the front door where the large candy bowl was. “Look!”
Sure enough there laid an empty bag of fun-size candy bars and the other was only half full.
Suddenly, a knock on the front door.
More Halloween Candy!
“Quick! Find some more candy. They’re coming in droves. I didn’t know we had so many kids in the community.” Tom said as he opened the door to seven or eight costumed youngsters yelling “Trick or Treat.”
I took Matthew into the kitchen and sat him at the table with a few pieces of his favorite candy. When I was out of his vision in the hallway, I dumped out the pillowcase and made two piles of candy: one for Matthew and one for the bowl. The “Matthew” pile I threw back into the pillowcase. The other I put in a plastic bag and placed it next to the candy bowl. Needless to say, there wasn’t much candy left that night.
The next day, Halloween night was the talk of the block. We all had an overwhelming Halloween. All of us running out of candy and rummaging our households for extra treats like protein bars and fruit chews for the swarms of costumed kiddos.. One neighbor even raided his change jar and gave out handfuls of coins.
An Overwhelming Halloween Maybe Again
Overwhelming Halloweens became the norm as the years passed by. We bought more and more candy each year. Oftentimes we saw party buses and vans roaming the lane, loading and unloading kids. Sometimes when the weather was nice, we hauled out the folding chairs and sat in the driveway passing out candy. By the time our own 3 moppets were in high school, more teens than toddlers knocked on the door and eventually, fewer and fewer knocks at all on the door.
But now the empty-nesters are moving away and new families are occupying the houses on our block. There is a resurgence of Trick or Treaters. Maybe it’s not an overwhelming Halloween anymore, but it’s enough to make it worth putting out decorations and buying candy.
And once again it’s a night when all of us – young and old alike – eat some candy and dress up in costumes and be anything we want to be. And who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll run out of candy again.
So what you? What’s your memories of Halloween? Drop me a note below and let’s discuss. Oh, and if you want to read another post I wrote about Halloween click here. Maybelle Crabtree signing off.