Can it be November already? Bill Chatman has been sowing wheat. We went trick-or-treating Wednesday night. So all the evidence points to the fact that it’s now November. Wow, Thanksgiving is two and a half weeks away!
We’ve had a lot happening around here, but the highlight of the week for us was Halloween night. Since becoming a father I have always struggled to keep a positive attitude on Halloween. It’s not that I get all hung up on whether or not we should have Halloween activities, I’m all for that, just save the Reese’s Cups for me as my chauffeur’s fee. What gets me is fooling with the buckling in and out of car seats for the 20+ stops when the kids were smaller and wearing bulky costumes.
Living out in the country you just can’t walk door-to-door to do your trick-or-treating. One of my fondest memories as a boy came courtesy of Mr. Kenneth Swann, Kenny’s dad. He would load all of us up in the bed his ‘72 GMC truck, the one we named Old Jessie Mae, and haul us all over the community. It was a truck full of Swanns, Freelands, Henrys and anyone else that would fit. I would not be surprised if we traveled 15 miles making candy stops. And a number of folks, not worried about the quantity of spooks that would be coming to call at their door, went for quality. A large part of our loot was actually homemade stuff, and we weren’t worried about it because we knew all the cooks. These days you’d probably be put under the jail for hauling all those kids around in the back of a truck like that. And a bag of brownies or cookies would be tossed without a second thought.
Well, this year has to be the best year for trick-or-treating we’ve had as far as I’m concerned. Jenna dressed as a medieval princess. We teased her about being a mid-level princess. Ben donned Superman’s cape. He attempted, but failed to leap a building in a single bound. Nate was Spiderman and was very impressed with his bulky muscles. Vicki and I went as ourselves.
Orlinda Baptist Church had their second annual Trunk-or-Treat and we started there. If you aren’t familiar with the concept it works like this: members of their church dress up and decorate their cars and all assemble at the church parking lot. Then all the trick-or-treaters come to them there. Their pastor and his wife dressed up as a nun and a priest, respectively. Another group came as the castaways of Gilligan’s Island. And then we ran into Santa and Mrs. Claus and some elves.
After leaving Orlinda we stopped by Steve and Connie Freeland’s to get some pictures around their pumpkins and then headed to Don and Katie Henry’s. They had invited several neighbors over for supper and we had a great time slowing down for a visit. We even had a costume contest for the kids who were dressed up.
The final stop of the evening was our church where we were having our own Trunk-or-Treat. This was our first one and we were impressed with the turn out. We had over 40 cars there who had come to give out candy and no telling how many kids came to do their trick-or-treating. Mrs. Judy DePriest (she cuts our hair) said she left after her 250 bags of candy were gone.
What amazed us was the creativity! Bro. Bill and Cindy were George and Martha Washington. Another couple came as Johnny Cash and Little Jimmie Dickens. One family even brought a horse trailer made up as a one room haunted house. There was simply too much variety to recount here, but I’d have to say Kenny was the most memorable. He came a Madam Kendra, the fortune teller (“she” predicted Jenna would have 16 husbands, including Tom Cruise and Donald Trump, and 35 children). If you didn’t want your fortune told she also ran a kissing booth on the side. And this was a last minute idea! If laughing is good for your health then everyone had a good dose of medicine Wednesday night.
Joe
