Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Everybody. We had the house decorated up real nice last year. We didn't do as much this year.

We don't have many trick-or-treaters around here. Some years we never see a kid. I always buy some candy, just in case, but I pick out stuff we like to eat. Win, win!

I loved Halloween when I was a kid. Sometimes I'd see kids with pillowcases loaded down with candy. Those kids usually went to neighborhoods in towns or subdivisions. We only trick-or-treated in our neighborhood. When people ran out of candy they would turn off their lights and go to bed. That's when some people would soap their windows or TP (toilet paper) their yards.

We've had our magnolia trees TP'ed. I've read you can light the toilet paper and burn the paper out of the trees. I was afraid to try that because magnolia   leaves are very flammable. They make a nice cracking fire. I was afraid the fire might spread from the toilet paper to the treetops and catch them on fire. That would have been a sight!

One year we had a ceramic pumpkin jack-o-lantern and a ceramic skull with a candle in it, too, sitting on our stoop. Someone stole them and placed them on the shoulder of the highway and ran over one and crushed it. The next day we found them beside the road. You could see tire marks on the slope by the ditch. Instead of running over them with their right tire the idiots had aimed the drivers wheel towards the decorations and run over them. The car could have turned over and flipped into our front driveway. I'd of paid a dollar to see that!

I can never think about being toilet papered without thinking about an incident that happened when I was in high school. One day a girl in our class came to school and said that someone had TP'ed her house. Some other girls were smirking and acting catty. She didn't notice her friends giggling behind her back. 

She said "My mother and I were so thankful because we had run out of toilet paper and didn't have any money to go to the store. We tore that toilet paper down and used it." She seemed so happy and good spirited about it that I was impressed with her. 

She was probably kidding but she made sure to let the people who had toilet papered her house know that she didn't let them get to her. That brought her up a peg or two in my book and I learned a lesson from her. She turned a trick around and made it a treat. Way to go! Never let them get you down.

I don't mind little pranks but when somebody becomes mean or malicious they cross the line. Toilet paper all over your front yard might not look attractive but it's lots better than some of the mean tricks we've all been brought up to believe. Everybody knows to search for razor blades in their apples and you never know when someone might slip some ex-lax in their homemade chocolate treats. 

My favorite trick, although we never did it, was the story about putting dog crap in a paper bag and ringing the doorbell and setting the bag on fire. I can just imagine some homeowner panicking and stomping the bag. Yuck!

When we were kids some people put soap in a downtown fountain and it had bubbles in it for days. Someone even put dye in the fountain but that was a mess. I'm not sure it was even Halloween when that happened.

Have a safe and happy Halloween this year and no matter which end you're on, enjoy the experience. It is a magical time for little kids. That's why it's my favorite holiday.

AS ALWAYS

PIO

*****

You still haven't figured it out, have you?