Halloween

After Christmas the biggest holiday that people spend the most money on is Halloween.  Trick or Treaters, parties, decorations, costumes, parties,  scary movies, great food ideas.  Seems like many years ago October 31st was more fun.  Before the “politically correct” banned it from schools, before idiots started putting pins and razors in treats.

When my kids were young the build up to Halloween was almost like the build up to Christmas.  Many hours spent deciding on the right costume.  Finding the perfect pumpkin. 

One year while traveling out to the end of Long Island I passed a very old farm stand and saw the biggest pumpkin I had ever seen.  It took a lot of work but I got it home and a tradition was born, that year the pumpkin was as big as the kids, and every year after we would take a trip out to the farm stand for the Jack O’Lantern.

When we first moved into our house my wife said to me, one day, how unfriendly the man across the street was.

“Why?” I asked.

“Well every day I wave to him and he just ignores us!” she answered.

“Didn’t you notice the long white cane he taps in front of himself as he walks?  He’s blind!”

So one year my wife decided to dress the kids as London Bobbies.  We had the hats and little badges ,moustaches ,dark blue shirts she sewed bright buttons on and we managed to find tiny plastic handcuffs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first house to Trick or Treat at was our neighbor across the street.  The kids rang the bell and he answered.

“Trick or Treat” they chimed.

He reached into a bowl set up by the door and attempted to toss the candy package into each of their pumpkins.

He missed both.

They looked down at the treats on the sidewalk, looked up at him, looked at each other and both shrugged their shoulders, bent down picked up the treat and put in the pumpkin and thanked him.

I do miss those days.  So since Halloween is a big deal we’ll start to work up some of our favorite recipes and post them over the next few weeks.