Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Knock on My Door, You Little Hooligans!



It's 7:15 Everyone Else's Time (EET)/8:15 My Time (MT) and so far, I've only had three trick-or-treaters. Count 'em. Three. 1, 2, 3...

Where are all the kids, dammit! They're a dime a dozen around here any other day of the week, but on the one night of the year, when I have crappy candy to hand out, they're no where to be seen.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Being of the unemployed, I am loath (did I get that right, JaneAnne?) to be stuck with bad candy that I can't pawn off on my co-workers tomorrow morning. Please, children of the neighborhood, come and knock on my door. Puhleeeeeease....


UPDATE: 7:30 EET/8:30 MT: Just had the cutest little princess knock at the door. She was adorable. Couldn't have been more than two. Come on, kids. If the two-year-olds can do it, so can you.

P.S. It's a balmy 64 degrees out. (Unlike the 25 degrees in Sister Mary Lisa's home state of Montana.)


UPDATE: 8:40 EET/9:40 MT: Okay, it's picked up a little. Still, the volume's been a little low and the kids are cleaning up here. I'm handing out HANDFULS of goodies.

In the meantime, I'm listening to old radio shows (Jack Benny right now) and working on a new format for my resume.


UPDATE: 9:20 EET/10:20 MT: It's been 40 minutes since that last group of TOT'ers. At 10:00 EET, the citywide curfew for kids under 16 kicks in and it's a school night. I have a feeling that's it for the night. I still have half a bag of crappy candy. As Charlie Brown would say, "Oh, drat!"


SOME OBSERVATIONS ON HALLOWEEN IN D.C.

Having grown up in Utah where Halloween is, ironically, a BIG deal, I find Halloween a bit blah around here. Perhaps if I lived out in the suburbs of Fairfax or Montgomery Counties it would be different. In fact, I think if I even lived over the border in Tacoma Park or Silver Spring, MD, it would be different. But I don't. I live in the District.

Still, I keep wondering, where are all the kids?!

Then I have to remind myself that my expectations are colored by the geographical and religious demographic of my upbringing and what you end up with is a state where the neighborhoods are very familiar and close knit and the families are, on average, large (four kids or more each.) The result: hoards and hoards of kids out trick-or-treating from approximately 5:00 until around 9:00. (I seem to recall that the Duckwitz's were some of the first kids out on Halloween. I think that was because their parents were much stricter about bedtime than the rest of us. We had strict bedtimes, too, but Halloween was one of the few nights a year where we were allowed to be up past our normal hour of repose.)

I suppose I should just be grateful that I'm living in a city and a neighborhood where parents feel safe enough bringing their kids out for an evening of trick-or-treating.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

5 comments:

Mary Ellen said...

Buy the good candy. It's not so bad to be stuck with leftover GOOD candy.

I've only had 6 kids come by and it's nearly 9:30. Which leaves me with PB cups, Jr. mints and Butterfingers. If I'm in danger of gorging on leftovers, I'll send them to work with Mike.

Sister Mary Lisa said...

I like your play by play. I'm still shivering...it was actually 21 degrees on the news just before we left, so I'm estimating it really got to be around 19 degrees, or colder if you count wind chill.

The kids are candied up and loving it, though, so it was worth it.

Happy Halloween!

Janet Kincaid said...

ME: I had to get bad candy this year. There are too many "Sweet Tooths" living in this household to have anymore candy around. If you could see the crap we've got, you'd agree and buy the crappy candy too. Besides, if I want to good stuff, I just go and pilfer from Mom & Dad. Hence, the ample supply of mini-Twix bars currently residing in the top drawer of my desk! ;-)

SML: Brrrrrrrrrrrr! I remember Halloween's like that growing up in Utah. Of course, my mother would tell us it was so much worse in Wyoming where she grew up. Still, it's a bummer to have to bundle up on Halloween, esp. if you have a kick-ass costume. Did you end up going as a White Lie? (I loved that idea, btw.)

JA: Can't wait to see pictures of the boys. How is it that L ended up being a bee?!? And, are you going to share your recipe for witches fingers?

avocadoinparadise said...

I had a fair number of kids here in capitol hill, but not too many of them wore costumes. That was fairly dissapointing. And I seem to recall more kids & more in costumes last year.

honeykbee said...

In my neck of MoCo, the trick or treaters also were a wee-bit disappointing. Mostly 17+ year olds with little or no costumes whatsoever. And you're right, every other day, they little monsters everywhere! Where are they when there's candy to be had?! Crazy, what has be come of halloween?!