Halloween

So it's not officially Halloween yet -- that's OK. But tonight was NK's trick-or-treat night. Some of my faithful readers will know how my family celebrated this holiday. When we were little, we dressed up and went out for goodies (I even remember going to a Halloween party in which the three Worley brothers were all dressed as Batman), but as we got older, we mostly shunned the holiday.

Sort of.

I remember when we had a bonfire in the backyard while the neighborhood kids went around demanding loot. At least once we hid out inside. Another time, the Dunce and I hid in a tree in the front yard to hopefully scare someone. I did succeed in dropping a smoke bomb in someone's trick-or-treat bag (the word "trick" isn't in the title for nothing, I suppose).

Later in life, we spent a Halloween at Grandma's in Atlanta, Indiana (a town smaller than NK, by the way). The ruffians came over from Arcadia to spoil everything, but we had other plans. We wore masks to help Granny give out candy, and later, when the Arcadians were surely there, we hid in the bushes and scared them away.

The last few years, we lived in a parking lot and didn't have a whole lot of use for Halloween. Sure, we visited friends and helped them pass out candy, but nothing big. This year, however, Halloween was a completely different animal. A bee, to be exact.

We wandered around town, following the hordes to various houses for candy. Let me tell you - there's no better way I could have imagined spending my Thursday evening than with my wife and little dude, walking around town, collecting goodies. No, I wouldn't have traded that for anything.