Halloween Post-Mortem
As a child, Halloween was my favorite event of the year, filled with adventure, mystery, costumes, and yes, candy! Now that I'm older, married, and a father, I harbor many feelings about October 31st - some good and some grotesque.
Let us begin with a brief time travel back to one of the more memorable Halloweens of my childhood. The year was 1990 and I was in Junior High, all of 12, still making new friends and enemies at school. I actually don't remember what I was for Halloween that year, but at that age I was likely not trying as hard in the costume department. The main objective was candy.
Responsible for watching my little brother, we made our way around the block, trick-or-treating with a friend of mine. With our bags full of lollypops, chocolate bars, fruity chews, and the like, we made our way back to my house in a suburban court of San Jose, California. With probably less than 1/4 mile to go, we were approached by a group of 10 or so older kids, none of which wore costumes by the way. The leader of this Halloween 'gang' started grabbing at my friend's bag, saying he'd stolen his little brother's candy - a complete fabrication of course.
I stepped up to defend him and we walked away, picking up the pace with each step, breaking away from the gang as they stood there deciding what to do next. They concluded they still wanted our candy, so they began following us and shouting. That's when we decided to run for it, my brother straggling behind. Fortunately, we were faster and made it back to the safety of our court - admittedly, there was a lag of about 20 seconds before we saw my brother round the corner.
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