Halloween is coming

When I was a kid (back in the dark ages) I lived on a farm, and we weren't allowed to go trick or treating like the town kids did. We thought that was a horrible restriction. My parents wouldn't have dreamed of driving us from farm to farm or to town so we could walk the streets and go from house to house.

Then I married and had kids and lived in a small town (about 1800 people.)   Our house was on the main residential street and thus got lots of trick or treaters. I let my kids go out, too and they loved it.
We got at least a hundred kids coming to our door and I enjoyed seeing all the costumes and trying to identify the neighbor kids.

But I soon learned that my parents had been the exception - many of the trick or treaters were farm kids and a parent was driving that slow moving car following them from house to house.
That did sort of irritate me, since I was quite sure they weren't getting any kids at their farmhouse in turn.
Then I was part of the Chamber of Commerce's annual party at the town's community center. We donated food, cooked and served hundreds of hot dogs and cans of pop, played lots of games and gave out prizes for costumes. Lots of fun, but a lot of work, too.

Now I live on a dead end and don't get many kids at all. Or maybe, with all the weirdos out there sabotaging the little ones' fun with dangerous tricks, maybe not as many kids are out doing that anymore. Which seems a shame. Little ones grow up too fast as it is.