A Ghoulish Goodnight to All

Happy Halloween!

The turnout here tonight was lighter than in previous years. I suspect that the weather and the earlier events coupled with a Saturday date cut down on the crowds. I also have a suspicion that the Saturday date led to a lot more parties hosted by moms and dads. What makes it strange is that after the blizzard of Thursday/Friday, the warm winds have already melted all the snow and it is still warm out this evening. Most years it is damp and freezing on Halloween, sometimes snowing and icy. Of course, some years it in the 60s and dry too.

I had 33 little tricksters tonight, compared to last years tally of 45. One of the things I noticed was a paucity of male tricksters. Out of the 33 tricksters, only 8 of them were male. Usually it is close a 50/50 mix. I wonder if the fact that there were four good college football games and a World Series game tonight had anything to do with the lack of male tricksters? I know it certainly seemed to skew the number of dads versus the number of moms doing escort duty tonight.

I had a little charmer and his sister show up late. He might have been 4 and his sister was probably 2+. He wanted to know if I had any kids and I told him that the son was off to a college party. So then he wanted to know if I wanted some kids to come play with me, 'cause he and his sister would be happy to. His sister just stood quaking in fear of my flashing hat and nodding when I asked her if she wanted a treat. Their dad was cracking up out on the curb, trying not to laugh too loud. I think they may be from down the street a bit. He thanked me as they walked off and you could hear the smile in his voice.

I answered the door wearing the Son's old Mickey Mouse Wizard hat with flashing lights. The fact that it makes me look to be eight feet tall was a bit much for some of the kids. It was a real hit with the 5-8 year old crowd, a bit scary for the 3-5 crowd, and ignored entirely in favor of examining the loot by the 8-12 year old crowd. It was neat to hear the kids comments as they walked away. The only teens I saw this year were older siblings escorting the youngsters. They were amazingly polite and said no thank you to offers of a treat for them as well. Is the younger generation suddenly turning more polite or is this an anomalous data point?

Tomorrow is the start date for NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. The goal is to post a blog entry every day for 30 days. I did it last year and figured why not give it a go this year as well. It can be fun and if you sign up and actually post everyday, you are eligible for prizes. Check out the NaBloPoMo site for details.

Time to go bag up some treats to give to L and the son (and so I won't snarf them).