Tonight was an enlightening experience.

First off, if Halloween is on a school night, you better be ready for trick or treaters at dusk. Tonight, I was in a race with the sun. Daylight was fading, we were trying to get our kids ready to go out, I was trying to grill some burgers, I was trying to get my cooler and chairs set up in the driveway, and kids were already out looking for candy.

Eventually, we got Kim and the kids off and I was able to focus on the task at hand. I spent right at two hours outside in the driveway. Here are a few observations from the evening:

• We need more Halloween decorations. I had our three pumpkins lit up, which garnered some compliments, even though they have shriveled up some, but that's about the extent of our decorations. There are a couple house that I could see from the driveway that had really done it up. My hope is to add a little flare next year and spooky the place up a little. I might even invest in some Halloween sounds to play.


• It would be a lot more fun to hand out candy with another person. The kids sort of came in waves. In between waves, it would have been nice to have had someone else there to hang out with. I did have one neighbor say that she should send her husband up to hang out with me. he was at home alone handing out candy, too.


• If a kid is over three, you have to give them the candy, or they will try to take it all. I almost had to force some of the little kids to take more than one piece of candy. The big ones I had to cutoff. I can't believe the lack of utilitarianism exhibited by eight year olds.


• It get's cold at night. My hope next year is to have a fire pit to sit next to as I hand out candy and drinks. This might add to the spookaciouness and it will keep me warm. Plus, who doesn't like fire.


• People seemed taken aback by the idea of me giving them a beverage. Generally, after I would give the kids candy, I would ask the adults if they wanted something to drink. Some of the reactions to that question were funny. It was like I had asked them if they wanted to smell my shoe, or something. I ended up putting together a sales pitch. "Would you like something to drink. I have candy for the kids and sodas and water for the adults. [Open cooler.]" I probably had 40 kids come and gave away 10 drinks.

There are probably more things to take away from the evening, but that's enough for now. Overall, I thought the evening went well. I met two neighbors and wrote down their names and the general area where they said they lived. I hope to remember them and be able to say "Hi Dawn" or "Hi George" when I see them out.

It seemed like a lot of the trick or treaters don't actually live in our neighborhood, which kind of hurt my meet the neighbors objective. We did hand out some candy and kids seemed to be happy. So, I'd say it was a success. I look forward to doing this again next year.

There were a couple funny stories that I wanted to share before I wrap this up.

• Kids love soda. When I gave the adults drinks, many kids asked for one, too. I had to remind them that they had just gotten candy and the drinks were treats for the adults. Once, after turning a kid down, I heard him tell his mother, "I will give you half of my candy if you will give me that drink." That kid should not go into sales.


• If you have a "real" job, you should not be trick or treating. There was a group of three people that walked up. There was a teenage girl and what seemed to be her little brother. They were with what looked like a teenage guy. As they walked up the driveway, I recognized the guy. He works/worked at SAS. I know him from the gym. I know the economy is rough, but I'm sorry. Having worked at SAS an automatic disqualifier for being allowed to continue your trick or treating career. Hang up the pumpkin bucket kid.


• We ID under 30. I don't think I gave away a single beer tonight, but I almost had one customer. A woman was reaching into the cooler to get a drink and noticed that I had a few beers in there. She was grabbing a drink for herself and a companion. When she said, "There's even some beer in here." he responded with, "Oh, well, I'll have one of those." The kid was no more than 18. Luckily, she was on to him. She said something like, "Do you have your ID with you sir?"

Did anything exciting happen in your neighborhood this Halloween?

Labels: halloween