Halloweenie

In real estate parlance, our neighborhood is what you might call “up and coming.” And you could call us “Urban Pioneers,” although I wouldn’t say that. Due to its close proximity to downtown (5 minutes) and the rebirth of said area over the last 10+ years, our neighbor has long been out of the ‘Urban Blight’ designation.

Nothing shows that more than the number of kids that trick or treat door-to-door (with parents, of course).

Our first Halloween, four years ago, we had two groups of ToT’ers. We bought four bags of candy for two groups of kids. We could have given half a bag of to each child (instead, we wound up eating three-and-a-half bags over the next two-and-a-half months).

Each Halloween since, we’ve gotten more and more kids at our front door. This year, we had at least a dozen groups walking around the neighborhood.

Of course, I forgot to get the candy. Mostly because we’re having a slight plumbing problem that required me meeting a plumber at the house.

The other part is that I’m on a diet and I can’t have left over candy lying around the house. I’m weak like that.

Even though the porch light was out, we still have a few groups ring the bell. I always answered the door and told them, sorry, no candy this year.

With one exception, the bell stopped ringing at about eight.

The exception came at 9:45. I found that to be a little late, so I let The Beej, jump and bark at the door (which is normally a no-no). When I opened the door, The Beej continued to paw at the screen and bark, which caused the group to take a step back.

It was a group of four teens, all over the age of 17. They all had their faces painted in black & white, ala Clockwork Orange or Warriors or some such ‘70s/’80s movie.

I gave them the same polite answer, sorry, no candy this year.

They said, “Wow, that’s a mean sounding dog.”

I sure love that dog.