Dearest Rachel –
Halloween was never celebrated much at our place, was it? What with it being on a major thoroughfare, our house was only ever visited a handful of times at best on any given year. and that was before we were dealing with things like the pandemic and social distancing and the polarization of people (not that that really comes to factor in among kids – chocolate and candy taste the same, regardless of the politics of the house distributing it – but you never know about certain parents. Not that they would know where we stand, politically, as we don’t stick a forest of signs in our yard like some do).
Indeed, very few houses on our block make any sort of nod toward the season, despite facing a four-lane street.
After all, what’s the point, when no one stops by any more? From what I can tell, it seems to be less and less of a thing for kids to do these days overall, although I confess most of evidence I’d be forced to come up with if I were truly challenged about this claim would be merely anecdotal, such as Saturday’s funfair in lieu of a door-to-door hunt for candy this afternoon after school. Daniel’s generation may well have been the last to enjoy the glory days of that particular Halloween tradition. And even then, there was almost no one stopping by our house for candy handouts.
On the other hand, we can be grateful that the ‘trick’ portion of the whole ‘trick-or-treat’ is that much farther gone into the mists of history. For all that we’re woefully underprepared for potential visitors, at least we’ve no need to fear having the place egged or covered it toilet paper (actually, while it’s not so scarce as it was at the beginning of the pandemic, it’s still not something that most households can afford to waste like that, anyway. Same thing for eggs, come to think of it).
All of which is not to say that we’re completely unprepared…
You’ll remember the boxes of goodies on the left and in the middle; I even mentioned them at some point last Christmas. I know I persuaded Jan not to throw them out as part of the pantry clean-up, but we still haven’t opened either box. And it’s not like I can hand these out if we have visitors this Halloween – I certainly can’t just drop a handful of gummy worms straight into someone’s pumpkin, and I wouldn’t blame a parent who look askance at even putting them in a baggie beforehand. Anything not individually and hermetically sealed before handing out is understandably suspect.
Meanwhile, the bag of dark chocolate on the right, while suitable for handing out per the aforementioned strictures – and reasonably tasty when melted severally in a hot cup of milk – would likely cut no ice with the kids. For whatever reason, they’re just not capable of appreciating the complexity of bittersweet chocolate… yet. But at least it’s something to hand out, if it comes to that, and the parents can appreciate it, even if the kids might not.
But the odds are pretty good that even this limited amount of preparation will be more than sufficient for tonight’s drop-bys. We’ll probably be left with most of this, to figure out what to do about it all. Given the chill in the air today, I might do well with a hot chocolate after I walk home (but only today, as it’s apparently going to be heating up for the rest of the week). As for the rest of it, well… Chompers is gone, so he can’t enjoy those worms any more than you can. Maybe I can talk the boys into cracking one of the boxes open and having at it, lest they wind up sitting around for yet another year.
On the other hand, I need to get Daniel in to get his teeth looked at. I know you were the last one to take him to the dentist – which gives you a rough idea of how long it’s been – but while I managed to find the place on my way across town…
I went around the entire building, knocking on several doors en route, to absolutely no avail. Even attempting to call them was futile, as the voicemail indicated they were closed. All I could do was to leave a voicemail, since they claimed they would get back to me on the next business day. Of course, it leaves me wondering, when would the next day be that they’d be in business? At least with our eye doctor’s passing, the lawyers in charge of the estate got ahold of us, and forwarded our medical records; I wonder if we’re going to be nearly as lucky with this situation.
It’s just another case of being underprepared, I suppose. Sorry to have always relied upon you for this; now, I’m not sure about what to do. So all I can ask for at this point is that you keep an eye on us, and wish us luck.
We’re going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 