Annual Kiddie Kandy Kwandary

Yes, I know I misspelled some words in the title! It was my effort to be cute. So sue me!

The time approacheth for me to purchase Halloween candy for the trick-or-treaters. Decisions, decisions. This shouldn't be a big deal, but it is! Here's why:

1. I was a kid once, and I knew what I wanted to get in my bag: CHOCOLATE. Those were the days when the candy industry hadn't yet figured they could cash in on Halloween by packaging small amounts of chocolate individually and charge through the nose for them, and before society's perverts thought it was funny to give apples with razor blades in them--and even still before everyone had to be suspicious of homemade treats due to tampering. More often than not, I got things like apples (gag!) and homemade popcorn balls. (Now that I am older, I recognize the amount of work that went into making popcorn balls, but I never ever ate one!) All I really wanted was chocolate. Hard candies were out of the question, and taffy-like candies were a waste of time. I guess I was a candy snob! Maybe it's because we never really had candy just lying around at home. Candy was a treat, and free candy was Heaven!

2. When Megan and I moved to this house in 1992, it was the first real neighborhood we had been in since we came to Indiana in 1988. I bought at least four huge bags of candy, expecting lots of trick-or-treaters. Every year since then, I've been somewhat surprised at the smaller numbers of roving ghouls and ghosts that appear at my door, leaving me with leftover candy.

3. Leftovers! If one doesn't appropriate the handouts correctly, there will either be no candy left, or lots of it. If I am going to have candy left over, I want to make sure it is something that I want and/or my grandchildren will eat. You know what that means!

4. Funding my life as a retired person gets a little tricky. The bags of chocolate candy get more expensive with less in them. I can't afford spending a lot of money on candy to give away, yet want to be in the spirit of the occasion...so...I am ready to make a decision.

DECISION: I will buy three bags of candy from the Dollar Tree store (everything is $1), and supplement my home candy dish with chocolate. It's the best I can do!