Hallowe'en, 2017

Perhaps you think I made a typographical error in the title of this post.  Au contraire!  Once upon a time, when I was a kid many decades ago, the word Halloween was spelled with an apostrophe between the e's.  That is because the original name for the occasion was All Hallows Evening, or Hallowed Even.  The terms were consolidated into one word, and the apostrophe was inserted to show that the "v" was left out.  And somewhere along the line between my childhood and now, the apostrophe was dropped.  How do I know this, you might ask?   I know because the holiday term appeared on more than one spelling list in my grade school days.  In order to be correctly spelled, it had to be capitalized, and it had to contain that blasted apostrophe.  Miss either one, and the word was counted WRONG on the test.  Horrors!  I was a Spelling Nazi who never missed words on tests, except that one.  And now, everyone thinks I'm nuts when I tell them it used to be spelled with an apostrophe.  The response is usually along the lines of, "No, it wasn't", or worse, "How old are you, anyway"?

It has become somewhat traditional for me to post an after-action report about the nightly visitors that darken my door on Halloween.  Here are my observations for 2017:

1.  This is the first year that the bat wreath hung on my front door actually did its job.  The wreath, purchased at a Covered Bridge Festival craft fair many years ago, has a battery-powered motion sensor.  When anyone approaches the door (or even drives by on the street, it seems) the bat laughs maniacally while its red eyes flash.  Most years, kids hardly even notice it.  That may be because I've always had the top half of the storm door windows pulled up to keep the cold air out.  Yesterday, I endeavored to pull the window up for the winter but thought I'd leave it down just for one more day.  Thus, when it laughs, the kids can hear it.  Every single kid or group of kids that came to the door tonight saw it and heard it.  One small group of costumed young ladies even shrieked when they saw it.  Two more girls--maybe aged 12 or so--actually screamed and ran away from the door.  We laughed and laughed.  Even the parents waiting on the sidewalk thought it was funny.  Yes!  Finally, the wreath did what I intended for it to do--although, in truth, it's pretty tame.  Note to self:  remember to leave the storm door window down until after Halloween from now on.

2.  One group of little ghoulies showed up on my stoop, right ahead of their young parents with what looked like young Chocolate Labrador dogs.  Except the dogs were in costume.  They were disguised as Dalmations.  Couldn't fool me!

3.  A majority of my early trick-or-treaters tonight were bigger kids--like 6th grade or older.  Usually, the early ones are the little kids, but not this year.  I began to wonder if it was too cold for parents to want their little ones to be outside.  (It's only 42 degrees.  At least it's not raining or windy.)  One older kid said, "I'm 16 now, so this is my last year."  Sixteen?  Heck, my parents made us quit along about age 10 or 12.  Not fair!

4.  One family came roaring up in the yard in a golf cart.  How very decadent!

5.  My very first trick-or-treater was a mother.  She was wearing some sort of a rabbit costume, and she came before the hours declared by the Town of Plainfield.  She had three bags:  one for her, and one each for her two children, neither of which were with her.  "One's in trouble, and the other one is sick," she said.  I thought to myself, "So the one who is in trouble still gets Halloween candy anyway, without having to go out in the cold to work for it?"  Hey...where can I get a gig like that???

6.  One father and son combo that came to the door turned out to be one of my former students who lives just down the street from me, and his soon-to-be 9-year-old son.  He stood at the door and talked for a bit, then insisted that I take down his phone number after he asked if I had any family nearby.  He kept saying, "If you need help with anything, I want you to call me.  I would love to help you out.  I really mean it."  I assured him I would.  What a sweetheart!

Funny story about this young man.  I had his older brother in 4th grade, then 5th grade, then 6th grade...and when he was about to graduate to the Jr-Sr high school, he discovered that I was transferring there, as well.  His parting words to me were: "Gee whiz, Ms. McNary.  Are you going to follow me to college??"

The boys had an older sister whom I didn't have in class.  When she graduated, she left this note in her Senior Last Will and Testament:  "To the teachers, I bequeath my brothers.  And if you think the older one is bad, wait until you get the younger one!"  The younger one was the one at my door tonight.  I never had a single problem with him in class, although I'd heard stories.  Ah, that's sisterly love for ya!

7.  Every year, I fill up a big bowl with candy and put it by the door, and every year, I have at least one-fourth of the candy left.  Some years, I tried to count the number of ghosties that came to the door, just to have an idea of how many I should count on in the future, but I always lost track after 30 or so.  Still, it never seemed that I had as many as, say, 60 kids.  This year, I splurged and bought a bag of the expensive stuff.  You know, the M and Ms and Twixes and Milky Ways and Snickers kind of good stuff.  The bag said there were 60 pieces.  No problem!  The candy sat around here for a couple of weeks, and although I did sit down and calculate the number of Weight Watcher points in each piece, I never ate a single one.  I figured I was set for an evening of doorway marauders.  However, even though I only gave out ONE piece of candy per kid, I ran out of the good stuff and had to dig into my own stash of York Peppermint Patties to get me through the final count.  Oh well!

~~On a non-Halloween note, I went to Walgreen's today to get my flu shot.  Two years ago, my pulmonologist told me he wanted me to get flu shots every year.  He also wanted me to get a Prevnar13 (pneumonia) vaccination.  I was under the impression that it wasn't wise to get both at the same time, so I got a flu shot and determined that I would get the pneumonia shot another time.  Last year, I never did get around to going for either one.  Today, my to-do list included getting this year's flu shot, and when I got there, I asked the technician about getting the other one.  He said there would be no problem with getting both at once, so I decided just to do it.  One in each arm.

The technician asked which side I normally sleep on.  I indicated that I do both sides but sleep more on my left side than my right.  He said that people complain more about soreness from the pneumonia shot than the flu shot, so he injected the left arm with flu vaccine and the right arm with pneumonia vaccine.  Honest to goodness, I didn't even feel the flu shot.  The pneumonia one stung a bit going in...but...guess which arm is quite sore tonight and will probably cause problems with sleep?  Yep...the flu-shot arm.  The one that isn't supposed to hurt as much.  The one that I will be trying to sleep on.  Well, what did I expect?  I mean, it IS Halloween, after all.  Trick or treat!  Guess the trick's on me.  Now, where's my treat???