Sunday, November 1, 2009

Trick or Treat

Kurt missed the Bridge Halloween Party on Saturday because he had a head cold. He was very disappointed, but we had Trick or Treating.


I think all kids have trouble when they are getting too old to Trick or Treat. I remember when Kelly wanted to go “one more year” every year. We took Kelly when he was 11 and Kurt at 14 for the last time. I walked around the neighborhood with the boys. When we got back to the house and the boys dumped their candy out on the counter, Kurt had about half as much as his brother, even though they had hit the same number of houses.


I immediately thought of Charlie Brown and the rocks.


Since Kurt had trouble getting “Trick or Treat” out in time, he most often remained silent at the door. So maybe the adults thought he was rude, or because of his height, they thought he was too old, or a combination of both. I’ll never know, but that’s the year I decided to make the transition for both of them.


Kelly ended up going one more year with his friends.


I had a plan for Kurt. He would hand out the candy to the kids when they came to our door. Oh, what a process that became. He wanted to do it all by himself, but was very slow. He insisted on locking the door after each group. So the whole routine consisted of unlocking the door, opening it and the screen door. Sometimes he talked to each one and asked about their costumes. Then he would pick out which candy he wanted to give out of our orange candy dish.


Our dish is actually an orange bucket. When we moved to River Falls, the Welcome Wagon lady came around and gave us gifts, one of which was this bucket. It wasn’t very big or sturdy enough to carry around with water to mop the floor, for example. So for some reason unknown to me now, we threw in a package of snack size candy bars and put it in the cupboard. And ever since, if you want to find some candy, just look in the orange bucket.


Starting with last year, Kurt really owned candy duty for the first time. Since he had planned to go as a Coca-Cola driver (Paul’s former job) to the Halloween party, he donned one of his dad’s uniforms and sat in the darkened living room, watching out the picture window at the shadowy figures walking the street. As soon as they started up our drive, he shot into action, opening the door and dropping treats into their bags.


His Halloween transition from kid took some time, but it’s really worth it to see him enjoying his adult role.



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Kurt at 19