It Was A Frightful Night...

It's the hallowed eve, this dark night, when ghosts and goblins and shadows unknown creep about the streets looking for goodies to sate themselves glutonously with sugar and fright.



It's a night to put aside your fear and head into that great dark vastness, sack in hand, hoping for mercy at each door that opens to you.

You look wantingly at the bowl before you, unsure of what you desire but you reach forward and fill your hand knowing that your teeth, your stomach and your parents will suffer later.

Those who stand behind the door stare at you in fright, unsure of who and what you are and offer trite comments on how cute you are, or the classic 'ooh you're scaring me'.

You stand there wondering how long you can keep the facade going when suddenly the door shuts in your face or another group of unsightly goblins shoves past you leaving you to wander once again on streets unknown--in darkness so foreboding.

This is the night that children are children, whether big or small--mean or kind. Treats are what you are hoping for but tricks linger in your mind.

Parents standing guard at the end of the path are a welcome sight, watching over their young.

For me, this year was, for lack of a better word, sad. I have trick-or-treated with my children for seventeen years and this is the first year that we didn't. Sarah off to parties with her friends, as has been the trend over the last several years but we've always taken Alex out because he's still just a kid.


I took this photo of him before he left, sitting on the front porch with the pumpkins we carved earlier in the day. He was gracious enough to let me photograph him in his costume in the top pictures but quickly removed it and put it in a bag to take to his friends house.

He decided to go with his friends this year leaving us home, alone, at the mercy of the kids that came for candy.

It drives home the message that kids grow and change, and though it might break our heart to see these changes come, it's a reminder that they can now choose for themselves sometimes just how they want to do something like Halloween. They get to decide that their friends make better company than their dumb old parents with the flashlight, calling out to them to watch where they step and to say 'thank you'!

I know he's out there having fun, laughing and cavorting with his pals and that makes me happy but at the same time a little piece of my heart cries for what has gone before.

The stash is what it's all about anyway, isn't it?

The candy we go through to make sure no evil has come to it is what's left in the evening.

We wish for them to grow and at the same time we want them to be under our wing--safe and secure--needing us I suppose.

But on days like this we are reminded that in the blink of an eye, times change, kids grow and we sit back and wonder how the time flew by so fast.

I had hoped to capture more goblins and ghosts this evening with the Holga on our normal trails but I didn't.

Maybe things will go back to the way they used to be next year. I guess time will tell!

To all you little trick or treaters that came to my door this evening, I thank you for your presence, your costumes and your funny comments.

Till next Halloween I bid you a Bootiful night!