Happy Samhain! Happy Hallowe'en!

I love Hallowe'en and what it means and I love that this is the Wiccan New Year! It's neat. The thing I'm not crazy about is the trick or treating kids... most of them aren't.

When I got to a certain point, a certain age, it was no longer cool to go out trick or treating. This is what kids do - little kids. And I knew that people answering the doors were thinking why is this young teenager standing here?

Now when the kids show up, they are too old, and some scare me. Young teenage males in half-assed costumes with that attitude of hand over the goods don't make me feel warm and fuzzy. Luis may feel okay about it and want to answer the door, but they may not be inclined to try to do anything with him. I know I can't definitively say that. The doorbell rang maybe six times tonight and I didn't answer any except for the Chinese food delivery guy. Luis answered it twice. He came home with candy and ate some, and gave less out. What a night!

When I was a kid, you didn't eat any fresh fruit that might have been given to you. Of course, most kids I know wheren't exactly jumping up and down over fresh fruit. Unless they were jumping up and down in rage. I used to get all sorts of pennies and small change for UNICEF. Or something like that. Why? I never donated the proceeds, I kept it and spent it on... more candy! (Keep in mind that I'm a "recovering sugar junkie".) I lived in an apartment complex that I never left on Hallowe'en - there were a gazillion apartments and I would go back home to change bags to get the next take of candy!

Now everyone's afraid of everyone else, so they go to schools, malls or town squares where the stores give out goodies. We are still sugar junkies but now we have instilled a fear of the things we used to do and most of us survived to talk about it. Wonder what they will have done to Hallowe'en in another ten years?

But it is warmer and leafier and nicer than it was in a while. And the daylight lasted longer. I never could understand the logic of changing the clocks right before Hallowe'en! (Then again, I don't understand why we still do it at all!)