The clock is ticking down, this last day of October. Halloween festivities tonight – no doubt at recreation centers and shopping malls. The boys are NOT going “trick or treating” tonight – Dolly has planned an arts -n- crafts and candy making bonanza plus they’ll dress up, play games, etc. She’s creative that way and I know they’ll have a great time, more than enough treats and fond memories… which brings me to the memory I had of the last time I went “trick or treating”.
I was probably 9 years old. We’d arrived at the last house, occupied by a lone man. He kept his shades drawn all the time. During the day, one of the neighbor’s had spent the day raking and burning leaves…they were smoldering. We knocked and shouted “trick or treat” several times; no response. One last warning and then we did the unspeakable: we soaped the window screens.
The lone man opened the door and shouted at us. We screamed and ran for our lives – so we thought. We of course had opinions of this reclusive man and were scared – mainly because we knew we weren’t supposed to be soaping his window screens. I stepped into the pile of smoldering leaves. Burned my foot “big time”! Threw my Halloween loot in the air – not intentionally; ne’er the less, it landed all over the ground. No time to try to gather, just needed to get the h*** outta dodge.
Limped home; my foot burned and hurting. In those days, there were no “late or all night” drugstores open. My pain was exacerbated by the fact that I also knew I had no recourse but to tell my parents the truth. They, in their wisdom listened and said nothing. My mom just applied a homemade remedy to my burning foot.
T’was the absolute last time I went trick or treating.
Morning Glory Studio 