I personally witnessed the demise of Halloween. I remember as a child joining all other young children, pillowcase in hand, forming a human chain/parade on the sidewalks of our community, racing from house to house, screaming, laughing, pushing for position and frantic in our desire to accumulate record volumes of candy. Then one year I recall overhearing my parents talking about the boy who had been taken to the hospital because he bit into a candy bar that had a razor blade hidden in its goo. I also recall thinking the current day equivalent of sucks to be him. I did not see the big picture. The big picture drew me and every other kid of age into this tyranny because Halloween would never be the same again.

While we usually saw hundreds of kids storm onto our doorstep, the following year delivered less than a hundred. By my senior year in high school if we had twenty, that was a lot for the time and serving them became more of a nuisance than an event.


That blows. That blows big.

Assuming this to be the standard everywhere, Walt and I were bowled over our first year in our new home. We purchased the obligatory 50 pack of something and promptly ran out in less than an hour. I looked up the street to see cars and vans dumping kids out who came screaming down the sidewalk trying to haphazardly hold their costumes intact with the tiny hand not holding their candy repository. To the store I went.

Halloween was and is back, albeit situationally. But, I'm taking what I'm getting here because it is religious to see the charged looks on these little and oftentimes obstructed faces. It is youth defined and quite frankly a rite of passage and future generations in our american neighborhoods should not be deprived. So tonight I manned my post, loaded for bear, at the door to deal candy to all takers and enforcing the One Only rule. One only please because Halloween is back and this is one dude who is not making another trip to the store.