Trick or Treat!

I had another fun Halloween night at my brother's house. He and his family live in an area that draws huge trick or treater crowds. It wasn't as busy as last year but we were doing pretty brisk "business" nonetheless.

My bother was, sadly, out of town on business so his wife needed a hand passing out candy while she took the kids trick or treating. I sat on the front porch with a giant bowl of candy and braced myself.

I can't help it, Halloween brings out the Emily Post in me. I'm typically on etiquette patrol and last night was no different. Kids started arriving and I must say the majority were extremely polite. I received many a "thank you" and dispensed countless "Happy Halloween!" wishes. Occasionally, a slack-jawed kid would approach me with an entirely clueless technique. Many don't seem to understand the tradition of shouting out "Trick or Treat" in exchange for candy. When a kid just walked towards me with an open bag and nothing to say I would whisper "What do you say?". It usually freaked them out and, in a panic, more than one replied "Thank you?". I'd correct them with "NO! Trick or Treat." They would say it then greedily look into their bag to see what I'd dropped in there.

One poor teen made the unfortunate decision to open his phone in front of me while holding his bag open. As you can imagine, that didn't go over well. I said "Hey! There are no phone calls during a mid-trick-or-treat! No candy until you turn that thing off." He whined "But someone is texting me-eeee." I stared him down as his friends snickered at him then said "I'm here with candy, what are they doing for you?". He closed the phone, said trick or treat, I handed over some candy and even got a "Thank you". Amazing!

In a genius maneuver, my sister-in-law picked up some one ounce Play-Doh tubs to hand out with the candy. They were a big hit from the little kids on up to the teens. I highly recommend passing out small, retro toys along with candy. It might smell a little funny, but who cares?

P.S. As usual, while searching for an image to upload I found a super-cool site. How fun is this? They have a section titled "Things That Shoot". Need I say more? Except maybe "Umm, that's funny." So is that.