Twenty five years ago I was waiting at 373 S. Broad Street, Campbell, Nebraska, long after the sun went down and the dark moon came up, for Mike to hurry home from picking corn to take Ian out for his first trick or treating.  I can still see the pumpkin outfit hanging on his little body and him curled up in the chair waiting for his Papa to come and get him!  I couldn’t wait to celebrate the fall with my almost 2 year old for the first time!  He was so excited that he had worn himself out asking, “Is Papa home yet?”  He was the best kid I had to carry on full conversations because he talked before he walked!  As Mike came in the back door, it was on!!  I stayed home to catch all of the kids trick or treating!  Back in the day Campbell had hundreds of kids that would brave the Nebraska weather to collect the goods!  The stories he told about where they went and who gave what were hilarious and he remembered who gave apples, he didn’t like apples!!

The next year he was Barney!  Before you think anything negative about Barney, in my defense, he was the big thing that year!!  Ian waited patiently for his Papa to come get him and that year, I videoed the entire departure!!  As he begrudgingly went out the front door I can hear our neighbors giggling and Ian saying “I look stupid.  Barney is stupid!”  A good long trip around town collecting the goods and he was just fine!!  I did however find that dressing up for Ian wasn’t nearly as important as being able to be a cowboy and just wear his everyday hat, jeans, tucked in pearl snap and his belt!!  I must have ruined him on his third Halloween!!

I was thinking about all of the years of Halloween and trick or treating with the kids and the tradition of their Dad taking them out in the old Caprice.  They would burn around corners, laugh and spill their pop and come home so incredibly sugared up it was unreal!  Almost every year my folks would come up and get there just in time for the big return home!! One year Erin was Belle in the gold ball gown!  Holy cow, when she came back home the dress was torn, the petticoat in shreads and her hair a total wreck!! When I asked what happened, she said, “I got hung up in Mrs. Budreau’s bushes!!”  Good thing it was the end of the night!!

There is nothing that can replace those amazing memories.  They grew up too quickly for this mom who wanted a dozen kids!  I have tried to burn those memories in my brain so that when the day comes that I only remember some things, that might just be what I remember!

Today, I am going to trick or treat with my little Shark!  It is Finn’s first Halloween and he is walking and running everywhere!  He has his bucket and his costume and now he is ready to go!  This CoCo better get the heck on the road, I don’t want to miss a moment.  I am grateful.

Stay safe little spooks, and say a prayer for the family in Indiana who lost 3 children yesterday in the school bus crossing accident. I can’t imagine their pain.  Be a kid. I’m wearing my Hogwarts Harry Potter dress. Be kind.

until then….happy Samhain

e