Darkness falls across the land

OK, this is an awesome story! I wonder if Klaes Oldenburg ever had this issue with his exhibits....

Halloween is over. We're still feeling our way with it, since it's a pretty different holiday in 2007 than it was in the early '80s, and our rural environs are quite different from the midcentury all-American suburban neighborhoods we grew up in. For one thing, no Daylight Savings time--that was kind of weird. For another, there doesn't seem to be any predictable time to go out trick-or-treating, or to be home in case you have small costumed visitors. Some people seem to go out as early as 4:30 or 5. For clueless parents like us, it's hard to tell when exactly you're supposed to go out, or when you're supposed to be home in case of visitors.

These are probably the easy years, since kids who are 1 and almost 4 can't dictate when, where, and with whom they go out, and since they've already been partying and parading in costume at preschool, it's no biggie if we don't go out at all. Eventually, should they decide to go with friends from out here, we're going to have to drive them to one of the development neighborhoods, since ours isn't pedestrian-friendly or dense enough to be overly profitable in the candy department. I mean, even if you moved fast, it would take an hour to hit 8-10 houses. And one of us will have to chaperone, wherever they go. Seems like these days you'd probably be arrested for neglect if your kids trick-or-treated without you. Even the oldest kids (i.e. ages 10-12) we saw out last night had a dad with them (dressed as Abe Lincoln, and who turned out to be our pediatrician who lives around the corner).

Last night we walked across the road to our neighbors who have twins and trick-or-treated at their place, then went with them to the house next door where we were royally received and entertained (wine! beer! good cheese!), then we went back, got in our cars, and drove in tandem down to a third neighbor whose place is a quarter mile down the road. The upside of being eternal chaperones is that our neighbors who don't have kids (or whose kids are now adults) are way excited to get any trick-or-treaters, and ply the parents with wine, beer, appetizers, and adult-size candy bars. But it does seem very sad that we carve the pumpkins and buy the candy and leave the porch lights on, and nobody ever comes to our house.

When I was little, everybody seemed to go out around 6-8pm, and when we got to be maybe 8 or 9, we went out alone with our friends. I remember being a swaggering sixth grader hitting my friends' neighborhoods in costume, all of us spraying shaving cream and experimenting with various curse words. And before that mayhem even began, Halloween morning was always fun. I loved getting up and seeing whose tree had been TP'd or whose driveway had a shaving cream message. Do kids today even know what Mischief Night is?