Halloween today

We live on a country road, houses are few and far apart and there are no street lights. It is not surprising that in our first eight years here, not a single trick-or-treater came to our door, although we were prepared with mini-Snickers. A-list candy, in our opinion!

Last year, one of our neighbors brought her son -- now old enough to understand that there is free candy for the taking -- to the door. We expect him to be here this year, perhaps with his younger sister.

We probably won't have other visitors. The next-door-neighbors have kids the right age, but they don't do the Halloween thing. Those are the ones for whom I make fudge. And there is one other family with a child the right age, and although we know them, she has never come. I suspect she goes into town for better pickings and less walking.

Yesterday I took some mini-Snickers with me to tutoring so that my student could give them to her kids. She grew up in a Mexican village, and the Day of the Dead [Día de los Muertos] is what she knew.

That is not, by the way, the same as Halloween, although in our syncretistic world, the two are jumbled together. 

On the other hand, both her boys were born and go to school here in the States and they know what Halloween means. She hopes to get off work early today to take them trick-or-treating in town before it gets too dark.