Candy and the World Series
– can Halloween get any sweeter?
Halloween is not quite a holiday, since we don’t get a day off
of work for it, but it could very well be the second most popular
day of the year
– behind Christmas – for kids.
As a kid, Oct. 31 was one of those
”
are you kidding me?
”
days.
Candy and the World Series – can Halloween get any sweeter?
Halloween is not quite a holiday, since we don’t get a day off of work for it, but it could very well be the second most popular day of the year – behind Christmas – for kids.
As a kid, Oct. 31 was one of those “are you kidding me?” days.
“You mean I get to dress up like one of my favorite characters or heroes, walk around the neighborhood at night with a flashlight, and collect a bag full of candy?” That’s about as good as it gets for a kid.
Candy, freedom, chocolate, staying up late, sweets, and more candy for the next week or so? It’s Christmas in October.
Some of my friends on Facebook this week have been reminiscing about their favorite costumes. Many of them, like me, are well past their days of trick-or-treating, except when they are accompanying their children on the candy-collecting routes.
Their reminiscences harken back to those carefree days before we worried about cavities and weight gain and calories and other side effects of excessive candy consumption.
One friend recalled dressing as a hobo, though he admitted that such a get-up is not politically correct in 2010.
That was one of my go-to costumes in the ’70s. It wasn’t about raising awareness about homelessness and it certainly wasn’t about being insensitive to people who are down on their luck. It was an easy costume to throw together – grab some of my dad’s oversized clothing, get a stick and a bandanna, and I was set.
Another friend recalled wearing those flimsy plastic masks that were held onto your head by a flimsy rubber band that invariably would break a few minutes into the candy-gathering operation.
I wasn’t one for planning my Halloween costumes. If I had a baseball uniform handy, I would go as a baseball player. If I had an old sheet that my mom didn’t mind having me cut some holes in, I went as a ghost.
Nowadays, Halloween is about making sure I have enough candy to give away to trick-or-treaters. Thirty years ago the thought of buying candy in order to give it away would have seemed crazy. Now the only thing that seems crazy is that we have to buy 20 bags of candy in order to meet the demand of the kids who ring the doorbell.
Sunday is sure to be a fun day, with friends and family and neighbors gathering to celebrate, well, nothing really. The wonders of processed sugar? The ringing pain of cavities? The oddity of inappropriate costumes? All of it doesn’t matter as long as kids come home with a good haul of candy that their parents can rummage through for a guilty treat in the name of dental hygiene.
This year, the color orange on Halloween will represent not just a celebration of the fall harvest and the color of pumpkins and changing leaves. It will represent the sweetest treat this 41-year-old can expect on Oct. 31 – a San Francisco Giants World Series game. That is my candy; that is my chocolate.
I might dress all goofy that day, perhaps in my National League championship shirt, and let my teenagers hand out candy when they’re done socializing with their friends in the street outside of our house. I might enjoy a Snickers or Twix or two if the Giants win and I might raid my candy bowl for leftovers to drown my sorrows if the Giants lose.
Either way, it should be a sweet day.
Adam Breen writes a blog at http://thebreenblog.blogspot.com and teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School. He is a reporter for The Pinnacle and former editor of the Free Lance.
