Evil Comes To the City

Evil characters will soon be lurking all over our city, frightening homeowners with weapons and menacing smiles. Are we afraid? Yes we are. We are afraid of running out of candy.

Hallowe’en was not a big deal when we lived in the country, at the end of a dead-end street. We had visits from 3 or 4 spooky characters at the most. By 7:00 pm we were able to start feasting on the leftover candy. But last year, in the city, we gave out treats to over 90 fairies, spidermen, witches, fire fighters and ghosts. This went on till well past 8:30 pm and, even worse, we hardly had any candy left for ourselves! It just wasn’t fair!

Our neigbours in the city take this event seriously. Homes have been spruced up with cobwebs, ghosts hanging from trees, and front lawn cemeteries. We have joined in the festivities by planting a few skulls along our pathway to the front door. One family outdoes us all with his motion-activated witch sitting in a rocking chair, cackling and threatening trick-or-treaters who dare to approach his front door. Obviously he wants to keep all his candy for himself.

Hallowe’en is a big event for our grandchildren too . They have been working on their costumes since the summer. Agnes, who starred a while back in “The Music Man,” fell in love with her role as a prairie girl and is all set with her long skirt, floppy hat and big shopping basket, handy for collecting treats. Ben, age 3, is in love with the Paw Patrol pups and has signed on as Chase. When it comes to finding candy, Chase is on the case! Gavin has opted for a ninja outfit complete with a plastic sword in his right hand. In case of danger, he has his favourite stuffie, Mocha, clutched tightly in his other arm.

We began our celebrations on Saturday when Gavin and Ben joined us for Pumpkinfest on Bloor Street. Everybody gathered at one location to snack on popcorn and hot chocolate, and pick up bags for trick-or-treating. Then kids were invited to collect candy for several blocks along the main street where merchants had hung out welcoming pumpkin signs. We visited real estate offices, banks, nail salons, pubs, travel agents, even a fashionable women’s lingerie store where Gavin peeked in and ducked out again quickly, asking his dad, “Can we really go in THERE?”

On Sunday we had lunch with my adult “kids” and spent some time reminiscing about their favourite costumes when they were growing up. I was a stay-at-home mom and actually sewed their outfits. One of my son James’ proudest moments was at age 2 when he wanted to dress up in a furry black outfit, as our dog, Snoopy. When we headed out the door to collect candy, he immediately dropped down to his knees. I realized that he planned to crawl on all fours around the neighbourhood, wagging his butt/tail as he went. It was going to be a long night.

This year, the only thing we have left to do is buy the candy. Sadly, the grandkids caught us sneaking into their loot bags on Saturday, so we didn’t get a chance to share. Now we have to head to COSTCO for a large supply of our favourite chocolate bars. We plan to buy at least 100. You can’t be too careful.

Sue