Boo!

With all of the storm action, we totally forgot about Halloween.  It's on a Wednesday this year.  Last year we had no trick or treaters.  This year we didn't even give it a second thought - until our pup started barking like someone was at the door while I was making dinner.  (Still no trains - loving my 10 second commute!)

My DH went to check on it.  One of the neighborhood children - the cutest little princess fairy you've ever seen! - was trick or treating.  "Honey, we've got a trick or treater!"  Uh oh!

I quickly scanned the pantry - surely there was something to give this child!  Oatmeal ... flour ... saltine crackers ... tomatoes.

Things were looking grim.  Then I spotted the apples leftover from my pie-a-thon. (Picture courtesy of nyapplecountry.com)

I polished one up, handed it my DH and wished him luck.

Fortunately, the princess-fairies' mom was near.  Fortunately she knows us.

My DH apologized for the healthy treat and the princess-fairy was slightly mollified.  (It was a really big apple.)  He chatted with the mom for a few minutes and then waited as they made their way back to the street, then quickly doused the front porch light.  Oops!

It wasn't until later that I remembered that old tale about the razor blade that someone supposedly stuck into an apple - an article in the New York Times that turned out to be a hoax.  And yet, after almost 40 years of repetition, the hoax part is forgotten and the only thing that remains is the tale - believed by many.  The end result - pretty much the worst thing you can give a kid on Halloween is an apple.

Tootsie Rolls - most often on the worst candy to give on Halloween lists - would have been a much better choice.  Any packaged candy.  Any packaged chocolate.  But an apple?  Oh dear!  (For the record, I love Tootsie Rolls - especially the mini ones you get a Halloween!)

I guess the even worse thing was that our house is known for having a cooler full of chocolate candy on Halloween.  Every year when it falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, we fill a huge cooler to the brim and any child brave enough to get to the porch is welcome to dig in with both hands and take as much as they want.  I say "brave enough" because our driveway is dark and lined with arborvitae - and frequently my DH hides in the arborvitae with a scarecrow and then pops it out just as the kids are passing by.  Not the little kids - that wouldn't be nice!  You can hear the kids as they approach daring each other to be the first to go down the drive - boasting how they aren't afraid - then laughing and screaming when my DH surprises them.

But all the little princess-fairy got was an apple.  I felt like the Wicked Witch of the West - or the Evil Queen in Snow White.

It'll be 2 years before Halloween falls on a Friday again, but next year I think I'll have to put aside a special little bag of really yummy candies for a little princess-fairy.  It's only fair, right?