Sunday, October 29, 2006

I miss Halloween

Halloween is Tuesday and I have yet to buy any candy to placate the marauding hordes of teens who scoff at the age-old tradition of just walking around the neighborhood, politely ringing doorbells at homes with welcoming Jack-O-Lanterns alight out front, saying "Trick Or Treat!" before being given a piece of candy and making their way to the next house.

Nowadays, vans of teens roll up from 'hoods far away and Trick Or Treat as if practicing their future home invasion skills. Actual costumes are an afterthought (except for the grotesque "Friday The 13th Jason" hockey masks suddenly popping up everywhere on dudes wearing jeans and t-shirts) and you have to remind kids to even say "Trick Or Treat." It''s also shameful when a 20-something mom grabs candy for her baby in a stroller, even if said baby is dressed as The World's Ittiest-Bittiest Cow.

But I'm heading to Target to buy candy again this year in hopes that things will somehow miraculously be as they were when I was a trick-or-treating kid in the mid- to late-'70s, when there were no such things as Jason masks or drive-by candy grabs. Why isn't it OK anymore to walk your own neighborhood streets, show off your witch, ghost or superhero costume to the neighbors, get a decent bagful of treats and then go home to celebrate? Pillowcases bursting with gobs of candy depress me.

I'll buy a pumpkin, too - a real one - and carve it into a smiling Jack-O-Lantern. Sometimes I think about buying a plastic fakie and setting it out but I'm not giving up on the Halloween tradition of creating a Jack that invites perfect strangers into your yard, up to your door, with a candle-lit grin. Halloween's changed but I haven't.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

30


R.I.P. Cory Lidle

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Stripes in six


This is why I love baseball.