My children need to learn how to DO trick or treating. For the first time ever, at the ages of 15, 13 and 11, my children went door to door shouting, “Trick or Treat” and collecting pillowcases of candy.
No, I am not exaggerating. My children have never gone door to door for candy before. This is primarily because Houghton Lake has this wonderful thing called “Bobcat field,” which is sponsored by the local Lions club. There are games and prizes and at the end of the night, every child walks out with a bag full of candy. In some ways, Halloween at Bobcat field are a lot like Cedar Point’s Halloweekend on a Saturday. The lines, they are long.
The other reason my children have never gone door to door is that we live in the sticks. Even if we tried to do the traditional door-to-door visits, the walks in between houses would be so long that we might be able to visit two places in two hours. Possibly.
Normally, the kids do go to a few houses before we head to Bobcat Field. This involves me driving to the houses. The kids pile out of the car, go up to the door, get their embarrassing riches of candy and then get back into the car. There may not be many houses near where we live, but those that give out candy make it more than worthwhile to stop. We’re talking full sized candy bars, cans of pop, toys and bags full of candy rather than just a piece or two. One year, one house even gave out money. It was rolled coins, but still. (And it was on purpose as part of other things the same house gave out.)
So last Sunday, for the first time ever, my kids experienced the door to door thing. They were not amused. They learned that it is not normal to get an embarrassing amount of candy from a single house. They also learned that all that walking is tiring and thirsty work. Plus, it is cold outside.
Within a half hour, my 15-year-old was asking if she could ride in the car. The answer was no. By the end of the night, she declared Grayling lame because she didn’t get a single solitary Almond Joy candy bar. What is up with that? She had more Butterfinger than she cared to count, although truth be told, for that child a single Butterfinger is too much. She does not like her Butterfinger, but her dad was happy and quick to say, “Don’t lay a finger on my Butterfinger.”
Don’t tell the youngest girl child, but for the two children, we started trick or treating the right way: with shakes at Dawson’s/Stevens. Yum. The youngest girl child missed out because she was with a cousin at the time.
When I was a child, I stopped trick or treating when my mom declared enough. My children, however, wanted to stop just 1.5 hours into it. They did not run between houses. They frequently walked by houses with lights on and required constant pointing from the adults to figure out where to go next.
And next year? They want to go to Bobcat Field. Less work. More friends. Still candy.
My oldest child was not with us on this excursion. She is a teenager with a life of her own, and she was required to march with the band at Bobcat Field. She was a gangster. In order to be a gangster, she had to borrow a tie because this home does not house a single tie. I like that about this place.
The biggest surprise about this year’s Halloween? How BLACK the tub was after the son washed up. He had hair-sprayed his hair black before going out. By the end of the night, his hair was not so black, but his clothes, his hands, his face and anything he touched was coated in the stuff.
