Halloween

Halloween happened. It was a bit rainy, but we still managed to unload the bulk of our candy. In an effort to win over the neighborhood kids, I tried to fill our candy bowl with candy meant to Wow! I got some Snickers, some Reese’s, some minty 3 Musketeers, some Twix, some KitKats, and some M&M’s. And I threw in some 100 Grand Bars, which may have just taken the top spot on the My Favorite Candy Bar list.

At the last minute, Tiff added some Smarties and some cheapy boxes of “Candy Sticks” that had Marvel Comics on the boxes. I rolled my eyes at her trivial contribution. Her little piles of lesser sweets next to my impressive sum of shiny packaging made me laugh as I mixed them all together. She also threw in some cheap kazoos and squishy eyeballs.

When the kids started coming, Tiff and I sat side by side behind our bowl of treats. We greeted each one and watched as they sifted through the goodies to find the best, and time after time, the best was Smarties, Candy Sticks, and Kazoos.

One Notre Dame football player, helmet and all, began by taking just one thing, a pack of Smarties. I encouraged him to take more, and about five minutes later, he ambled off with his hands full of nothing but Smarties. He must have taken no less than a dozen of them! Hopefully, all those Smarties will go to his head!

We were constantly telling the trick-or-treaters to take more. “Take a few pieces,” I would say; “Take a whole handful!” Tiff would second. I guess most kids were under a strict one piece per house rule. Most kids, though, didn’t hesitate to reach in for more.

One little kid later in the evening, I think he was a Superhero of some sort, spent a good bit of time just looking into the bowl, presumably deep in thought, considering his choices. He tentatively reached in and grabbed the last kazoo. Tiff told him it was a kazoo and that it makes noise. The kid’s face… it was like a light bulb had gone off, and before we could tell him to take a few pieces, take a whole handful, he turned tail and ran off shouting, “I got a kazoo! I got a kazoo!”

All this is to say that I clearly missed the mark on winning over our target audience. Or did I? There’s nothing wrong, in my mind, with left over Halloween candy.