Trick or Treat

Smoke wafts up from the graveyard temporarily planted in a neighbor's yard. Kids line up for their chance to trick or treat at the house with the spookiest music playing loudly while nervously glancing over at the skeletons emerging from the grass. Parents and kids in halloween costumes swarm about the milieu of my new neighborhood. Trick or treat is early in Athens and only one hour long, but it is a festive and fun, and it feels like the whole neighborhood turned out plus a few visitors, considering that all of the street parking is suddenly full as the hour nears.

It is fun to see everyone taking time to chat and mill about in a colorful array of costumes. It may only happen once a year, but at least it happens. The candy collection is the excuse, but the real fun comes from those who are serious about theatrics, decorations, and costumes. There was even a halloween tree whose bare branches bore strings of plastic beaded necklaces to the delight of the trick or treaters.

The pain comes later when the kids, in their beds, think back over the costumes and scenes that caught their fancy. My children offer me plenty of carmel, tootsie rolls, and peanut butter cups, but they also immediately start into wondering about the next halloween and the spooky monsters they saw. 

They take halloween serious about these parts. I like that.

a smoke filled grave yard temporarily locates nearby

A halloween tree filled with hanging necklaces

Smoke wafts up from the graveyard temporarily planted in a neighbor's yard. Kids line up for their chance to trick or treat at the house with the spookiest music playing loudly while nervously glancing over at the skeletons emerging from the grass. Parents and kids in halloween costumes swarm about the milieu of my new neighborhood. Trick or treat is early in Athens and only one hour long, but it is a festive and fun, and it feels like the whole neighborhood turned out plus a few visitors, considering that all of the street parking is suddenly full as the hour nears.

It is fun to see everyone taking time to chat and mill about in a colorful array of costumes. It may only happen once a year, but at least it happens. The candy collection is the excuse, but the real fun comes from those who are serious about theatrics, decorations, and costumes. There was even a halloween tree whose bare branches bore strings of plastic beaded necklaces to the delight of the trick or treaters.

The pain comes later when the kids, in their beds, think back over the costumes and scenes that caught their fancy. My children offer me plenty of carmel, tootsie rolls, and peanut butter cups, but they also immediately start into wondering about the next halloween and the spooky monsters they saw. 

They take halloween serious about these parts. I like that.

a smoke filled grave yard temporarily locates nearby

A halloween tree filled with hanging necklaces