The trick-or-treating has come to an end, and it seems as if our plan was a success. The Other Dr. K and I decided this year that instead of giving out candy to all the little ghouls and goblins, we would hand out containers of Play-Doh (we found special Halloween trick-or-treat packages of Play-Doh at Target). I was a bit worried about this plan, as I envisioned a bunch of disappointed, sugar-starved hellions "doh-ing" our house and cars, so I wanted to have some candy around as a back-up plan in case we started to get some complaints.
However, I needn't have worried. Most of the kids, when seeing what we put in their bags, went tearing across the yard screaming, "I got Play-Doh!!!" We also had many parents come to our door to tell us that they really liked that we gave out Play-Doh instead of candy. And the worst reaction I got from a little boy was one who wanted pink Play-Doh instead of black. I told the kid that I was proud of him for resisting fundamental, essentialized notions of gender, and I gladly made the exchange. Also, two older boys just handed it back to the Other Dr. K, but were polite enough not to throw it at us or our property. I'll keep my fingers crossed that, when I get up in the morning, I won't have a tailpipe stuffed with Doh.
(We have a phenomenon around here where teenagers often go trick-or-treating, but without costumes. This, in my book, violates some fundamental but unwritten contract of Halloween: costumes = trick-or-treating; no costumes = walking up to a house and asking for food. It goes like this: you knock on my door, I answer, you say "Trick or Treat!", I tell you how cute and/or scary you look in your costumes, you get treats. I have to say, though, I did give some of these costumeless kids the candy instead of the Doh.)
All together, we gave away over 100 containers of Play-Doh this year. Next year, I think we'll mix things up a bit by getting both Play-Doh and the small ashcan comics that some companies has started producing over the last couple of years. But, in the meantime, I'm going to sit back and hypocritically enjoy a big bowl of Almond Joys that we didn't give away, as that is my single, all-time favorite candy bar (followed closely by Kit Kats).
Did anyone else have good trick-or-treating experiences this year?
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I was home until 6:30 (when I drove to Hartsville to watch a rehearsal) and had no trick-or-treaters, but they are spotty here. One year I'll get 20 or 30, and the next I'll get 2 or 3.
At any rate, I bought two bags of Reese's cups. I'll take them to school tomorrow for the "kids", but I did eat five or six of the little cups tonight!
Val and I live just outside of Duluth, at the end of a scary dirt road, with a pack of vicious, snarling dogs (and a chihuahua).
Not surprisingly, we had no trick-or-treaters. Which was a shame, since we'd dressed our chihuahua like Peter Pan for the evening.
As consolation, we invited some friends over to watch "Pushing Daisies" and eat key lime pie.
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