Halloween and Love

Thanks so much for all the comments and e-mails! You all are terrific!! Every cloud does have a silver lining - now I know how many people out there care about me. It means more than you all know.

But enough of that - this is the best candy week going! I thought in the spirit of the holiday, I would share some childhood memories with you. I bet if you read this blog, Halloween was one of your favorite holidays as a kid too! I hope this brings back some fond memories.

Halloween - to this day, my childhood memories of Halloween are my favorites. I have a little brother and we would always go Trick or Treating together. One year we went as Lady and the Tramp (I being the tramp and he being the lady - he was about 10 and it was hilarious). Seeing him walk in my Mom’s high heels was something else! Equally funny was the year I made my own robot costume - a giant box covered with tin foil. I could neither see nor run.

But Halloween was never about the costumes or the nice people at their doors, it was all about the candy for me. Beautiful, delicious, forbidden, FREE candy. The one day a year when you could go out and get everything your parents wouldn’t let you have in quantities that were unimaginable. When I was a kid, EVERYBODY gave out candy. And everybody gave something different. It was like a beautiful dream. I’m getting teary eyed just thinking about it.

My favorite part was when we got home (I always had an orange plastic jack-o-lantern to carry my candy) and sat in the middle of the living room floor and dumped out all the candy. There it was - all shapes and sizes and colors - candy you loved, candy you never tried before, and so much candy! I felt like the king of the world!!!

Of course, there can never be enough candy, so I would immediately start pressuring my brother to give me some of his candy. The wheeling and dealing would begin! He liked Pixy sticks, I liked chocolate. But I’d have to give up multiple Pixy Sticks for one miniature bar. My Dad was totally egging this entire thing on while trying to snag a piece or two for himself. I think this was the closest my family was all year - united by our fascination with and love of candy.

For days afterward I would again look at my entire haul and mourn its slow passing. I would think about my candy all day at school and couldn’t wait to get home to it. (I think I actually worshipped my Halloween candy.) Now that I look back on it, my relationship with my Halloween candy might have been the greatest love affair of my life.

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!