Tonight is Beggars’ Night in our town.  The night the children trade a joke for a treat.  (Apparently, our area is fairly unique in that the children have to do a "trick" to get a treat.)  As I waited for the doorbell to ring, I prepared Joe and my dinner with scenes of by-gone Beggars’ Nights running through my mind.  Excitement always ran too high for me to have any luck getting our three sons to eat a healthy dinner before we started out on our trek around the neighborhood.  Han Solo, the pirate and the football player were ready and practicing their jokes long before the magic 6:00 hour rolled around.

Here is Iowa it is always a guess as to what bag of tricks the weather will have in store for us.  It could be rain, cold, sleet, or even snow but occasionally we have a beautiful fall evening like tonight.  There was only a slight breeze, meaning light jacket weather so the costumes weren’t obscured by a heavy winter coat, mittens and earmuffs!  I sat listening to the breeze sighing through the bare tree branches, their dry fallen leaves making tiny whirlwinds as they scudded around the street.  The tinkle of our wind chimes reminded me they were doing the job of keeping the evil spirits away from our home. 

The little goblins were very few tonight.  The numbers have dwindled over the years from 100+, to 70, to 50, to only about 35 tonight.  I guess the neighborhood is getting older.  I have to say that the tricksters tonight were some of the most polite children we have ever had.  Most offered their thanks without parents even reminding them.  That was a nice surprise.

Well, since I had planned on 50-60 spooks tonight we have a bag full of candy left over.  I’ll probably take it to work tomorrow.  That is if there is any left after Joe’s sweet tooth kicks in!

Happy Halloween

[tags]candy, Beggars’ Night, Trick or Treat[/tags]