CANDY SOUL ON A STICK

“Sure, Charlie Brown, I Can Tell You What Halloween Is All About…”

Happy Halloween Month, Me Hearties

by author

Mom dressed me and my brother as clowns and walked us to the neighbor’s house.

Why?

Why not?

Also, it was Halloween, October 31st, 1987, to be exact.

My first Halloween.

Because it was my first, I had yet to find out if what Mom said was true, that the neighbor was going to be okay with a pair of clowns appearing at suppertime as surprisingly and uninvitedly as bank robbers, clowns holding up empty buckets and speaking an incantation in culty unison, clowns expecting, demanding, something good as opposed to getting shot and arrested.

But life was new then.

It was full of business you didn’t understand, but you trusted Mother.

• If she told you to look both ways before crossing a road that never had any cars on it. You did that.
• If she told you not to touch the eyes of a growling dog, you tried hard not to touch. You put in the effort.
• And if she told you to clown up, carry buckets to the neighbor’s house, knock, then yell at the neighbor, you did it.