Halloween Then and Now

One Halloween at the end of the last century of the last millenium

my friend Barb and I joined our families together 

for a fun night of trick or treats.

A paleontologist, an alien and a cat (?)

went door to door 

with a knight, a wizard and a fairy princess.

When we walked down the main street of Courtenay

people kept saying, "Great costume, Dumbledore!"

"I'm just a wizard," was lost in the cotton ball beard.

Fairy princess and cat (?) grew tired.

After bags and buckets were filled

with sweets for the sweet

we gathered in Barb's street 

for the neighbourhood potato gun blasting of pumpkins.

Fireworks popped and cracked nearby

but the potato gun's blast and shatter thrilled the kids

to no end.

The parents didn't exactly stand back 

and keep their hands in their pockets either.

The knight, the wizard and the fairy princess

were followed by another a few years later.

I don't remember what she dressed up as for her first Halloween. 

This year that little sister is thirteen

and uninterested in going door-to-door calling out 'trick or treat!'

She did go to school dressed in costume today.

She and her friend will hand out treats at our door tonight.

The knight, the wizard and the fairy princess grew up and

are all away at work and college, so the mime must take over Halloween duties.

"I'm looking forward to seeing all the cute little kids," she says.

"I miss the knight, the wizard and the little fairy princess (who was

a fairy princess three years in a row)" I say.

But, I am very glad to have a mime around the house.

Happy Halloween!