The Big Double Nickel

By the time you all are reading this, several life events will already have come and gone. It’s been quite the week around here as it always is this time of the year.

First, Halloween had a very different vibe this year. The amount of trick or treaters we saw were tremendously reduced in numbers from years past. I was invited to sit and watch the activities with my son and his girlfriend at their home on 9^th street which is usually the mecca area for such goings on. But this year, because of the storm and I think just life in general, the climate was much different and because of that, many more churches in the area participated in Trunk or Treat activities for the children, as well as a huge sheng dig at Wards Lot here in Quincy, doing the same.

From where we sat, I could hear the closing announcements at Wards Lot coming out over an intercom; it was then that the traffic began to flow a bit. Given that, we wouldn’t see any monsters or princesses until well after 7pm and then they only came in chunks at the time, not the hundreds and hundreds of children I had personally witnessed in the past.

In the past I have mentioned how much different Halloween is these days compared to when my children were young enough to participate and most certainly compared to the stone ages when I was a child myself. But I do want to say one thing that maybe I haven’t mentioned before and that is this: there is a reason why the local police block off King Street, the main thoroughfare here in Quincy; they are trying to ensure everyone is safe and has a good time. So in that same vain, common sense should prevail on any other street that peels off of King Street. Parents, do not drive your children around from street to street, house to house. Park your cars, get out and walk.

I told my son that night as I watched car after car, pull up, let a gang of kids out, run up for their candy and jump back into the cars – that as a child, when my mom would take us trick or treating – we walked. She walked behind us, but we walked. And if at any point we started whining or complaining that we were tired, the night was declared over. Because if you were too tired to walk, then trick or treating was over for that year. There would be no driving us around in a vehicle to get to a full-bag quota. And besides all the above, it’s just not safe.

This last event was a two-for-one deal. The time changed this past weekend, we gained a whole hour of sleep and I, on that very same 2am morning, turned the Big Double Nickel! I got a whole extra hour of sleep for my 55^th birthday! And who needs more sleep than the woman who just rolled into another year of life beyond living a half of a century? I can’t think of anyone – can you?