Trick-or-treating

I took the kids trick-or-treating Tuesday. Good thing it was Halloween when I did.

Not to confuse you non-Western New Yorkers, but where I grew up, we went door-to-door on Oct. 30. It wasn't Devil's Night, as the Detroit arsonists celebrate. It is called Beggar's Night. I'm not sure why we went that night, but it was tradition.

You could always tell the new people in town because they went on Halloween itself. They learned fast.

Someone once told me that people went the night before Halloween to beg for candy before the big Halloween parties. If you went on Halloween, you'd be driven away from the parties and not get any candy.

And you wonder why I'm confused. This falls in with the naked swimming at school that will take up a blog (and a psychologist's couch) one day.

Spooky college

On Halloween, I took the girls to Hope College to trick-or-treat at the residence halls. It's a safer environment than the streets. You're indoors, except for trekking between dorms, and the kids put on some nice decorations. Oh, yeah. There's lots of candy. The college and students do a great job.

We went with some friends and it seemed all had a good time.

One of Elspeth's friends dressed as a werewolf (There wolf. There castle). She was decked out in great stage makeup, hairy hands and fuzzy feet. She looked cool, though had a tough time grabbing treats with her long-nailed hands. Elspeth was a pink Pokemon called a Mew. At the school party on Friday, she went as a monkey, but didn't like that costume, so she grabbed all her pink clothes and a pink hat to trick-or-treat as a Pokemon.

Alyssa was a cat at her school party. Jayne did a great job getting the costume together and painting Alyssa's face. But to stay in the Pokemon tradition Tuesday, Alyssa didn't want her face painted and went as some canine-inspired Pokemon.

Both girls are in the photo above in their Pokemon regalia.

As for me? I went as the tired, frazzled, mostly confused parent. I played the part well.

Thought: Boo!