Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 30, 2022

I guess some people still have kids coming around. We had 2 kids come by last year. None the year before. I may have a lot of candy to eat again.

Guilty pleasure?

My first year as a home owner, I gave out the “good” candy. I didn’t recognize any of the kids who came to the house, and watched as some of the kids got chauffeured from house to house in their parents’ car. Haven’t passed out candy since. I’ll visit the few friends of mine who have young kids the weekend before Halloween to see their costumes and give ‘em some candy, but that’s about it.

Not as good, but cake will do when you’re desperate.

Your hatred of kids knows no bounds Janis

One way or another she’ll be packing on the pounds.

Finally, circumstances when that line makes sense.

Does anybody REALLY like red velvet cake? I’ll take a pecan pie, anytime.

I think

So the lil beggars get the least favorite candy and Janis gets the house TP’ed.

Janis’ menu for Halloween includes the Italian classic Fettuccini Afraid-o.

Then she’ll serve the Red Velvet cake with her favorite Halloween ice cream… Veinilla.

I’m glad our #2 grandson has lost interest in Trick or Treat. With his life-threatening allergies to dairy, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, and coconut it was always an ordeal to sort his take to a big pile of sweet poison and a tiny pile of things he could have. We would buy candies he could have and augment his take with those.

What do witches get when their shoes are too tight? Candy corns.

Candy Corn? That’s just mean.

I don’t get it again. What does buying a cake have to do with not having good candy for the kids? Couldn’t she afford both?

Arlo wanted peanut butter cups…for himself!

I had been buying full sized candy bars to hand out. Last couple of years, no treaters. This year I bought the “fun” sized cheapskate candy.

Also, I happen to LIKE candy corn.

we give full size hershey’s …kitkats…and reese’s… and if it rains…i am set with my fave’s for the rest of the year… yummy!

Where we live (Bainbridge Island) most houses are widely spaced and there are very few sidewalks, almost no streetlights, so on Halloween the main street downtown is closed off from 4:00 to 6:00, kids and parents thronging the whole area in costumes, the kids collecting treats from the storefronts. It’s a huge party, culminating in a group of dancers in costume doing “Thriller” with the music being blasted from the steeple of the Congregational Church. In some neighborhoods kids still go door to door in the evening. We usually get a dozen or so.

I stopped eating or giving out Reese’s because I hated that “Not sorry” campaign.

We usually get about 50 kids but this year I am leaving the light off. I have a new kitty and she is quite the escape artist. I don’t want to risk losing her in the commotion of the kids getting candy. I even bought the candy prior to the kitty adoption but when a kitty needs a home in a serious situation, the kids will have to miss out on candy.

Be prepared…..

As long as we get what we want, who cares what the rugrats get, “Janis”

The little beggars coming to your grand castle to see if you would bequeath meager gifts upon the waifs. Let them eat candy corn!

My neighborhood had a Friday night Trick or Treat. Gave out over 200 pieces of candy (one per person).

We are taking my autistic 14 year old daughter trick-or-treating along with a friend on crutches and her younger brother with a life threatening medical condition that leaves him wheelchair-bound and unable to eat anything. He is twelve, and it is his first time ever to go trick or treating, go to a trunk or treat, or carve a pumpkin. For someone who can’t eat, it is amazing how excited he gets about collecting candy. This is the happiest I have seen these kids all year.

So, when you complain about the little beggars, think about how much joy the activity might be bringing them. Or turn off the light if you dislike them so much.

That is why the rule of thumb is “Buy What You Like To Eat”…… yum

My 3 kids are grown and gone, and my wife was working, and I was in the back of our property raking leaves. So, this is the first time I did not pass out trick-or-treat candy since, well, probably my life. I missed it just a little, but not that much.

Red velvet cake is as sweet and insipid as candy corn. At least screw the kids over for some kind of pastry with a bit of texture to it.

Now, that’s some subtle product placement.

Most communities do Trunk or Treat at local churches or business. It’s much safer but I do miss seeing all the little ones in costume. Another tradition has had to reinvent itself because of safety issues. Sigh. Everything changes.

Towns around here have trunk or treat. Everyone that wants to give out treats go to the park and the kids go around to the cars. The firemen and parents keep an eye on things so safty first.