Happy Halloween
One of the things I most enjoy about giving out candy is deciding who to give what to. Teenagers in jeans, anyone wearing football uniforms, anyone talking on their cell phone? Rockets. Kids in homemade costumes, snowsuits, or out with their nannies? Chocolate bars. This year I also gave into requests for exchanges (almost invariably requested by 8-10 year old girls), and gave in to one kid and his identical twin, but not their identical triplet.
Most annoying: the live band hired by the neighbours, playing mostly 60s tunes and dancing on top a fire truck.
Rudest: the photographer who walked in, said he was a photographer looking for something good to take a picture of, then walked out without taking any pictures. Yes, I know that the Kloda stuff looks better, but I also know that your digital card is already paid for.
Most bizarre: little boy who went to the pirate chest, picked up the (dollar store) sword on it and tried to run out with it, saying “Look what I found!”
November 1st, 2007 at 9:00 am
Yes, the photographer was quite rude.
Sigh - I sorta miss those little boys and their sword days. ;) (not really)
November 1st, 2007 at 10:57 am
Rockets, the ultimate booby prize.
Have you noticed that Americans use the name “smarties” for “rockets”? Americans are weird. Also they lack smarties. Their loss.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:19 am
I grant that the professional stuff looks professional, and the homemade stuff looks homemade, but come on. Take a few pictures, delete them later.
One kid that I knew *requested* rockets. Weirdo.
I do know that Americans call them smarties, which initially made for some confusion.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Wow, live bands and photographers? And I thought my friends’ block was hopping just because there were so many kids.
We switched houses half-way and left our bowl on the steps for kids to help themselves. Came home to find everything gone . . . except a big pile of Smarties boxes. Smart kids know Smarties.ca stink.
Any good ideas for what to do with a whole lot of not-that-good leftovers? Shall I mail them to you, plam? Cool science experiments? See if they explode in the microwave?
November 1st, 2007 at 1:08 pm
About 25 years ago, some neighbours decided to really decorate. They built huge statues — a light up ET, a cocoon that opened, had one of the characters sit up, lie down, then close again, people sawed in half with all the (accurate!) internal organs bisected, etc etc. Over time, the rest of the block decided to follow suit. Eventually that first family moved out and so we have a few old guard (my parents, mostly), who do home-grown stuff without any building skills, a bunch of semi-obsessed, who buy a lot of creepy statues etc and then put them up themselves, and the more money than sense crowd, who hire people to decorate and then remove everything, often showing horror movie clips.
Yes, I’ve totally outed which specific block my parents live on to a bunch of Montrealers.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Madeleine: What?! Are you trash-talking Canadian smarties? Next thing you’ll be saying that poutine is not tasty or something. But, well, thanks for the kind offer of leftover candy. I think I’ll pass on that.
wolfa: This morning, my girlfriend was showing me this decoration where there was a person being run over by a car, but I got no information about the source of this picture. Did you see that run-over not-person?
November 5th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Poutine: Tasty. Smarties: Ick.
We found a use for the leftover Aero bars. (Which I liked much better when I lived in the US and had them rarely. Has the chocolate been downgraded, or has the novelty worn off?) The solution to too many Aero bars: melt them onto french toast. Mmmm.
November 5th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Poutine: revolting. Both of you are nuts.
I don’t remember that particular decoration, no. The Westmount decoration wars started *after* my block.
I also like Aero less than I used to. Maybe the excitement of a candy bar that is mostly empty space is less exciting. I miss the dark-and-milk aeros.