By now you might not have any candy left in the stash from Halloween night. But WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, says other pleasures will stick around much longer.
Our neighborhood on Halloween is like South End on a Friday night. Crowded and weird.
The grown-ups provide some of the weirdness. A neighbor told me she saw one guy park on the curb, get out, look around and start sprinting down the street. Apparently, he was supposed to be Forrest Gump. Run, Forrest, run.
But Halloween is mostly about the kids, and on our street, they show up in droves. At one point a dad who had built his kid’s wagon to look sort of like the Ectomobile from “Ghostbusters” had trouble getting it turned around on our narrow walkway. By the time he got it situated, there were a dozen kids lined up behind him waiting to get to our candy.
Candy. So much candy. We bought three of those giant Costco bags, and one of our friends brought over two more, and by 9:00 it was all gone and we had to turn out the porch lights and duck back inside.
By then the tenor of the night had changed a little. Before dark you tend to get little kids who run up to the house screaming “Trick or Treat!” Later in the night, you get teenagers without costumes who silently hold out pillowcases.
As a household we have sometimes been grumpy over those older kids, and sometimes over the parents who come around to get candy for infants who have no idea what’s going on and will be having pureed carrots while the parents scarf M&M’s.
But here’s the conclusion I have come to over the years: Sometimes, we all need a little candy.
When those strangers come up to us with their buckets and bags — and yes, with their pillowcases — we don’t know what’s going on in their lives. They might have had a terrible day or a terrible month or a terrible year. They might need something for supper, even if it’s a Twix and some Starburst. They might just need to have somebody smile at them, to be a part of something fun.
Candy comes in many forms. It might be the boss saying you did a good job, or a friend calling up out of the blue, or your partner reaching over to pull you close on a cold night. We can live on just the basics but it’s not much of a life. We need those things that give our hearts and souls a little boost, even if it’s just a sugar rush.
We did eat some candy ourselves Halloween night, for quality control purposes, of course. But the real pleasure we got was seeing all those happy kids, and at least for one night, to know we put something good out into the universe.
There’s only one better feeling than eating candy. It’s being able to give some away.
Tommy Tomlinson’s "On My Mind" column runs Mondays on WFAE and WFAE.org. It represents his opinion, not the opinion of WFAE. You can respond to this column in the comments section below. You can also email Tommy at ttomlinson@wfae.org.
