The "Happy Halloween to All, And to All a Good Night" Story

It was an ordinary day. Halloween is here. About two weeks ago I bought a huge bag of candy at Walmart to give to the kids when they came around to the house. Last week as I was putting the groceries away I noticed that the bag was half empty. Wasn't me, so I asked Carol if she noticed the candy bag in the pantry was getting smaller. She did notice, every time she took a piece from it. Had to get a few more bags for Halloween evening. Only bought the good kind this time around. Snickers Bars, Hershey Bars and Resse's Peanut Butter Cups. I emptied the three bags into the "green bowl" (check story called "green bowl" - Dec. 11, 2009), starting with the peanut butter cups in the bottom, then the Hershey Bars, then the Snickers Bars, and finally what was left from the Walmart bag. Wanted to use the candy in the reverse order of what we like best. Really filled the bowl. Carol and I agreed that we would give three items to every kid who showed up on Halloween. If we ran out of candy I had five boxes of Tastykakes I had just bought at the store. Hey, 5 boxes for $10. A real bargain! Have lots of healthy items in our kitchen. We were ready for the trick-or-treaters to arrive. First knock came right around 6:00 PM. Three young girls around 12 years old with their dog. All dressed in black hats, black suit coats, white shirts, with sunglasses. Looked like the Blues Bros. Looked pretty neat. I went to grab my camera. Carol asked them what the dog was supposed to be with his costume on. He had three lumps on his back. One white, one brown, and one pink with this white stuff on top of them. They must have told her he was a banana split before I got back, because as soon as I got back with the camera I said, "What's your dog supposed to be? A camel." Didn't know why the girls and Carol couldn't stop laughing. Then Carol said, "When did you ever see a camel with three colored humps on its back?" Got me on that one. Well, they were laughing so hard I didn't even get a photo of them. Then the next crowd comes to the door. Three young boys. Had no idea what they were supposed to be. I told them to wait a second so I can grab my camera. I turned around and the kid in the yellow jacket stepped into the house and was helping himself to my candy. "Whoa!" I said to him. "I hand out the candy and what you have in your hand is my favorite so put it back." And .... he did. He got some of the Walmart stuff in his bag. Kids came and went for the next hour or so and the candy was starting to get lower in the "green bowl." Our final group of the evening was a group of seven kids from the neighborhood. Told then I needed a photo before they got the candy. Kinda like pix-and-treat night. At 8:00 PM we turned off the lights, locked the door, and counted our candy. Hey, we got just what we wanted for our Halloween treats. Did you? It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.