A Scary Halloween Experience

Having grown up in a small faraway town in the Philippines, all I knew about Halloween was what I read about in books. What was celebrated more was All Souls Day on November 1^st when we visited dead relatives’ graves at the cemetery. The closest thing that came to kids trick or treating was during the Christmas season when they went door to door singing Christmas carols for candy or money. Other than that, my previous experience with Halloween in the U.S. had been observing kids come to the door saying trick or treat. There have not been too much of this happening in my condo complex since we have a security gate so it’s not accessible to the public. This changed last Sunday night.

With the possibility that my body was infested with rabies, I was prepared to scare the bejeezus out of everyone on Halloween. For extra effect, I hadn’t shaved for almost a week. I went to my cousin’s house for a birthday and Halloween party and afterwards she invited me to walk with the kids while they were trick or treating. At first there was a trickle of kids walking about from house to house in the neighborhood. Then with no warning, it turned into a swarm of scary and fancy costumed children out looting for candy. It was like the night of the living dead out there. We went down different streets and saw all sorts of decorations, some elaborate and others simple. What they had in common were the homeowners passing out candy from huge tubs. I can’t believe how much candy was being given away. That, and the decorations that some of the homes had, it was almost as if there was no recession. I’m glad I joined them because it would have been scarier driving home at that time with all the spooks, ghosts, and goblins swarming the streets. I was more afraid about getting lost walking in the dark amongst the costumed kids and not find my way back to my cousin’s house. Oh, I almost forgot. My slightly less than a year old niece Noelani had her first Halloween J Here she is with her grandpa and grandma:  

What I found most scary was this: on my way home, a van which was stopped at an intersection didn’t move when the traffic light turned green. It took several seconds before the driver noticed the green light. It happened again at the next traffic light and I finally had to honk my horn to alert the driver. When I caught up and was beside the van a few blocks farther, what do you think the driver was doing? Texting. Now that’s scary!

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