Halloween--it takes all kinds

Observations from Halloween 2007:

1) Lucas is definitely still too young to get it. We visited a few houses of our neighbors. More to say hello than get candy. He enjoyed seeing some of the "big kids" come to our house dressed up. He HATED putting his woof-woof costume over his head. Maybe next year.

2) There is a new (or new to me at least) phenomenon. I'm wondering if it is common. There seemed to be quite a few parents in their cars (anecdotally these mostly seemed to be SUVs) slowly driving up the road as their kids walked door to door. Hmmm... Why were they doing this? Were the parents just being lazy? Would they hit a few houses then jump back in the car and look for another row of houses with their lights on? I don't really understand it. From what I can tell, most people in our neighborhood give out candy. Thus, by walking several blocks you can score a pretty good haul of candy. There shouldn't really be a need to drive. Strange.

3) I have a newfound sense of pride (and a little embarrassment for!) my dad. One year when we were pretty young my sister got sick on Halloween. She was devastated. So Dad (he's the one who always took us trick-or-treating) agreed to collect candy for her. I don't know why Mom and Dad didn't just make my brother and me share 1/3 of our candy. We clearly didn't offer but they could have forced it. Anyway, my dad sucked it up and collected candy for his sick daughter. I'm sure he got plenty of looks. But he did it to make Sarah happy. Contrast this with the 50+ year old man who came trick-or-treating at our house last night. At first I thought it was just a little ahead of his young son. But then the son asked for candy, too. I said, "doesn't he have your bag? I already put candy in!" The man answered, "Oh no, this is for me." Guess he wasn't embarrassed a bit. I'm glad I gave him the cheez-its instead of the chocolate.