Last night.

I heart Halloween.

We went all around our neighborhood last night and it was so fun because Jackson's old enough now to go up to the house alone while I stand on the sidewalk watching. Seeing him tromp up and down staircases, ring doorbells, yell TRICK OR TREAT!, and thank you and Happy Halloween! was soooo cool. Five is such an awesome age!!

I gave him a pillowcase like every kid should carry on Halloween, and he bagged a lot of loot. There were some great pumpkins this year and a few houses that really went all out on decoration. Our neighbors, the ones with the Big Crap Pile in the backyard, did a great job. There was a torch, police caution tape, lots of webs, and one pumpkin with a propane-soaked rag in it on fire on the front lawn. The flames shot up about three feet out of this thing. It was great.

My favorite, and also the scariest, house was just up on the corner. By day it's just a shitty looking rental, but who knew it could be transformed into such a spooky place for Halloween! They didn't even have to decorate. I never noticed that there is a subterranean apartment behind the carport and we would have missed it last night if they hadn't had a jack-o-lantern out. Theirs was decorated with a big knife and a throwing star embedded in its face.

The entrance is a pit about 3 1/2 feet below grade with a large wooden block serving as a make-shift step. There were overflowing ashtrays and two filthy recliners, minus their legs, propped up against the wall near the door. Jackson looked at me with a dubious frown. Laughing, I helped him down to the wooden block and encouraged him to knock. We couldn't turn back, we were in the full glare of the motion-operated flood lights! Jackson looked at the pit and said, "Ew. Smokers."

Two young college-age kids answered the door holding beer bottles and balancing empty sauce-encrusted spaghetti plates in one hand and each holding a bowl of candy and a bowl of chip bags in the other. They were so happy to have a trick-or-treater! They loved Jackson's costume. They said nobody ever comes, and gave Jackson most of what they had. How adorable is it that they carved a jack-o-lantern, and bought candy? SO adorable! I was really tickled by the whole thing and glad we had knocked on their door.

This neighborhood can be kind of rowdy at times, and the rentals do mean a lot of young adults and not as many families, but there is a spirit here that I love. There were bonfires and fireworks, and many of the adults who answered the doors were in costume.

Next year will be even better when I can take both kids out. I can't wait!

Oh, and all that candy - we selected a few of the better pieces and Darren hauled the rest off to the nursing home this morning. We do NOT need all that food coloring and glucose floating around in this already high-strung family's blood stream. More fun to watch the old folks all hopped up duking it out.