End
of October does not always present with a comfortable weather. If my memory
does not confuse me, which it does most of the times, couple of years ago it
was drizzling on the Halloween night, the air was cool enough to make me uneasy
inside my three layers of clothing and at the top of that the wind blew like
hurricane rising the chill factor to a point when it becomes impossible to stay
out too long, at least for the middle aged dads who has little interest in junk
candies. But then, Halloween nights are not for the dads. We just have to go
with the kids. Not that they give a damn, but we do. I do. You can’t trust
anybody anymore, not with kids.
This
Halloween, thankfully, had the best weather in last several years. It was relatively
warm; with barely any wind blowing, it felt quite comfortable.
Like
most festivals Halloween must be celebrated in groups or there’s very little
fun. We already had one of our friend’s three kids dropped off in our house. We
have two other friends living in the same neighborhood. Each have one kid. All
together seven kids including one toddler. Not bad.
Packed
in Halloween cloths and armed with deep bottom bags the team hit the sidewalks
a little after seven. J (one of my friends who live in the neighborhood) and I
followed them. Many kids have now poured out of their houses, escorted by many
adults, some of whom are in their own Halloween costumes including masks. I
have not heard of any unexpected incidents lately, but still I like to be
careful. We stayed close to the kids, especially the little ones. The two boys
– Zakeem and his friend Musa didn’t want to be slowed down by the girls and
were racing to get to more houses. It became increasingly difficult to keep track
of them as the neighborhood was only partly lighted owing to sparsely located
streetlights. In addition the sidewalks were now flooded with kids of all ages
and sizes, all dressed in an assortment of curious looking costumes, mostly
dark, scary to popular movie figures. Soon I found so many little princesses
hovering in the area that I had to be extra careful to make sure that I was
following the right princess.
As
we progressed in our venture and continued to follow the army of the kids we
overheard some conversations. It seemed like a general consensus that the
amount of candy this year was less than last year. I had heard and read earlier
that day that this year total sales for Halloween related items were much less
than an average year. The job market might have had a direct relation to such
consumer behavior though in Canada things had not been as bad as it could have
been. Our banks had been relatively careful and maintained a better policy of
lending money which in turn had probably saved us some misery. Anyway, we still
had seen our share of job losses and reduction of new job creation. However, the
recent severe financial problem of Greece that had emerged to challenge the
very existence of euro zone and had put a serious strain on the world economics
possibly caused the Canadian consumers to react prudently as well. J and I
discussed it for a little. We both were fortunate and were comfortable in our
jobs – he worked in the local nuclear plant, I did contract work as an IT
consultant.
As
we roamed the streets of the candy-hunter infested neighborhood we (J and I)
spoke about various things. One of the topic that I found most interesting was
knowing that earlier that morning on the radio a Pakistani Muslim man was
condemning Halloween stating it to be immoral and anti Islam. Usually talks in
such line make my blood boil. For some strange reason a fraction of Muslims
believes that it is just not enough for them to practice the religion but they
are also obligated to be overbearing on other fellow Muslims and attempt to
direct or guide them to a life style that only they approve according to their
understanding or learning of the religion. I consider such attitude as
tyrannical, imposing and utterly unacceptable. You practice whatever way you
feel is right and let me do it in my way – my straight opinion. We don’t need
Taliban to tell us how long our beard should be and keep women from education
because Islam forbids it (not really). Islam
in its truest form is about peace and freedom of rights. Let’s stick to that. J
had similar views. We summarily dismissed such unacceptable and unfounded
opinions.
In
the middle of our run we did notice that the number of kids were much higher
than last year regardless of the fact that it was a Monday (school was open).
The good weather probably played a role. In addition, more and more parents
wanted to let their kids have a part of these traditional urban festivals. As a
result of this added crowd many home owners ran out of their candy stash and turned
their porch lights off (decorated pumpkins or lit porch is a sure sign of a
home owner willing to provide treats).
The
younger girls soon became tired especially Farheen, as she had woken up early that
morning to attend school. The boys were reluctant to return before their sacks
were completely filled, which was still a long way. I had to coerce them a
little bit to return home. All of them had school the next morning and needed
to have supper and a good night’s sleep.
Upon
our return the family room turned into candy hills as each of them poured out their
collections. The lights that beckoned into the eyes of these kids were a
memorable view. I could not stop smiling. Only kids can be so much happy
looking at a stash of mostly crappy candies, the cheapest ones in the market,
with the exception of a few chocolaty bars and packaged chips. Mili and I have
an agreement on allowing the kids to play and eat as much candy as they can on
the Halloween night after they return home from the treat hunt. Next morning
most of the candies would get thrown away or hidden. Zakeem and Farheen knew
it. They had learned the hard way. Both took no time in sorting out the good
candies or the ones they cherished (some were really the worst ones), put them
in plastic bags and set them aside.
After about half an hour when my friends came
to pick up their kids, they were all sugar filled, happy and content. They left
quickly. The kids needed to hit the bed. I stepped out on the patio and blew
off the candles that were still burning inside the carved pumpkins. Another year. Another Halloween. I had this strange
feeling inside me. Each year the kids were growing up, soon they would be too
old to attend this events. I did not want that to happen. I really enjoyed
these little things with the kids and would miss them very much.