Missing Trick or Treaters

by Maggie Sefton




Some of the neighborhood kids enjoying my deliberately unraked leaves.  :)  



(I'm writing this post Monday, Halloween Night, late).

Well, I bought two big bags of those miniature candy bars that kids love (and I do, too)
and dumped them into my big metal mixing bowl.  But for some reason, not as many Trick or Treaters came by this evening than usual.  I know we have kids in the neighborhood.  They're right across the street from my house and down into that nearby cul-de-sac.  But they didn't show up tonight.


I'm wondering if a lot of the kids had already

had Halloween parties over the weekend at various places.  I know several churches were having Kids' Halloween events.  Plus our Old Town area was decorated and had several activities going on over the weekend.  Plus, we also have Farms right on the edge of Fort Collins that have Halloween activities in the Pumpkin Patch.  Also----the very, seriously scary Halloween Corn Maze is also out there for the teenage kids to enter and be scared out of their wits by very realistic Zombies.


Meanwhile, I ate entirely too many Tootsie Rolls.  So now I'm putting the candy into two plastic bags and tomorrow I'm taking one bag to the Salvation Army office to hand out to any children that come in with their parents.  Then, I'll take another bag to the Mission which takes in homeless women and children and men, feeds them, and puts them up for the night.  Then gives them a good breakfast in the morning.
Also, lots of help finding employment for them.  Again-----some Halloween candy can't  hurt to have around.

I love the yellows of Autumn.  

These photos show all my leaves which still cover my front and back yards.  I was so busy writing revisions for Kelly Flynn #15 that I just hadn't called my yard clean-up guy to bring his leaf blower and rakes.  Meanwhile, the neighborhood kids enjoyed making big piles and jumping in them, which is exactly what my childhood friends Nancy & Diane & I did when we were their age.  Jumping in big piles of crispy, crinkly autumn leaves.  What fun!   We also had a blast going Trick or Treating in our
neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia.  What a treat to come home with a big bag of candy.  :)   What are some of your Halloween memories?

For a fun Halloween read with the Kelly Flynn characters, check out my short, short story "Halloween Scare" on Amazon.  There's even a  scare.  :)