Boo
'Tis my favorite time of the year -- mlb playoffs (my NL is on an 0-8 ws streak, argh), birthdays, cool weather, fall leaves, hot chocolate, spicy chili, Friday night football, and HALLOWEEEEEEEN!!
Boo!
Memories of past Halloweens...
As a young boy, Halloween night in a small rural farming town in SW Missouri meant being driven around by Mom or Dad to neighboring houses to trick-er-treat. We lived on the outskirts of town on 30 acres of rolling farmland, so there was no walking with a pack of friends through neighborhoods like my children enjoy now. We didn't care because the ultimate goal was still the same -- candy.
We didn't worry about all the safety issues, etc. which the media reminds us of now over and over and over again. We knew our neighbors and our neighbors knew us.
As a teenager in a small town, the fun really started. Looking back, I'm convinced that our two local law enforcement officers turned a few blind eyes to many of our shenanigans (I think one of the old codgers had a blind eye). We stopped caring about candy. Our goal was to cover our buddies' vehicles with as much raw egg goo as possible while speeding around the narrow streets.
The ultimate scoring strike was an egg through an open window, which was very difficult considering the driver of the enemy vehicle knew enough to have his window rolled up, while the shotgun passenger was sitting in his open window firing eggs over the top. The only time we were able to occasionally peg the driver with a payload was when he couldn't resist the temptation to roll down his window and scream in celebration or yell a taunt.
My senior year, my good friend Paul Hickey and I discovered what we thought was the mother-load of Halloween projectiles. We were able to talk a local grocer into saving his expired produce for a month. The afternoon of Halloween we discretely picked up three boxes of rotten and/or spoiled lettuce, cabbage, pears, apples, and bananas.
Unfortunately, the new ammo didn't work as well as we had hoped. First, it was very difficult to throw a rotten cabbage with much velocity without it disintegrating either as it left your hand or in mid-flight. Second, the low coefficient of friction spoiled produce has on vehicle surfaces was a problem. I.e., it didn't stick like raw egg.
I love Halloween.
Boo!
Memories of past Halloweens...
As a young boy, Halloween night in a small rural farming town in SW Missouri meant being driven around by Mom or Dad to neighboring houses to trick-er-treat. We lived on the outskirts of town on 30 acres of rolling farmland, so there was no walking with a pack of friends through neighborhoods like my children enjoy now. We didn't care because the ultimate goal was still the same -- candy.
We didn't worry about all the safety issues, etc. which the media reminds us of now over and over and over again. We knew our neighbors and our neighbors knew us.
As a teenager in a small town, the fun really started. Looking back, I'm convinced that our two local law enforcement officers turned a few blind eyes to many of our shenanigans (I think one of the old codgers had a blind eye). We stopped caring about candy. Our goal was to cover our buddies' vehicles with as much raw egg goo as possible while speeding around the narrow streets.
The ultimate scoring strike was an egg through an open window, which was very difficult considering the driver of the enemy vehicle knew enough to have his window rolled up, while the shotgun passenger was sitting in his open window firing eggs over the top. The only time we were able to occasionally peg the driver with a payload was when he couldn't resist the temptation to roll down his window and scream in celebration or yell a taunt.
My senior year, my good friend Paul Hickey and I discovered what we thought was the mother-load of Halloween projectiles. We were able to talk a local grocer into saving his expired produce for a month. The afternoon of Halloween we discretely picked up three boxes of rotten and/or spoiled lettuce, cabbage, pears, apples, and bananas.
Unfortunately, the new ammo didn't work as well as we had hoped. First, it was very difficult to throw a rotten cabbage with much velocity without it disintegrating either as it left your hand or in mid-flight. Second, the low coefficient of friction spoiled produce has on vehicle surfaces was a problem. I.e., it didn't stick like raw egg.
I love Halloween.
