No More Candies

Another Halloween has come and gone. Before I had my own Kid, I used to hate Halloween. In high school, Halloween was the time when kids throw eggs and shaving cream at other people or public properties. I am sure they still do. Some people just ruin the fun for everyone. Halloween should be just for the young kids, ten-year-old and younger, to go around asking for candies. I'll stretch it and let the adults dress up. I hate to see the gross masks with fake blood and other disgusting features.

business district of 86This year was my first trick-or-treating with my Kid. Today, I happened to have the day off, but other years I was always working and would come home too late in the day. Along with Kid's cousin Ja and her dad, we went along the Bensonhurstth Street between 25th Avenue and 21st Avenue. In a way, that was a sad fact of living in a big city. Instead of the kids going out on their own to residential houses in the neighborhood, we had to take the safer route and hit the businesses, with the parents trailing the kids. Many kids did come to our doors and we gave out most of the candies set aside for the occasion. We even used some of the treats our own kids collected.

Most of the businesses were nice and had someone at the door or near the entrance doling out candies. Most restaurants gave away mints, probably the same ones they have near the cash register all year long. Chinese takeout places usually gave out fortune cookies, with one place only had a lone worker so he just left a bunch out on the counter for the trick-or-treaters to help themselves to. Deserving special positive recognition is the Italian bakery Angelo's. The nice lady in there gave away cookies with a smile and she even gave them to the chaperones. Citibank was good, too, for hiring a clown to give away twisty balloons and paint faces. The Gap gave stickers instead of candies, which probably went well with the parents who don't want the kids to have too much sweets. A number of businesses put out signs stating that they had no more candies. That was acceptable for those stores that don't sell candies, but for CVS Pharmacy, that was hard to believe. Last but not least, the Do-Not-Do-Business-With-Them Award goes to the local chain haircut store, Supercuts, for giving out business cards instead of anything remotely decent for the kids. The least they could do was put out a No More Candies sign. Lately I've been getting my haircut done at home, so it's not like I can boycott them, but whenever the chance presents itself, I am sure I will let people know about the store's unwise participation in this year's Halloween.

My Kid dressed up as Superman-Batman-Warrior. He had on a Superman cape, with a Superman chest logo supposedly to balance the cape and shoulder pads/speakers. Pressing a button on the left shoulder pad triggers whooshing sound, as if the wearer is flying through the air. Originally, he wanted to be a warrior and used just the cape, a bike helmet, and sword and shield. I even made him a pitiful armor plate using cardboard strips wrapped in aluminum foil. He wore that to school, but when we went out trick-or-treating in the afternoon, he didn't want the armor, and went back to the full Superman kit. He also put on a Batman mask, yet still carried the sword and shield combo. He enjoyed the experience very much, but by the time we got to Commerce Bank, he needed to sit and rest, which was when I snapped this photo.