Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Happy Halloween.

Since Halloween fell on Saturday last year, I wrote a quiz.  Here is the LINK.

I have no one thing that I can put my finger on, but a television commercial that has run in October for a few years seems to be my wife’s and my attitude.  Buy a big bag of their candy (which we have not done) …  Turn out all the lights.  … And then just don’t answer the door!!

I enjoyed handing out candy.  Most of the teen-agers fail to wear a costume and rarely say “Trick or Treat,” but I will usually endure the pain of an hour of demons to have my heart melted by a cute little girl in a princess costume.  You know, those little girls younger than 7-8 years old.  I have been tempted to empty my plastic cauldron of candy into her bag.  But princesses always get double.

In our little town, we have a two-hour period to hand out candy and if your front porch light is not on, they are not supposed to bother knocking.  For one thing, that may be a house where the parents are taking their kids down the street, and no one is at home.  What a racket, collect candy but do not hand out candy.

I think I mentioned it before that I only went Trick or Treating once in my life, other than escorting my children.  And then, it was to escort, mostly carry, my nephew.  He was thirteen months old, and I was thirteen years old.  Odd how that worked out.  His father had moved to Puerto Rico, assigned to the Air Force Base there, and the family, my sister and my nephew, had not moved yet.  With hefting him for a couple of blocks from house to house (no umbrella strollers in those days), I got 2-3 pieces of candy from neighbors who felt sorry for me.  His bucket was filled, and he was ecstatic.  In those days, teen-agers did not do that kind of thing, so getting anything was a bonus.  For me, being in the Boy Scouts, it was my good deed for the day, nothing more.

So, how you celebrate Halloween is up to you and your likes and dislikes.  I am simply grateful that my wife and I are in fairly good health.  My wife has surgery later this week, again to gain better access for kidney dialysis, but otherwise, we are doing okay.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.