Week 112: 1975 Chevy Van

Happy Halloween from Daddy's Tiny Cars. I'll keep it brief and send out candy wishes to all, hoping everyone is safe and dry following Sandy's arrival.

Trick or treating was postponed in my neighborhood due to the rains and downed trees around our heavily wooded streets. When I was young this would have been devastating, but Halloween now has a lot more options for kids so that trick or treating, while still valued, is not the only game in town.

For example, last week my five-year-old son's school sponsored a Pumpkin Social, a chaotic mass of face-painted kids pushing around make-shift cornhole and other carnival type games. My kids loved it.

I don't like being crowded, so this event was stressful, but I diabolically found a partial solution. The indoor, school-sponsored fundraiser used purchased tickets for all of the games, and in the cafeteria area they had set up a snow cone machine, also taking tickets. MuHAHAHA. What kid can resist a snow cone? I steered my kids near the machine.

What does this have to do with my aversion to crowds, you may wonder? Snow cones take time to make, so the kids would be in line for awhile. Snow cones take time to eat, so they would be out of the throngs of kids for awhile. They were getting sugary ice, so they didn't feel tricked, and I let them come up with the idea of the snow cone, so they didn't know I had manipulated the whole thing.

It was all so perfect.

Yes, eventually the snow cones were eaten, but an added bonus was the blue stained my three-year-old's face adding a spooky effect to his skeleton costume.

And then we found the dance room.

Four tickets each got the kids into a room with a real DJ and disco lights. They were hooked (my kids love music), and, fueled by high octane snow cone fuel, they were ready.

Once in, G, my three-year-old, began a repetitive robot dance, accented with a Three Stooges style Curly floor roundabout -- weird, but strangely compelling to watch. The dance was like an old school Peanuts special where all the kids have their singular signature dance floor moves. The dance room was occupied but not packed, so I was fine that my youngest kids wanted to spend most of the time there.Meanwhile, my older son, who was with us and once went to the school, got to catch up with some former teachers and met some friends, so he was happy. All was perfect.

The kids had a great time, and there have been other Halloween events besides that one, so the disappointment of a delayed trick or treating is minor. I love it when things work out.

So I'm waiting for them to go to sleep, and I'll kick on an old black and white monster movie for Daddy for Halloween, and if you have power, I hope you'll be able to do the same.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Photo of my 1975, black light era van, by Phil Pekarcik.