Viewpoint: Things I Learned This Halloween

??I learned some things on Halloween this year.?I learn things every year; and I think that is a good sign.?It indicates I am breathing- correct?

?We had 20 trick or treaters come to our door.?We were pleased since Halloween fell on a Sunday, it was one of the first really cold nights of the year, and, in our area, there were about 14,117 Trunk or Treat events on Saturday night.?I know, that’s not Halloween!

?One relatively old Disney Princess that came to the door, I’m not sure which princess it was, looked at the sugar that was offered her and asked if we had any Mounds.?Alas, we did not.?Her majesty settled for a lesser treat and she and her royal party moved along down the street in search of treats that more suited her royal palate.

??Lori and I are on a healthy-eating kick, which doesn’t allow added sugar.?So, in that way it was a little painful handing out perfectly good candy to a princess who really wanted Mounds.??

?I learned that my four grandchildren preferred playing on a playground to collecting candy.?We went with them to Monument where the majority of business places stayed open and dispersed candy Saturday night.?We were moving along from block to block when one of the four yelled “Playground!”, and off they went in a pack.?They spent a lot more time there than they did collecting candy.??

?My oldest granddaughter, who, how do I say this, tends to be the boss of her own pack, soon had all the children at the Merry-Go-Round taking turns, spinning efficiently and moving very fast.?She did a nice job delegating the work to everyone involved and participated herself.?She watched out for the younger children (she being the ripe old age of almost nine) and was pretty even-handed with the work/ride balance.

?She did, however, fail to delegate pushing duties to her six-year-old brother, who got in a lot of riding before the crowd thinned and he took a turn pushing.??As the crowd thinned the four grandchildren, almost as a single organism, ran toward me and their dad.?I grabbed my back with a pained look on my face but their dad dutifully went and pushed the Merry-Go-Round, where he was assisted by another dad who had also been drafted.

?Somebody from a website titled, The Visual Capitalist, said the most popular costume in Colorado was a dinosaur, which was ranked number two in the entire United States.?I did see a prehistoric reptile or two but it didn’t seem that numerous to me.?Number one in the nation, and rightly so, were witches.?I should have kept a count of the costumes at our front door but I was too busy teaching the children to count to three. That was their allocation at our candy stop.

?My wife and I decided to watch a scary movie and selected I See You.??It was free, and it certainly had some tense moments and a plot twist or two.?We are not real big blood and gore people.?This one was more suspenseful than horrific.

?CNN tells us that an estimated 65% of Americans celebrated Halloween or participated in Halloween activities this year, with 66% of those consumers planning to give out candy, 52% planning to decorate their homes and 44% planning to carve a pumpkin. Total spending in 2021 is expected to reach $10.1 billion, with the average consumer planning to spend $102.74 on decorations, candy, costumes and more.

?I’m not a big Halloween guy but I do enjoy how much the kids like to dress up and go trick or treating.?It was enough fun that next year we may even splurge and buy Mounds.