Holy cow it’s late outside right now!! Just got back from the last home football game for the Kenowa Hills Knights. I’m not really a sports nut, but I did find myself rooting loudly for the home team at various times. The oldest grandson, Oliver, is in marching band, so that of course was the primary draw for us to attend the game. The band was simply fantastic, and the home team won their game. A perfect way to wrap up the season.

However, this all made for a rather late evening, and silly me, I neglected to have anything ready for the weekly “Happy Friday!!!” blog thing. But that’s OK, I have many stories from days of yore that many have forgotten. Therefore it is with considerable pleasure that I reminisce with a very silly Hallowe’en story I was summoned to write a few yingles ago.

The scene: the grandsons were at our house, it’s late outside, and cartoons are done. Time for the youngsters to hit the hay, and if the hay doesn’t cry too loudly or hurt too badly, then Ollie and Gabe might be able to get some sleep. The hay may not like being hit you see. Not sure if anyone has ever asked. Who started this hitting the hay stuff anyhow?? Regardless… teeth were brushed, grandsons were getting settled in for the night.

“Good night you guys,” I said to both.

“Will you write us a story?” asked Gabe.

“What should I write about?” I queried.

“Ollie,” said Gabe, “what should Papa write about?”

“Well it’s gonna be Hallowe’en soon…” I offered.

“Yeah,” says Ollie, “write a funny Hallowe’en story.”

Well I don’t know about funny, but I do know how to write very silly things. So here goes:

I think this Hallowe’en should be extra special. Ollie could maybe dress up like a vacuum cleaner, and Gabe could be an electric train set. No… that won’t work; we’d have to have very long power cords so they wouldn’t be able to go very far. Perhaps Gabe could be a corn stalk and Ollie could be a bean pod. Or maybe we could color them both green and they could go as two peas without a pod!!

Or not…

I know!! They could just wear their regular costumes, but we could start our trick or treating journey in that one neighborhood where the only treats you get are pepperoni and venison jerky. I believe that’s in the Upper Peninsula of Italy if I’m not mistaken. On the other hand, we could stay local and when we get to people’s houses we could sing “How Much Is That Turkey In The Window” and ask for drumsticks and wings. We could keep the gravy in our pockets… nothing is more satisfying that dipping a turkey wing in your gravy pocket just before a nice nibbling session.

The new Hallowe’en tradition that never happened ever in our living lives is the truly awesome practice of yodeling with a mouthful of chocolate milk. This is done by the full moon while walking between houses during trick or treating. If you are actually able to do this, you can imagine yourself as a werewolf who enjoys making strange gargling noises. Try to keep the chocolate milk in your mouth while you walk, we wouldn’t want any stray werewolves to slip and slide on the milk trail.

My costume will probably be… um… I dunno… how’s about I dress up like a raisin tree. You know, a tree that is in full bloom with raisins. Yes, I know there’s no such thing as a raisin tree; but walking around makes me hungry and when we go trick or treating I’ll be able to pick the raisins off my costume and eat them with my face and hands. I know one thing: I refuse to shove raisins in my nostrils and ear canals any longer!! I mean hey, I get a bit weary of not being able to hear myself trying to sneeze!! Then when I finally do sneeze, snotified raisins fly in random directions. For some reason, people nearby do not appreciate getting pelted with such booger blastings.

I really hope we manage to find some houses that give other kinds of really cool Hallowe’en treats this year. Dunno about you, but all those calamari candy bars are not really my favorite anymore. Oh and we need to stay away from Mrs. Flumpkonkel’s house. She’s been handing out chocolate covered eggs. No, I mean real eggs. And she always forgets to cook them!!

Finally, when we all get back home we’ll need to dump out your trick or treat bags to count how many pieces of turkey venison pepperoni jerky you get. We’ll also need to make sure that if you get any chocolates by mistake, that I take them and quickly plop them into my gravy pockets so I can munch on them later.

If you don’t like any of these ideas, I suppose we could just go regular trick or treating and just get a bunch of candy and stuff.

But that might be boring.