Growing up, my father was opposed to trick or treating, and made his position perfectly clear to me and my younger brothers.
“Have you no shame?” he asked us. “Begging the neighbors for food? What’s wrong with you boys?”
I was dressed like a hobo that year, so the idea of begging for food seemed perfectly in character. My brothers, however, were dressed like a cowboy and a vampire, and had no defense.
“Actually, Dad, we won’t be begging for food. We’ll be negotiating for it. If we get a treat, we agree not to play a trick. It’s a simple transaction.”
“It’s not a transaction,” my father said. “and it’s not a negotiation. “It’s extortion.”
Happily, my mother saw it differently, and drove us around to more densely populated neighborhoods, to shake down the residents therein for whatever we could get. She reminded me of this, and a few other Halloween recollections, on another trip down Memory Lane, a fun path to travel that seems to get longer every year. Our conversation, however, is pithy, and a fine way to kill an hour on America’s annual day of extortion. Enjoy. https://bit.ly/TWIHI412
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