For the first time in over a quarter of a century we will not have a child go trick-or-treating.
Our youngest now a man of 13 said he was too old.
We are just old.
We will still be handing out candy of course but gone forever is the time our own progeny empty their haul on the flow and delighted in their riches of pure refined sugar.
C’est la vie as they say in France.
They say it a lot but they don’t do Halloween.
At least not the way we do.
Mostly they go to church.
Back in the old country or rather the old countries, Halloween is a religious holiday mostly for the very pious Christians and the only thing All Saints Day has in common with our non-religious door to door candy begging is the name and most of the time not even that.
It is like most things American, roots in the old world but completely unique.
When our middle son was 8, he announced that he would be going on trick-or-treat completely alone.
His mother was aghast.
Despite living in a small town where everyone knows everyone have a child wander around at night going from house to house all by himself is more frightening than the werewolf, Dracula and Frankenstein combined.
We did not object.
Rather when he bid us good bye with pillow case in hand we waited two minutes and then followed him.
We did the same the next year and the year after and were always very thankful that his appetite for candy was only a couple of blocks worth of houses.
He never caught us although we did get some strange looks for skulking in the bushes from other parents.
But the kid had fun being ‘on his own’ and we could justify a candy bar after our night of following.
Perhaps even more than the candy, that is what Halloween is all about, a first albeit tentative step at being on their own.
Perhaps that explains the costumes.
For one precious early evening in October they are not children but super heroes and princesses.
It doesn’t last long.
Each kid is good for perhaps ten Halloweens.
Then they get ‘too old’.
Still even if it is just a hand full of Halloweens perhaps because there are just a hand full of Halloweens each one is precious.
And then they are gone.
C’est la vie.