Thursday, November 04, 2010

Oh the Horror! Tricks, Not Treats, Dominate This Year's Halloween Haul

A new Halloween tradition has started around here. It's called, "I can't wait to get the pictures of Alexandra's trick-or-treat haul." As you might remember, last year Alex's son came home with a big bagful of candy and ... a chocolate Easter bunny. I thought she'd get a kick out of our candy cane and nasty expired candy this year, but oh no, she has us beat again. And in a big way. Example Number One: Candy from her older son's bag. Let's see, there's some nice full-size bars there, Oreos, lots of Butterfingers and M&M's. But then, let's take a closer look. To the far left is a holiday foam kit to make a skeleton. Well that's cool. Up top, there's an "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" toy that appears to be from a Wendy's kids' meal. Okay, a little weird, but within the boundaries of acceptability. There's a Capri Sun. Um, hello? A bag of juice mixed in with all sorts of candy and other wackiness? Seems like a recipe for disaster. Fortunately it didn't explode. And then we have the coupon for one free week of karate (lame) and, in a bold and daring move that makes Charlie Brown's trick-or-treat rocks look almost tempting, we have a postcard from a mortgage broker. It says something about locking in a "Spooktacular" rate on your mortgage. Maybe next year I'll hand out magazine subscription postcards if this is the way things are headed. But wait! Just when you think you've seen it all, let's move over to the younger boy's Halloween haul. He's the same age as the Sugar Baby, which is a terribly cute stage and, according to my research, is likely to get you more candy. So here we have lots of full-sized bars-- nice score! There's a Skippyjon Jones book. Well, nothing wrong with that, I suppose, and a Where's Waldo toy (another kids' meal, perhaps?) There's something to the right that looks like a baby teether and some various other little toys. But, ladies and gentlemen, the piece de resistance, or perhaps more accurately, the coup de grace, the Scooby Doo. Cute, right? A big plastic Scooby Doo toy-- who wouldn't want one? Well, no one would considering it's an EMPTY BUBBLE BATH BOTTLE! Yes, dear Yumsters, you read that right. A used toiletry item.
So let's consider the questions these two candy hauls bring up.
1) Where in the heck is Alexandra trick-or-treating? (I asked her and strangely enough, it was in her parents' neighborhood which is quite lovely and not at all the type of of place you'd expect to find anything worse than a roll of Necco wafers.)
2) Where are people getting this stuff? Do they save all their kids' meal toys and plastic crap all year just to give out at Halloween?
3) Do they think kids are going to be excited to find an empty bubble bath bottle in their bags?
4) How can *I* lock in a Spooktacular rate on my mortgage?
So dear Yumsters, you know I want to hear from you now. What special goodies did your kids get in their bags this year? Don't be shy. We want to know! And if anyone can beat the Scooby Doo bottle, I'll send you a special surprise.

3 comments:

philly said...

The little Batman figure the younger kid got would make an awesome guard for a bag of Halloween candy or a basket of Easter candy :) He may look small, but when it comes to defending poor helpless candy, he can pack a powerful punch! (or at least poke some eyes out.)

I don't have kids but... my friend's kid got a "kids exercise" DVD. The person that gave them out more or less made copies of one and put them in those paper DVD sleeves. I guess it wasn't illegal since they weren't selling them? :P

Did Alexandra check inside the Scooby Doo bottle for a treasure map to real candy?

I regret not taking pictures of my candy haul when I was younger :(

Carol said...

Well out of the four under adulthood people in my household only one is still LEGALLY (yes I said legally) allowed to trick or treat in the town of Suffolk Virginia. There is a law on the books that says you cannot trick or treat over the age of 12.

So the 11 year old went out to get loot for the other 5 of us. The weirdest thing he got was an innocent looking but very right wing Christian paper "million dollar" bill. It was actually inscribed with Christian bible verses and the reasons you should follow Jesus. The rest was just regular boring old candy..... However my bag disappeared out of my bedroom.....check out my blog to read the story. http://carol-glasshalffull.blogspot.com/

Candy Yum Yum said...

VERY interesting about that trick-or-treating law. I've got to check into that and get more information.
Did you ever find your candy? I say you should go out and buy yourself a whole bunch now that it's 50 percent off!