Anne breaks out the ol’ banana costume to entertain the Sunday school kids. It’s a fun job and someone’s got to do it.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: each year since 2008 I’ve kept statistics on the number of trick-or-treaters brave enough to approach our doorstep during the Halloween celebration of neighborhood unity and no-strings-attached strangers with candy. I began tracking our numbers partly for future candy inventory purposes and partly out of curiosity, so now it’s a tradition for me. Like many bloggers there’s a stats fiend in me that thrives on taking head counts, even when we’re expecting discouraging results.
Previous years’ Halloween candy-receiver totals were as follows:
2008: 51
2009: 105
2010: 112
2011: 74
2012: 58
2013: 36
2014: 25
2015: 39
2016: 23
2017: 59
2018: 38
2019: 14
2020: 53
This year’s results:
First TOTer arrival time: 6:25 p.m.
Final TOTer departure time: 8:05 p.m.
Total number of trick-or-treaters for 2021: 41
Gain/loss from Halloween 2020: -22.6%
That’s better than I expected.
I was prepared to joke about these Halloween Veggie Chips I saw in a store, but an informal Facebook survey tells me kids these days actually love these things. This is clearly Facebook’s fault.
For the second year running, our mid-pandemic numbers topped some of the pre-pandemic era. Last year folks were so house-happy and so upset at seeing their annual traditions demolished one by one, come Halloween they were eager to salvage something of that Godforsaken year. 2020 also had the advantage of Halloween on a Saturday, always a big traffic booster. For 2021 our neighborhood wasn’t quite so desperate for fresh air and/or human contact. Perhaps Delta variant fears kept some home. Perhaps people were also dreading approaching each other because American life has turned into Invasion of the Body Snatchers except instead of paranoia that everyone’s turning into pod people, it’s paranoia that everyone’s turning into monstrously raging jackasses.
Anne and I did our part once again to represent for our street, with or without neighborly solidarity. We kept some of last year’s protocol changes as well. We wore masks in case anyone was jittery and didn’t feel it was their place to ask for our vaccination cards. (Some reciprocated with their own non-Halloween masks.) We sat outside for the full two hours rather than hide inside. We set up our long yard table with us at one end and baggies of candies placed at the other. We waved as folks passed. We sighed as two parties passed by without noticing us. We tried to keep our circulation going as temps dropped to 50 by evening’s end. We did our best to help make Halloween still a thing for those families putting in the effort to come looking for it.
If you make the same mistake I did and watch Halloween Kills on Peacock, then pause to scold yourself, the screen did this and made it worse.
As always, MCC extends an extra-special salute to those stalwart winners who understood the true meaning of Halloween and weren’t afraid of fresh air. The cosplayers whose raiment we could discern, including a few parents, registered as follows:
unicorn
ladybug
bumblebee
robber
zombie
scarecrow
policeman
SWAT officer
2 soldiers
2 evil clowns
Mario
Jason Voorhees
Black Panther
Spider-Man
Venom
Harley Quinn
Catwoman
a Space Jam Toon Squad player
Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony
Itachi from Naruto
…and a special commendation for a quartet of siblings who all dressed as pirates, with their pirate Dad tagging along at a distance.
Remember, kids: the family that heave-ho’s together, grows together.
The lovely lady and me, spending the evening on the porch like a pair of olds.
Midlife Crisis Crossover! 