Sunday Rerun: Sweet Deal

 

At the first location of the Lazy "C" Ranch, we used to get a veritable army of trick-or-treaters every year on Halloween (and some for other holidays as well.) There were so many that we took to sitting on the tailgate of my old pick-'em-up truck, having a pizza for dinner and passing out the Butterfingers and Mounds and I don't know what-all else.

In fact, I can tell you for sure that it rained like a monsoon around here on Halloween 1993, because that was the year I had a whole winter full of Butterfingers, Mounds, and I still don't know what-all else.  Spring of 1994 meant lots of long walks and exercise, I know that, too.

But now, we live up a hill on a court without youngsters at all. Some people come from around the corner, but we hardly get any wandering hobgoblins at all. I'll get a few treats ready, and if we're faced with an unforeseen onslaught, I guess I can always hand out canned goods from the pantry.

According to an article I read while I should have been doing other stuff, our candy-makin' sweeties figure that Americans will spend $2.7 billion just on Halloween candy this year.  That's $2,700,000 on Hershey bars, "Reesie's" Peanut Butter Cups (that's how we say it in Baltimore, hon) and candy corn. I wonder how much of that goes for fake wax lips and those marshmallow "Circus peanuts" made of pastel marshmallow.

They break it down state by state, and it seems that in Maryland, Milky Way bars are the #1 Halloween candy, followed by "Reesie's" and Blow Pops. Blow Pops, for crying out loud, are two! two! candies in one.  Like Certs used to be both a breath mint and a candy, Blow Pops are a lollipop candy that encases bubble gum, and they replaced Skittles as the third-place candy in our state this year.

Mary Janes, Bonomo's Turkish Taffy and Sugar Daddy, all the stuff that I am currently paying a dentist to repair, are nowhere on the list anymore.  But neither are those dumb wax lips.

And by the way, I really like this new trend. Houses that will have non-food treats (stickers, stamps, snap bracelets, glo-stick toys) for kids with food allergies are self-designating by putting out a teal-colored pumpkin. Fun for all!