The Times, They Are A'Changing

We had one trick-or-treater last night.

1

O-n-e.

And I left the light on until 7:30. (The Chief of Police said he thought everyone should be finished by 8).

Our mayor had designated from 5 to 6:30 last night for children to trick-or-treat at the downtown businesses (odd for a Saturday when most were closed, I know) so I thought, living a few blocks from the main downtown streets, that we would have a few.

But we had one. An adorable Spiderman who was probably between 3 and 4 years old. His daddy stood next to him as he peered into my candy bowl. I picked up a bag of Whopppers and asked "Would you also like a Snickers?"

His head bobbed up and down so fast! "Uhhh uhhhh!"

His daddy told him to say Yes ma'am so he did and then turned around to go down the steps to his mom, waving the candy in his hand.

His daddy reminded him to say thank you, and he did.

I came back in the house and was telling Billy about our little visitor and how I remembered my dad keeping a little notebook with tally marks each year to see how many children came by. I guess that was his way of gauging the age of the neighborhood.

(I also remember a lot of funny stories involving a particularly hideous rubber mask that we got at Disney World but that's another post! Daddy got more use out of that mask. It was a man's face with warts and a big nose and it was just awful. I will tell you the funniest thing, though. When we got those masks (I got a Frankenstein, for the record) Mom and Dad put this one on my sister - who was still young enough to be in the stroller - say maybe 3 years old - and people would stop to see the child and do a double-take when this awful face, with two blond ponytails, was staring back at them. They just were expecting to see a sweet child's face and not this "thing". It really was funny. I know I'm not doing it justice.)

Anyway, Billy made the comment that he couldn't believe there still was trick-or-treating with the people have been acting.

And he's right.

After having the wonderfully positive story of Jaycee Duggard being returned to her family 19 years after being kidnapped, we had two more beautiful young girls in a matter of weeks that weren't so lucky.

(And to the person who threw that precious 7 year old girl from Florida in the trash so she'd end up in a landfill......that action was so far beyond reprehensible that I can't find an adjective strong enough. Being a lady precludes me from typing here what I wish would happen to that person.)

It made me stop and think.

We all rolled our clocks back an hour last night. What if we could roll back time about 50 years instead? To a time when families stayed together, you knew your neighbors and they helped you look after your children, church was a common part of everyone's lives, neighborhoods and communities truly existed. To a time when you could spank your child for misbehaving and a "time out" was only in sports. Maybe even back to when you could sleep at night with your doors unlocked. My house is locked up now 24/7 - especially when I'm in it.

I remember when Adam Walsh was taken from the Sears store in Florida - late 70s I think. It was big news because it was a rare occurrence. You really can't say that anymore.

Which is sad.

Like a lot of things, I wonder how we got here.

I'm thinking if we could "fall back" about 50 years then maybe when we "spring forward" we could just skip the 60s this time.