Halloween COVID Style

For the 2020 Halloween, my husband and I were very busy. He stopped the project we were working on and began constructing something. He pulled out tools, two ladders, a vacuum, sheets, etc. He’s an engineer so I wasn’t surprised at this assembly of odd items. I was, however, annoyed that he was doing this on a day that was busy for us. He worked and worked, I seethed and seethed. He pulled our two boys in as testers and for advice. Once I got involved, I felt terrible that I had been so annoyed. It was a COVID-proof candy dispenser for the trick-or-treaters. The candy would be placed in a shoot that began above the inside of the front door from atop of a ladder. It would slide to the outside welcome mat. The shoot was covered outside with a black sheet and two skeletal hands from a previous costume. We had a Ring doorbell so we could tell when kids were coming. The first was a neighbor boy and he was alone. He tentatively walked up our somewhat dark walkway and rang the doorbell. We slid a couple of candy bars down the shoot and onto the mat. He squealed with delight. My husband was beaming, and I was proud of his device.

One very young princess started to walk up but then stopped and said she was scared. Through the Ring I was able to say, ‘We’re nice.’ With the encouragement of her dad, she tentatively walked up to the mat and out came a candy bar, followed by another and another. She bent down and tried to look up into the shoot. Smart girl forgot that she was a princess and wanted to figure out how it worked. Identifying the mechanics apparently was more interesting to her than the actual candy. She was so enthralled that her father had to practically drag her away.

As the evening wore on, more kids came and then left and came back with parents and friends to show them the clever device. Unfortunately, we had the fewest number of trick-or-treaters since we began counting coming in at a paltry 30. Even the 9–11–01 count was higher at 35. Over the years, we average 150. Lucky for those who ventured out on October 31, 2020, because once we realized that we had over-bought candy, those brave souls coming to our door made out like bandits, or superheroes, or witches.