Halloween traditions

	About 10:00 p,m. the other night, our door bell rang.  Who could be 
visiting us at such a late hour?  My husband went to the door and no one 
was there.  Strange, he thought, probably some kid doing one of those 
Halloween pranks.  He looked down before closing the door.  There on the 
door step was a plate.  The paper plate was filled with cookies and candy 
and had an odd shaped note taped to the top.  He picked it up, still 
looking around for the person who could have left it.  There was no one in 
site.

	When we examined the plate of goodies, we wondered why we got such a 
treat.  The note attached to the top of the treat was shaped like a 
ghost.  The ghost was not at all scary, in fact, his expression was happy 
and smiling.  There was some writing on the ghost.  It said, "You have been 
visited by the Halloween Phantom!  You must pass it on!  Make a treat and 
deliver to a few homes around your neighborhood.  Post this phantom in your 
front door or window.  This will keep the phantom from returning to haunt 
you.  Make a copy of the phantom for the treat, then deliver it to a home 
without a phantom posted and without letting them see you!   Boo!

	This must be a new Halloween tradition.  Something nice instead of all the 
mean things that kids usually do on Halloween.
My mother told me of Halloween stories.  Big bon fires and cook outs, 
tricking their neighbors by turning over out houses. Out houses were the 
bathrooms of the farmers before indoor plumbing.  I can't imagine that 
would be funny.  Since there are no out houses around today, I guess the 
next best thing is to keep the tradition going by toilet papering someone 
trees..
  
	Toilet tissue wrapped trees, egged houses and soaped windows just make me 
angry every year at Halloween time, not to mention cleaning up dried corn 
kernels.  It seems we never get all that cleaned up as the next growing 
season approaches, there seems to be corn growing in flower beds..  The 
fountain in town has had soap put in it twice.  Clean up at the tax payers 
expense.

	Halloween is not a holiday in my book.  I guess I am a Halloween scrooge.
I have to admit that I softened on my opinion  of Halloween.  The treat and 
trick was a kind gesture, not destructive.
This tradition was refreshing. .  We were glad someone had treated and 
tricked us.  So we would pass on this bit of tradition.
  
	We had fun putting together a little treat bag, copying the ghost.  Then 
we sent our granddaughter out to be the Halloween phantom.  We thought she 
could run faster!  She had such a blast hanging the treat bag on one of our 
neighbors door, ringing the door bell and ran home as fast as she could.
   
	It is nice to look around the neighborhood and see the cute happy 
smiling ghost taped to all the front doors.  It seems that this nice 
Halloween tradition is catching on.