Trick or Treat?

It is Halloween again, cannot believe it is almost November. I think about Halloween's of the past and all the special memories of trick-or-treating with my sister in the small town that I grew up in. We would manage to hit every house in town within a 2 hour period, it was a child's candy dream.

One very special memory I have, is trick-or-treating at my grandparents home which we did until we graduated from high school. Every year, my Poppo, would tease my sister and I that we would be getting a head of cabbage and a head of lettuce for Halloween. And each year, my sister and I hesitated to go there because we had a feeling this was the year we were going to actually get them. Many Halloween's came and went without any of the leafy produce in our bags. Until our senior year in high school. We walked up the street and headed to the front door of their house. In our girlish voices, we chanted "trick or treat" to Gramma and Poppo, holding out our 10 year old Halloween bags. From each of their hands came a dense, green ball and placed into our goodie bags. It was finally the year for the lettuce and cabbage Halloween surprise.

As a teen, it was much easier to handle than a 10 year old, but what if? What if we replaced candy with produce? It might not be such a bad idea with childhood obesity creeping into astronomical numbers. I know it is not what children expect, but I think children need to start expecting a change in the way they think about food. Halloween is a happy time for kids and I never felt happier during that holiday, than I did when I got the lettuce and cabbage.