I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. \u00a0Back when I was a kid (early 1960’s) when you went trick-or-treating, you had to tell a joke\/riddle to get your treat.<\/p>\n
I can remember sweating bullets trying to select the very best joke out of my repertoire for trick-or-treat night.<\/p>\n
My younger sister and I were allowed to purchase a mask but not a costume. \u00a0Instead of a costume, we got paper bags from the local Hy-Vee grocery store. \u00a0We would use our crayons and decorate the bag as our costume. \u00a0We would then use scissors and cut out arm holes and a head hole (from the bottom of the bag) and Wallah! \u00a0One trick-or-treat costume.<\/p>\n
That was a very long time ago. \u00a0Obviously.<\/p>\n
These days, with all the plastic bags and all, that wouldn’t work. \u00a0Most of the time, you cannot find the kind of masks we wore back then either! \u00a0They would be considered unsafe and a suffocation hazard.<\/p>\n
I remember going from house to house in my neighborhood. \u00a0“Why did the man put his car in the oven? \u00a0Because his cake was in the garage.” \u00a0 “Why did the man throw the butter out of the window? \u00a0He wanted to see a butterfly.” \u00a0“What’s the biggest pencil in the world? \u00a0Pennsylvania.”<\/p>\n
Rest assured, my young 4,5 or 6 year old noggin’ did not come up with these beauties all by itself. I had help.<\/p>\n
We had a kiddie show afternoons on channel 13. \u00a0The Floppy Show with Duane Elliott. \u00a0 http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Floppy_Show \u00a0\u00a0I loved that show! \u00a0This was my source of jokes. \u00a0If you were a lucky enough of a kid to get on the show, you could tell a joke a “Beep” Floppy’s nose!<\/p>\n
Duane Elliot was a wannabe ventriloquist and Floppy was his puppet. \u00a0A dog. \u00a0It was awesome! \u00a0I always wanted to be on that show. \u00a0You could have your birthday party there and be on the show. \u00a0That never happened for me. \u00a0Sad Panda.<\/p>\n
But anyway, I digress…This was THE show to learn your jokes for trick-or-treat! \u00a0A never ending supply of material! \u00a0And cartoons to boot! \u00a0We would hear a few jokes, lucky kids would get to “Beep” Floppy’s nose and then we would watch some Bugs Bunny.<\/p>\n
Life was good!<\/p>\n
Imagine my surprise when I moved to another part of the country! \u00a0I was living on my own now and it was trick-or-treat night. \u00a0I was ready. \u00a0I had the bottomless bowl of candy and I was ready for some good jokes.<\/p>\n
I found out that about the only place in the country where you told jokes to get your piece of candy was Des Moines, Iowa.<\/p>\n
How about that!<\/p>\n
The little kids came to the door, held out their bags, and I asked for their jokes. \u00a0They looked at me like I was from Mars! \u00a0I am a quick study though, and stopped expecting the jokes and just passed out the treats. \u00a0It was a let down to be sure.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to 1989 and taking #1 Daughter trick-or-treating for the first time. \u00a0She was 20 months old and #1 Son was one month old. We were living in Chicago at the time.<\/p>\n
I was pulling #1 Son in a wagon in his car seat and #1 Daughter was walking along side me. \u00a0Both of the kids were bundled up. \u00a0It was a chilly night. \u00a0They had on face paint. \u00a0Masks were frowned upon now as being unsafe.<\/p>\n
#1 Daughter had a HUGE plastic pumpkin bucket and was carrying it proudly. \u00a0She was apprehensive as to just what was going on. \u00a0I tried to assure her that she was going to like this. \u00a0A lot.<\/p>\n
#1 Daughter really only knew one word at this time. \u00a0“Boo!” \u00a0Everything was “Boo.” \u00a0The dog. \u00a0Pumpkins. \u00a0Pumpkin pie was “Boo pie.” \u00a0So, she walks up to the first house and I ring the doorbell.<\/p>\n
This very nice lady came to the door and made the usual, “What a sweet little girl.” speech. \u00a0That’s when #1 Daughter held out her pumpkin bucket and said, “Boo!”<\/p>\n
The lady melted.<\/p>\n
“How Adorable!!!”<\/p>\n
Then, she took two fistfulls of candy and deposited them in the large pumpkin bucket.<\/p>\n
THAT is when #1 Daughter figured out just what we were doing. \u00a0Haha! \u00a0What a kid! \u00a0No more of having her Mommy ring the doorbell. \u00a0That kid marched solidly up to the doors, rang doorbells when she could reach them. \u00a0If she couldn’t reach them, she banged on the doors with her little fist.<\/p>\n
She would hold out that pumpkin bucket (which was filling up pretty darned fast!) and say, “Boo!”<\/p>\n
People loved her. \u00a0She scored big! \u00a0That pumpkin bucket was filled to the tippy top.<\/p>\n
I guess you don’t NEED a joke to get a lot of candy!<\/p>\n
Happy Halloween, all! \u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. \u00a0Back when I was a kid (early 1960’s) when you went trick-or-treating, you had to tell a joke\/riddle to get your treat. I can remember sweating bullets trying to select the very best joke out of my repertoire for trick-or-treat night. My younger sister and I were allowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,8,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2708,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions\/2708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/TM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}