Halloween in Shipoke
Halloween began Thursday night in my neighborhood by the Susquehanna River. It was official Trick-or-Treat night for the city of Harrisburg, and I handed out candy to a flock of kids, many from outside the neighborhood. I don't begrudge that; when I was about 11, I figured out that I would get much better candy if I went to South Shore Drive, a largely well-off street in Holland, Michigan, the town where I grew up. Back then, and I'm talking the mid-1960s, people weren't as generous with candy. You might get a single piece of Bazooka Joe bubble gum or a popcorn ball, not the handfuls of candybars kids expect today in our more affluent world.
After the festivities for the children ended around 8 p.m., the festivities for the adults began. Nick Woods hauled his portable fireplace out into Showers Street, the alley between Conoy and Tuscarora, and he and his friend Becky Ross got a roaring fire going (he just needs to be careful with that axe). Bottles of wine and glasses materialized from nearby homes, and we warmed ourselves in two ways.
Our conversations ranged from the Harrisburg budget crisis, to Game 4 of the World Series between the Tigers and the Cards, to actor Michael J. Fox's pro-stem cell research TV commercial in Missouri and Rush Limbaugh's ugly accusation that Fox somehow faked symptoms of Parkinson's Disease. Nick works for Medtronic and helps doctors implant medical devices, including one to reduce the tremors of Parkinson's. He filled us in on some of the back story.
This is one of the biggest party weekends of the year in Shipoke. On Saturday night is a costume party at Mike and Melissa Snyder's house. On Sunday afternoon is the annual Halloween Parade for neighborhood children and their friends. My wife, Lisa Brittingham, and Kathy VanderWoude created the parade years ago, when our daughters first were able to walk, to remind some of the less kid-friendly people in Shipoke that it wasn't just a neighborhood of DINKs anymore. That used to be an annoyance; there was once a serious proposal to remove the playground equipment (in favor of a tennis court) because "there are no kids in Shipoke." But no more.
The parade will be followed by games and a potluck picnic in the playground that often lasts well into the evening. It is often the last big social event of the year, prior to our winter hibernation when people disappear into their homes and you don't see them for months. Unless you wave a bottle of wine outside their window.