That time of year
It was trick-or-treat night in Shipoke last night, an occasion for both children and adults to have some fun. This never falls on official Halloween, but rather on the night designated by the city of Harrisburg, Pa., for the annual fun and frolics. Children like my daughters, seen above, gather vast amounts of candy from the neighborhood.
When I was a kid--here I go again--I was lucky to get a single mini-Tootsie Roll at houses in my neighborhood on Graafschap Road in Holland, Michigan. I eventually discovered that if I went to the upscale homes on South Shore Drive I'd get entire nickel candy bars. To my kids, this sounds like a "walked 10 miles to school" story, but it's true. Now they get entire handfuls of candy at some houses. I suspect candy is cheaper in real terms than it was in the 1960s. Seems that way anyway.
Some of my adult neighbors do "trick or drink," in which they go to certain houses where they know they'll be welcomed with a glass of wine. That segued into a party on Showers Street around the "stick burner," a portable fireplace I've written about previously. Scott Emery and I hauled it out and Jeff Duthie, after some patient work with damp wood, got a blazing fire going. The night was cool, as Halloween should be, but not too cold to be enjoyable.
Bill Cluck had the best story to tell. He told me he knows Valerie Plame Wilson, the CIA spy babe outed by the Bush White House. I don't doubt this, because Bill is a remarkably well-connected guy. Plame is a 1984 Penn State graduate--you can find that several places online. According to him, Plame was a sorority member at Penn State, worked on the business side of the Daily Collegian, and was not unknown in the downtown State College bars. He got to know her because she was the girlfriend of a guy who was working as his legal assistant (Bill is a lawyer) on matters regarding the Lock Haven, Pa., SuperFund site. It ended badly for the boyfriend, but Bill and Valerie keep in touch today with the occasional e-mail.
There are a million stories in the streets of Shipoke. Now comes the Halloween parade on Sunday and another, bigger party that evening.
