This morning to my amazement someone left a gift on our doorstep.  Noticing the festive black and orange color, I anticipate the ghoulish delights that must be inside. My heart skipped a beat….Halloween would soon be here.

I picked up my gift and took it inside to read the sweet note that accompanied the package. To my surprise there was no handwritten note in a familiar script written by anyone I knew.  Instead, a photocopied paper stating I had been BOOed and I needed to BOO two more individuals after I place the “I have been BOOed” Notice in my window, to stop future repeat BOOing. 

I looked in the bag, it was filled with treats galore, perhaps someone I knew must have given this, considering the perfect selection of all my favorite candies, Cherry Air Heads, Cherry Jolly Ranchers,  Gummy Life Savers, Frankenstein LIPS…..and Purple Lips too.  What is this??? A new candy for Halloween??  Mike & Ike Mummy Mix?   Oh…it is too much to resist!!!!!   But wait!!!  Who sent this ghastly ghoulish gourmet concoction to The Gastons?   To eat one piece without knowing where it came from would be the same as taking Candy from a Stranger.  To my horror….I realized I could not eat a single piece.  What kind of TRICK was this????  An Evil trick, straight from Lucifer himself!  What could I do?   The dilemma?   Knowing that just last week someone had left a candy on the desk of one of my students who immediately asked, “Whose is this?”  No answer from the room of teenagers.  As part of an unthinking automated response to the SUSPECT candy, he picked it up and walked straight over to the trash can and threw it out. That was the end of that.  He was not going to eat any potential pre-licked candy.

So now back to my fiendish goody bag.  I guess I will allow it to rest upon my table until I figure out who my mysterious gift giver may be.  But Wait, it also said I must continue with the horrific tradition and do this to 2 more (previously un- BOOed persons) AND have BAD KARMA?  I cannot be the stranger who gives candy.  Nor can I condoned (as a mother and educator) eating suspect candy without paternity testing.  So those of you that know me ask, why don’t you just check those cameras you have all over your property????  I ran to my computer immediately with my bag of treats….waiting to catch the naughty neighbor while devouring my booty.   But my heart stopped as I logged in.  What?  4,954 images waiting to be viewed?   Let’s say I could go through 500 images per hour that would still be just under 10 hours to find this perpetrator.  So…writing this message would take considerably less time.

Back to the message I have carefully danced around.  Would it not be in the best interest of our kids to do as we say, “Don’t eat candy from strangers”.  And in the spirit of a safe Halloween, either follow up with your name or leave a note. But until then my candy will remain uneaten.  Eventually it may end up in my compost pile, because I would not want to have it end up in a landfill.

Jeanine Gaston