Excerpt from show prep notes. On air content may have been more or less. Not journalistic or debate notes.
Halloween HIDEOUT for the Elderly.
My mom considered hiding out this year. She is 72 years old and has always felt secure opening her door… but it’s starting to fade. That small town assumption of safety. She now locks her screen door. She didn’t used to. She didn’t used to lock the screen door or the wood door when she left the house. Now she has the back door always locked and a portable dishwasher… is pushed up against the door. I don’t think she uses the dishwasher any more ….it is just counter space in front of the back door now.
Mom loves the little children at Halloween. She gets a thrill out of opening the door and seeing the little kids. It interrupts her tv shows. That’s how I know she still loves it and of course she says how much she enjoys the little kids…. But after awhile… later in the evening…the big kid roam around, ringing the doorbells, getting candy. It’s scary for a shrinking 72 year old lady who isn’t used to be unnerved. Who is used to being tough and handling anything that came her way in life. After all, she was married to my dad til he passed away.
So this year she announced that she might not leave her lights turned on. She might skip Halloween all together. My neighbor lady across the street was disappointed when she heard that I wasn’t going to do Halloween at my house this year. WHY? Why would it matter to my elderly neighbor… same age as my mom.
Because I watch her house while she answers her door. I’m the security guard across the street on Halloween night. While I’m giving out candy or pennies, I watch her door very carefully. I even call her inbetween trick or treaters to see how she is doing and we have a great time chatting on speaker phone and gossiping about the little trick or treaters.
But this year, I worked later into the evening on purpose. If I do Halloween I do it BIG BIG BIG or not at all. I have remote start vehicles and remote start lights and a 12 foot blow up lighted pumpkin head man staked down against the breeze with guide wires. I have skeletons and witches hanging all over…. And I have most of a clown costume on.
But not this year. This year I worked late…on purpose. And then I went to the nursing home and visited the residents. The workers brought their kids in costume for the residents to enjoy. I helped them keep up their enthusiasm and visited. I had a good time. I then went to the
The place is still open…but there is no point in staying. So I arrived back in my neighborhood at 8:40pm… easily 40minutes past Halloween quitting time. BUT NO.. kids everywhere. If you hit an unsupervised kid running wild with a car on Halloween night, especially after 8pm, the judge should ask you what you have to say for yourself in your defense… you say… OOOOPS!!! And the judge should consider that good enough and let you go.
Just what are those parents THINKING?????? It's TOO LATE!!!!!!!! I don’t care about the time change. It’s SAFER for the little ones in the light… and just spooky enough at dusk. Even then a half hour after pitch black dark is good enough…. We want the little ones to have a good time and be safe. For an HOUR.. That’s it.
For the homeowner, 6pm til 8pm is enough time for each kid to get their HOUR in. For my mom and my elderly neighbor, the partial day light, the short time of darkness, and the respectful parents bringing their kids out is a great evening…
Too bad if you got a late start, good people in this world, strong ones who just happened to become elderly through no fault of their own, are not going to reward your thoughtlessness. It’s too dangerous for your kids on the streets after 8pm, and it’s too dangerous for the elderly to be opening their doors to older kids in the dark.
Am I wrong? What am I missing??? Do I care too much? I can't make people do what I tell them, but I can tell them what is Good to do!!!!
Sincerely, JUDGE WYLD
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