Kids Have Lowered Expectations This Halloween

Freddy Voorhees and his best friend Jason Krueger have always loved Halloween. Since the first time they Trick-or-Treated together when they were four, they were hooked. "I mean, c'mon," said Freddy. "How can anybody not love Halloween? You get to wear a disguise and force people to give you candy! It's like getting to be a criminal for a day, and it's cool with everyone. Even moms think it's ok. I love it!" Both boys turned 12 this year and anticipated this to be their best Halloween ever, "Who knew a health crisis would mess up everything for us," said Jason. "This was the year, man! Young enough that we can still get candy, but old enough to finally do some major Mischief Night stuff. It's just not fair."

Mischief Night is the evening before Halloween where children and teens play pranks on friends and neighbors. Typical activities include throwing toilet paper on front lawn trees, writing with soap on car windows, heaving eggs at houses and cars, and running away from local police. It's all in the spirit of the season, but this year the boys don't think they will be able to participate.

"A while back I went down to the basement and there was like 800 rolls of toilet paper down there! I thought, jackpot!" said Freddy. "But I made the mistake of telling my mom I was going to take some, and she gets all crazy. 'Oh no, mister! You're not taking one roll! We're in the middle of the second wave, or maybe third wave. That toilet paper is too valuable!' Can you believe that? It's toilet paper! Isn't that supposed to be like the least valuable paper in the world?"

Jason had a similar experience when he asked his mother for some eggs and bars of soap. "She starts goin' on and on about there could be hoarding again so we had to hold onto as much stuff as we could, even things like eggs and soap. If you ask me, she's the one who's hoarding."

Trick-or-treating is also not happening this year. The boys learned that many residents would not be giving out candy this year to avoid close contact with other people. "I don't understand this one either," said Jason. "All everyone keeps saying is you gotta wear a mask. Well, it's Halloween, the only day everyone wants to wear a mask. I had this sweet Hulk mask all ready to go, too. You can't tell me any viruses are getting by the Hulk!"

Freddy's mother did suggest that the boys could go "Trunk-or-treating" at their church, but Freddy and Jason had no interest. "Trunk-or-treat at out age is not happening," said Freddy. "I really don't want to be going from car to car collecting candy with a bunch of little kids dressed like unicorns and Paw Patrol dogs. And it's at the church, too. That's just too embarrassing to even think about."

To make the boys feel better, their mother's have agreed to let them stay up late watching movies. "My dad told me about this series of Halloween movies with this big scary dude named Michael Myers," said Freddy. "My mom said she'd pick up a couple at Redbox. I think they might be R rated too, so I guess that's something." Based on what the boys asked for, Mrs. Voorhees was able to find two Michael Myers films where he played a big, scary dude, "Shrek" and "Shrek 2." She stated that she is glad the boys will be enjoying some wholesome fun this Halloween.