Notes from Steve

As adults, my grandparents went through the depression in the 1930s.  Today marks the anniversary of the stock market collapsing and life changing completely for everyone.  We’ve had depressions and recessions since then, but that was epic.  Hopefully, we have safeguards in place so that it won’t happen again - but there are no guarantees in life.  I looked at this house a couple of months ago out of curiosity, and they had a “prepper” room in a secured hole under the porch where they would live on packaged food and stare at each other for days.  I hear these commercials about food with no expiration* and how to survive for a long time. This sounds like a nightmare.

I felt so bad on Halloween because I ran out of candy at 6:05 PM.  I got 120 boxes of movie candy and usually that means I eat about 10-15 leftover boxes at 3 in the morning … but this year - nope.  Sorry to those who came after.  (I told Jordan I could have offered a nice glass of red wine or a sour beer or a garlic and pepper cracker with a soft goat cheese to the kids after I ran out - have lots of that, but the Mike and Ike’s and Reese’s Pieces were probably preferable to that age group.)

I saw on TikTok the utter mortification of a four-year-old girl dressed in costume when she got fruit instead of candy.  She clearly stated - “This is a banana … NOT ACCEPTABLE”.  I remember as a kid - we’d get boxes of raisins and homemade popcorn balls*.  I would be genuinely excited if I got raisins and a banana.  I’d probably make bread.  I was also a strange kid.

There were a ton of youngsters - I could have and should have recognized this and doubled my candy. There are a lot of reasons for the crowds … high food costs, and good weather, and that Halloween is actually on Halloween this year.  (Being from NW Iowa - I had never heard of Beggar’s Night and the joke thing.  Personally, I’m good with going back to celebrating a major holiday on a major holiday.  Rant over.)

GO TRADITION!!

*Usually stale and not good for tooth fillings.