Halloween Rain
The rain was coming down hard. I looked out the back door to see if maybe, just maybe, the rain might be letting up. Not a chance. On most any other day, I wouldn’t mind the rain. But this was no ordinary day, it was Halloween.
Throughout the day there had been a continuous rainfall. As the evening hour quickly approached, all Halloween hope was being washed away. Apparently there’s an unwritten rule that says kids can’t trick-or-treat in the rain. And there are no makeup dates for a rained out Halloween.
How disappointed my brothers and I were. We had been so excited about our Halloween costumes. To be cut down by rain in the prime of our trick-or-treat years was more than we could bear. Oh sure, there was plenty of candy at home for other trick-or-treaters, but that was beside the point. Every candy connoisseur knows that there is candy, and then there is candy that one has trick-or-treated for. The tastes between the two are enormous!
Once again I looked out the back door. The rain continued to fall and the evening hour had arrived. The sidewalks were empty, but it was small consolation to know that other kids in the neighborhood were not trick-or-treating. I slowly closed the door, as all hope was now lost.
Suddenly an angel appeared before me. Okay, it wasn’t really an angel-angel, it was Mom. But surely her idea was heaven sent. Always the one with the creative ideas, Mom suggested that my brothers and I dress up as firemen. We put on our bright yellow vinyl raincoats and our rubber boots, and wore the firemen hats that Mom and Dad had bought for us from the Texaco gas station.
That rainy Halloween, my brothers and I went trick-or-treating. Because of the rain, few homes in the neighborhood had trick-or-treaters. Many of those in the neighborhood marveled at the pure genius of our costumes, and they rewarded us mightily with candy. It turned out to be the best Halloween ever.