Halloween with Granny

As my wife’s grandmother got older, there were years that we probably should have supervised her a little more than what we did. This was probably most obvious the year of my oldest daughter’s first Halloween. We planned to take my daughter trick or treating at the houses of several family members and make our final stop at Granny’s house.

When we arrived, it was late enough in the evening that most of the small children would already be done with trick or treating. Granny was giving treats to some teenagers at her door.  As we approached the door, we saw that she was giving out cans of Pepsi to these kids. The kids left and my wife asked her why she was giving out soft drinks to the kids. Before she could answer, more kids came to the door.  I watched her open her refrigerator to get more drinks. I also noticed her pick up a jar of mayonnaise. It appeared from the expression on her face that she was considering giving mayonnaise to one of these kids. After giving more soft drinks to this bunch of kids, she told my wife that she had run out of candy and had to give them something. She said she had tried to give them some cakes but none of the kids would take them.  As she told us this, she pointed to a platter of Little Debbie snack cakes that she had bought at the grocery store. I think the reason she couldn’t get the kids to take them was they were already unwrapped. It appeared that she might be trying to pass them off as something that she had baked herself. I didn’t want to eat any of the cakes either.
 
We noticed that she was dressed in a Halloween costume. She was wearing a black dress with lots layers of lace and fringe. We were visiting with a septuagenarian Stevie Nicks wannabe. Soon it was apparent that some of the spirits that Granny had encountered weren’t ones in plastic masks at her door but typically found in a bottle. Maybe this was part of the reason she felt compelled to give cans of Pepsi to increasing crowds of teenagers at her door. Word had gotten out and more kids kept coming until we turned out the lights.
 
Granny also knew that we were coming and my wife’s brother was there with his family too. Granny had candy for the kids but had special candied apples for the adults. Unlike my wife, I am not a fan of candied apples. None of us was very excited about the candied apples and we left them for later. Granny really wanted us to eat the candied apples then and there.  I did appreciate the gift and planned to give mine to my wife when we got back home. About every 10 minutes she would ask us all, “Did you get your candied apple?” Everyone but me eventually ate their apple. But every 10 minutes I would still hear her ask “Did you get your candied apple?”