| It’s about that time of year again when all the ghosts and goblins come out to jump and run through the streets and neighborhoods across the country. Here are some things to keep in mind this season to make sure it is both fun and safe.
The Druids of old believed that the evil spirits would rise on this night and they would make their sacrifices to their gods helping to give them a sense of safety from these spirits. I’m not sure about you but no one I know is into sacrifice these days so I thought I would list a few things that can be done without the word “sacrifice” being involved.
Number one would be to those of use driving this fine and frightful night. Emotions and fear are at a high for most children this night so when driving you should keep in mind that a couple of them might run wildly in the streets so be prepared for it by reducing your speed, staying off the cell phone and the many other things that tend to distract us from the road while we are driving. If you aren’t able to always do this, at least make it a priority on Halloween.
Number two would be to make your kids and yourself as visible as possible. There are so many good products out there to help you make this a reality. Flash lights, reflector strips and more. My favorite has to be the glow in the dark sticks though. If you get enough of them you can make yourself or your child light up like it was almost light out. Oh, there’s an idea, “What are you dressing up as this year?” and you respond “Well, Bob, it was a tough decision given all the great costumes at the Spirit Halloween Store but I finally settled on the idea of dressing up as a Road Flare.” Anyway, there are plenty of ways to creatively make your kids and yourself visible.
Number three would be costume selection. My kids like the ugly masks and trying to scare everyone but I still like the idea of no mask and make-up for the simple reason of their visibility of there surroundings in the event I do get distracted. The better they can see the more safe they will be or at least that’s my take on it. I can hear it now, “Dad I wanted the $700 mask so I would look so real people would wet their pants just looking at me.” “Nice but you won’t be able to see them wetting themselves with that mask.” I reply and get the typical “So” response.
Number four would have to be the checking of the candy. I have not heard about too many bad things happening the last couple of years at least in my neck of the woods but the fact still remains that there are some pretty strange characters out there and I for one would rather error on the side of caution even though my kids tend to complain if they can’t dig right in.
This all being said, I wrote this article as a reminder to everyone out there to have a safe and fun Halloween this year.
Ira Coffin is a cartoonist, greeting card and web designer living in Arizona with his two sons'. He does cartoon style free printable greeting cards for http://www.humozonecards.com and posts cartoons to his blog at http://www.nopolymon.blogspot.com |
