Pumpkin Walk '08
'What's pumpkin walk?' some of you ask? Well, it's something the businesses of East Lansing host for all the local families. Since actual Halloween is not safe enough for their wee'uns, or it keeps them out too late, or they want to trick or treat as many times as possible, the Pumpkin Walk persists.
The Halloween purist in me loathes the timing and supervised safety. The reasonable person in me understands that so many of the kids that take the PW each year are very young and really *shouldn't* be up much past 8pm. And from a business perspective, it's a great opportunity to build goodwill with the community and get people inside the shop, seeing how cool it is.
Verdict: I like the Pumpkin Walk. I always come to the shop to help out for the event.
This year we were not fully prepared for the throngs of costumed children. It's tradition!
Many kids were pretty happy to get a comic *and* candy (double bonus!), some were indifferent.
Many many kids had costumes on, some were obviously in their school clothes.
We ran out of candy twice, and the first time Mat valiantly went out for more candy! During this first lack of sweets, one young boy was very angry about getting a comic without a chunk of sugared cocoa butter. He took his comic outside, spat on it, and threw it to the ground! Another boy who was with him brought it in for us, proving himself the better man.
Then we ran out of Halloween ashcans (Diamond has noticed these past couple years that comic shops like to give away - comics! So now they sell us packets of 25-50 teeny ashcans to give away.), and had to break out the longbox of Kid's Comics back issues. When we ran out of candy the second time, the broad majority of kids were stoked to get comics, even without candy!
The exception to this enthusiasm was one younger girl who looked up at my offering and went 'Candy?'. Her mother and I proceeded to talk a little about the shop while the little girl meandered about chanting in lackadaisical, zombie-like tones 'Candy...candy...candy'. In all it was an amusing mishap.
Really, the spitting kid was the only genuine low point. I of course had children trying to get away with things like palming a fistful of candy, looking right at me. Parents had to pull their kids away from displays. I had to shout at one kid to let go of the plexiglass barrier around a minis display. But this was duly expected and didn't push my buttons.
All of this is tame compared to the year where everyone in the shop had to go through ALL the back issues to gather up more kid-suitable comics to give away in the middle of the walk. You know, after going through the first longbox. I feel like it was two, but can't recall fully, so I say one in order to keep this from becoming a fish story.
PS: Apologies to Mat and Ted if I took the fun for myself, I can't really tell if I saved you stress or not at this rate. I just jumped in, not thinking about it. Let me know.
The Halloween purist in me loathes the timing and supervised safety. The reasonable person in me understands that so many of the kids that take the PW each year are very young and really *shouldn't* be up much past 8pm. And from a business perspective, it's a great opportunity to build goodwill with the community and get people inside the shop, seeing how cool it is.
Verdict: I like the Pumpkin Walk. I always come to the shop to help out for the event.
This year we were not fully prepared for the throngs of costumed children. It's tradition!
Many kids were pretty happy to get a comic *and* candy (double bonus!), some were indifferent.
Many many kids had costumes on, some were obviously in their school clothes.
We ran out of candy twice, and the first time Mat valiantly went out for more candy! During this first lack of sweets, one young boy was very angry about getting a comic without a chunk of sugared cocoa butter. He took his comic outside, spat on it, and threw it to the ground! Another boy who was with him brought it in for us, proving himself the better man.
Then we ran out of Halloween ashcans (Diamond has noticed these past couple years that comic shops like to give away - comics! So now they sell us packets of 25-50 teeny ashcans to give away.), and had to break out the longbox of Kid's Comics back issues. When we ran out of candy the second time, the broad majority of kids were stoked to get comics, even without candy!
The exception to this enthusiasm was one younger girl who looked up at my offering and went 'Candy?'. Her mother and I proceeded to talk a little about the shop while the little girl meandered about chanting in lackadaisical, zombie-like tones 'Candy...candy...candy'. In all it was an amusing mishap.
Really, the spitting kid was the only genuine low point. I of course had children trying to get away with things like palming a fistful of candy, looking right at me. Parents had to pull their kids away from displays. I had to shout at one kid to let go of the plexiglass barrier around a minis display. But this was duly expected and didn't push my buttons.
All of this is tame compared to the year where everyone in the shop had to go through ALL the back issues to gather up more kid-suitable comics to give away in the middle of the walk. You know, after going through the first longbox. I feel like it was two, but can't recall fully, so I say one in order to keep this from becoming a fish story.
PS: Apologies to Mat and Ted if I took the fun for myself, I can't really tell if I saved you stress or not at this rate. I just jumped in, not thinking about it. Let me know.