Halloween
I take back what I said about Halloween being dead in response to Giger's post. It turns out it's not dead; it's just moved over to the next town.
We got somewhere in the neighborhood of four or five trick or treaters all afternoon and early evening (up through about 6:00), which is pretty terrible. Then we packed up Kyle and went over to my in-laws' place in Roselle Park (Friday is pizza night, which we're usually there for). They had kids showing up every five minutes or so. When we went over to Alicia's friend's place to show her and her mother how cute Kyle looked in his costume, the stream of kids was continuous with almost no interruption. It helped that Alicia's friend teaches at the middle school there and all of the kids know where she lives.
The day is such a big deal in that town that they actually have one block barricaded off because there's no way a car could get through anyway. It's insane. I suspect it has to do with how tiny the town is. The towns in this part of the state are right up against one another. If there weren't signs posted, you'd never know that you'd left one town and entered another (as compared to most of the country, where there is actually space BETWEEN towns...something that I was shocked to discover when I went to college). But because it's such a small town, Roselle Park is one of those places where everybody knows each other. We can't go to a restaurant or a bar without running into a bunch of people she went to high school with. There's a stronger sense of community there that probably engenders more enthusiasm for more community-oriented holidays like Halloween.
On top of that, people from Elizabeth drive their kids to Roselle Park so they can trick or treat in a town where they're not likely to be murdered.
Not that Cranford is without town spirit. Last week, we took Kyle to a Halloween parade, where they had a costume contest - a costume contest where Kyle took home a trophy that's bigger than he is for winning third prize in the 0 - 3 age group. Kyle was a pea in a pod (I'll have pictures when Alicia gets around to uploading them). Since it was an obvious store-bought costume, which Alicia bought before Kyle was even BORN because she thought it was so cute, I'm going to assume that the prize was given because he himself is so adorable. So basically, Kyle won a trophy for being good-looking.
We got somewhere in the neighborhood of four or five trick or treaters all afternoon and early evening (up through about 6:00), which is pretty terrible. Then we packed up Kyle and went over to my in-laws' place in Roselle Park (Friday is pizza night, which we're usually there for). They had kids showing up every five minutes or so. When we went over to Alicia's friend's place to show her and her mother how cute Kyle looked in his costume, the stream of kids was continuous with almost no interruption. It helped that Alicia's friend teaches at the middle school there and all of the kids know where she lives.
The day is such a big deal in that town that they actually have one block barricaded off because there's no way a car could get through anyway. It's insane. I suspect it has to do with how tiny the town is. The towns in this part of the state are right up against one another. If there weren't signs posted, you'd never know that you'd left one town and entered another (as compared to most of the country, where there is actually space BETWEEN towns...something that I was shocked to discover when I went to college). But because it's such a small town, Roselle Park is one of those places where everybody knows each other. We can't go to a restaurant or a bar without running into a bunch of people she went to high school with. There's a stronger sense of community there that probably engenders more enthusiasm for more community-oriented holidays like Halloween.
On top of that, people from Elizabeth drive their kids to Roselle Park so they can trick or treat in a town where they're not likely to be murdered.
Not that Cranford is without town spirit. Last week, we took Kyle to a Halloween parade, where they had a costume contest - a costume contest where Kyle took home a trophy that's bigger than he is for winning third prize in the 0 - 3 age group. Kyle was a pea in a pod (I'll have pictures when Alicia gets around to uploading them). Since it was an obvious store-bought costume, which Alicia bought before Kyle was even BORN because she thought it was so cute, I'm going to assume that the prize was given because he himself is so adorable. So basically, Kyle won a trophy for being good-looking.