Where Rose Writes Very True Stories

Paul and I were a couple of clowns, running the Haunted 5K today!

Okay. We walked most of it and just enjoyed ourselves—but still! We finished, and it was SO much fun!!

I’ve never really grown up.

My sister-in-law posted this meme and I was just like, “Heck yeah!” If any teenagers—or adults, for that matter!—come trick-or-treating to my house, they’re going to get a donut.

My favorite trick-or-treating experience happened when I was a teenager. I was either 14 or 15—I can’t remember. My friend, Rachael, and I knew we were “too old,” we just didn’t care! We wanted to have fun. We hit a few houses that were cool about it, we hit another house where the lady gave us a disapproving look but didn’t say anything. And then we went to another house where we got the classic, “Aren’t you a little old for trick-or-treating?”

We were about to call it after that. We wandered around in the darkness and decided that it might be time to head home, but then we saw one last house…

It was a house I had always been too afraid to go to when I was a kid. It was old, with chipped red paint, a roof that was falling apart, and cracked cement steps that lead to the front door. The trees around it were overgrown and dead, their dried branches curling over the pathway to the porch like bony fingers.

One lonely light shined through a window, signaling that the occupant was home.

Rachael and I weighed in and decided—we were going to trick-or-treat that house.

We stepped over the cracked stone walkway, ducking as the dead tree branches grabbed for our hair. We stepped up to the front door and rang the bell.

The door swung open, filling the air with cigarette smoke.

A little old man stood there with zero judgement in his eyes. He was just shocked and delighted to see trick-or-treaters. He invited us in. His living room was homey and well kept. On a coffee table near the couch was a tray of untouched, FULL BAR candy bars. Full bars!! Our jaws dropped. He was so happy we were there, he gave us handfuls of these things. We tried to tell him that wasn’t necessary, but he wouldn’t hear it. He waved goodbye at us and told us to comeback next year.

I learned so much from that.