Background; I live at the edge of the cul-de-sac "bulge." The houses on the cul-de-sac proper are downhill from me, the houses up the short street are uphill from me.



So, I got home early last night. When I arrived, the Moms had put candelarias (small candles in paper bags) all along the sidewalk from the "T" intersection down around the cul-de-sac. Someone else had put a big lit-up sign "Come Down Here" in the middle of the bulge. A bunch of people had props on their lawns.



Bob (across the street and one house up) had strobe lights and grave markers on his lawn and a smoke machine that he'd fire up when kids came up to the door. He'd leap out at them through the smoke. Kids were screaming all night. Ron, who lives across the street and uphill two or three houses from me had a severed head on a pike, a skeleton in a coffin with a speaker he'd rigged up to talk to the kids as they came up to the door. He had some other stuff, too.



I walked over there at one point and we started planning for next year.

We're gonna string a cable from his roof to mine and shoot goblins across the street from house to house. Maybe we'll do a Santa and His Sleigh for Christmas.



At one point no one was coming to my house because Ron had told me to turn off my lights so people thought I wasn't participating. So, I fired up my PA system that I use for the band's vocals (800 watts, two big speakers), cranked up the volume and started begging for trick-or-treaters.



"Trick-or-treaters! Please come to my house! I have candy! I want to give you candy! If you come to my house I promise I'll never play rock and roll in it again! Pleeeeeease come to my house! I left work early for this! It's the house that looks like it's pink but it's really pastel orange! Follow my voice!" I had turned on the echo and the reverb to give my voice some texture.



Everyone was cracking up. Finally some teen girls came over and said, "Rhonda (my across the street neighbor) says to turn your lights on." So, I said, "OK," gave them candy and then got back on the mike.



"Rhonda! Ron said I was supposed to turn my lights OFF! Please coordinate with Ron on the house porch light policy!" More laughing.



So we decided next year we'll put the PA in the street and crank it up with Halloween music along with everything else.



Apparently some folks want us to be a Christmas Lights neighborhood. Ron's wife Patty told me that the original owners used to do lights with everyone and he'd sit out there as "Santa Bob" and give away candy canes. So, I said, "Yeah, OK, I'll be Santa Al and sit out there with a beer or a hot buttered rum and give away candy canes. Merry Christmas! uuurrrp! Here, kid! Have a uuurpp candy cane!"