Halloween was cold this year, and we didn’t get many visitors. Most of the kids were neighbors, so I waved and chatted to the parent who was walking with them. Only two groups I didn’t recognize. In St. Louis we have the custom that the kids need to do a trick to get their treat; almost always they tell a joke. After the hundredth house, that gets tiring for them, so the clever ones learn a couple.
My nephews Max and Mark went trick or treating with the Fruit of the Murphy Loins this year, and so were introduced to this custom. When they got back from entertaining the neighbors, Mark told us that in our world, we have square pizza with no crust, but in his they have triangles with crust; in our world, you have to tell a joke to get candy, but in his, you don’t. Mark hasn’t just travelled to a different city; the contrast between San Jose and St. Louis apparently is great enough, he feels he’s travelled to a different world.
