Seriously what has happened to Halloween.  I remember my parents having to stock up on candy and making mad dashes to the store (being grateful it was open late) as they had run out.  I remember kids lining up to wait their turn for me to place that candy bar in their bag and that line wound down the porch stairs and down the walkway a bit.  I remember when I was a kid and my siblings and I scampering from house to house throughout the neighborhood.  I remember having sooooo much candy my parents would ration it out.  We would have over 200 hundred pieces when we got home.  Personally I realize now at least half of it would totally vanish from the house ... sometimes saving my parents from that evening dash to the store to replenish supplies.  And we were only allowed to Trick or Treat in our immediate neighborhood.  Amazing what goodies we accumulated.

I live in Manhattan now and my building has a policy.  If you want Trick or Treaters, you sign up on the sheet downstairs by the mail.  Otherwise, no one is allowed to bother you.  I sign up and about 11 children knock on my door.  It is a small building by New York standards and it is just the children of people in the building so there is no expectation of vast numbers.

This year I am staying at my cousin's in the southern part of the United States and I was looking forward to reliving once again those hordes of young ones knocking at the door in those wonderful costumes ... holding up those bags and plastic pumpkin containers in anticipation of a flow of goodies to be captured.  My cousin had to visit one of her children in another state at the last moment.  I chose to stay behind and pass the candy out.  My cousin asked if I would pick some  up as she hadn't had opportunity to do so before she left.  I did.  I got a few bags ... one of this ... one of that ... and one of the other thing.  Figuring if there was a crash of Trick or Treaters I would make a mad dash to the store for more.  I didn't want to be stuck wiith leftovers.

Well, hmmmm, how do I say this?  What happened to Halloween?  The Trick or Treaters didn't reach the double digits.  I still have a bag of this ... and a bag of that ... and three quartsrs of a bag of the other things left.  When it got to be 6 PM and so few had visited the three that dropped by after that each received a handful of candy apiece.  The "ooooooooooooo" that emitted from their mouths was actually  harmonized.  LOL They wouldn't be able to do that again if they tried, I'm sure.  I waited for some older children to stop by after dinner.  I left the outside lights on so they would know someone was home.  No one arrived.

Where, oh where, has Halloween gone?  

Dilemna:  Chocolate bar type candy does have a limited shelf life.  Will these goodies survive to Thanksgiving in edible shape? And if so, has anyone a dessert recipe containing some of this. that and a little bit of the other thing, so I can use my supply up and cause my relatives coming for Thanksgiving to go into a diabetic coma?   

%%GD_PHOTO_ID%10500128%l%x1Z%%    I've got a photo album entitled "Moon" that contains a dozen or so photos with moon illusions.  You just have to smile.  Enjoy!

Does anyone else besides me remember Mell-o-Rolls?  When I was a babe, my Mom would take me for a walk in a stroller.  A favorite destination was the Sugar Bowl.  The Sugar Bowl was an oceanside refreshment stand down Breezy Point where we would spend the summers.  My brother would sit in front of me in the stroller.  It was a tight fit.  He is ten months younger than I am and we didn't have a double stroller as you see nowadays.  So the two of use would be squished in the one stroller.  

Mom would push us south on Reid Avenue and we would stop every once and awhile so Mom could chat with someone who was hanging out there laundry or just sitting out on their front porch.  These were summer bungalows and they sat close together and there was only one road into the place.  Everyone knew everyone else.  They had all been coming here every summer for a generation or more.  My family started going there in the late 1800s.  My Mom met my Dad there.  It was a great family sort of place. 

As we walked past the various bungalows, all types of shapes, various colors, some with porches, some with decks, some up a half flight of stairs, some low to the ground but none on the ground.  This place was completely sand.  There was no grass.  All the bungalows were built on cinderblocks and it just depended how high the builder had gone.  The houses lined both sides of the sidewalk.  You couldn't drive to your place.  There was a parking lot at the front of the Point and you unpacked your car and wagoned in your stuff.  You didn't have to worry about traffic.  What a lovely place!  Trees would overhang the sidewalk along most of the walk so it was shady and we were not roasting even on the hottest summer days.   When we would get to the intersection of Oceanside and Reid, the trees would end and it seemed the world would open up.  In the middle of the two sidewalks a large stretch of sand, ocean and then blue blue sky would come into view.  My brother and I knew we were in for a treat.

We would play in the sand.  My Mom would dig a hole and let the water fill it.  Then she would build a wall in the front to protect it from the waves.  My brother and I would splash around in our private pool and make decorations with the wet sand on the "castle" that surrounded us.  Our fun and laughter only interrupted occasionally by Mom reapplying suntan lotion.  A quick rinse in the ocean--Mom supervised, of course--and Mom would change our wet suits for dry ones under a large beach blanket.  She'd pack everything up and we would troop through the sand with Mom dragging the stroller.   If it was an extra special day... If we had been especially good... If we had not fought or teased each other ... If... well, then, she'd say, "ice cream anyone?".  We would both shout  It was practically harmony, "Please, please!"  She would laugh and say, "Since you've both been soooo polite".   We would hop in the stroller and instead of heading straight down Reid for the walk home, Mom would make a left turn and roll us up the Sugar Bowl ramp.  The Sugar Bowl is the type of place that really doesn't exist anymore.  It had a wooden deck that was ocean battered and rather beat.  Beware of splinters on bare feet!  Inside the double doors you had a choice.   There were swinging doors to the left that was the bar.  There were swinging doors to the right and that was the concession stand area.  The floors were black from decades of sandy footed customers making their way through.  It would not pass health inspections nowadays.  The smell of stale beer wafted up from the floor in the entrance way.   At the concession stand side there were hot dogs and hamburgers and sodas of various kinds, there was a stand with a variety of candies displayed.   But the best treat by far, the one I can close my eyes and still taste was the Mell-o-roll ice cream that was made by Borden's.  It came in vanilla.  I don't know if that was the only flavor but it was the only flavor we had and to this day it is the only vanilla ice cream I have ever liked and enjoyed.  The ice cream came in a roll.  It looked like the cardboard center of a toilet paper roll.   The ice cream came covered in paper.  There was a special cone that had a rectangular shaped receptacle for the ice cream at the top.  The clerk would hand you the cone and the paper covered ice cream.   You would unwrap the ice cream and PLOP it into the cone yourself.   When I was a babe, my parent's always did it for me.  I can still remember the day I was offered the opportunity to try and do  it myself.  I felt so grownup.  It was wonderful.   The best part of the Mell-o-Roll was the taste.  It was rich rich rich and so smooth.  I miss the way it would melt in your mouth.  The best part about it for my parents, I'm sure, was due to the special cone you didn't have to worry about drips as the ice cream was totally inside the cone.   The ice cream would drip but inside the cone so you would have that lovely vanilla taste all the way down to the last bite of cone.

I don't remember when Mell-o-Roll went away but it has been decades and the memory still lingers on.   I also remember I didn't half mind being squished in with my baby brother on the trip home with my ice cream in hand as I had on the way there...lol.   

Where did it go, my wonderful Mell-o-Rolls?  I suppose it doesn't matter as I will always have its memory in my mind. 

I was there.  If my boss hadn't called an early meeting, I would have been walking through the World Trade Center from the subway underneath on my way to work.  I was lucky.  I worked very close to the Trade Center.  When it happened a man in our office screamed, "a plane is flying into the World Trade Center!"  I turned around in my chair, as my work cube was had a window that faced the World Trade Center, and watched in complete and total disbelief as the first plane flew into the tower.   It was fake compared to the movies.  Honestly it didn't appear real.   It was a clear blue sky with very few clouds and the towers stood tall against the sky.  Others from my office walked over to the windows.  Nobody could believe what happened.

I saw and experienced many things that day that were horrific.  I won't go into the list here but I did lose 35 people I knew...I use to work for a company that was in the World Center and I knew two of the firemen that were killed that day as well  A number of people I lost were close personal friends.  Six of the people I lost I had known all my life.  We lived in each others homes all summer every summer.  We were on all the sports teams together.  We took swim lessons together.  Lost our baby teeth together.  We told each other about our first kiss.  We were unseperable growing up.  They all worked for the same company in the Trade Center.  They had helped me get my first job at that same company.   I had decided a year or two earlier to completely change careers and left that company.  At least one of those friends, jumped from the Trade Center to her death.  I sadly watched as this occurred.  Of course, at the time I didn't know who was jumping.  You would just see the people on their way down.   That looked fake as well. 

The day was indeed surreal.

I wanted them to build the Trade Center again just the way it was ... exactly.  To prove we could rise again.  That we would not be defeated by these mean-minded fanatics.

I want the mosque to be built.  I refuse to blame all of the Islamic world for a few maniacs.  I don't believe that Islam created the fanatics.  There are people in this world who will be fanatics...period...it doesn't matter what race, ethnicity, religion, etc.  It just doesn't matter.  There are people who just chose to live extreme lives no matter what.   I don't believe in blaming all of any type of people for the actions of one or so of that type.  How ridiculous.   I was raised Roman Catholic and although drifted away from it in my adult life, I do consider myself a Christian.  Christians have done so many horrific things in our history in the name of our faith (murder, torture, etc.).  Does that mean that we are all horrific?  No, it doesn't.  I would not wish to be judged by the actions of some people who claim to be Chrisitans and claim to represent me.  They don't.  I am sure the same is true of the followers of Mohammed. 

We should be spreading positive things in this life.  Love . Caring . Respect . and so on.  Let us not give in to fear.  Let us not blame all for the actions of a few. 

I lost much that day.  I will not fully recoup from many of the sights and experiences I went through that day and since.  I won't go into all of them today.  But l do know that life is short and we should be spreading the spirit of peace and tolerance not bigotry and hate.  Let us hold ourselves to a higher standard.  Tolerance is one of the things the founders of this country wanted when they came here.  Tolerance was one of the precepts the founding fathers attempted to place in this country's originating documents.   Let us read them again and instill in our hearts the true meaning behind these words and attempt to follow their lead.

Remember 9/11 but not with suspicion, fear or hate in our hearts and minds.    Let us live our lives with love, tolerance and good will.