We live in a most amazing place! Last night, as was the case a year ago, and the year before that, we had a delightful evening on the last day of October. We closed on this house in the middle of October, 2021 and were barely moved in by the end of the month. Each year, on the last day of October, hundreds of lovely people dress up their children in fancy costumes and bring them to our front porch to say, “Hi!” to us. It is a very amusing and fun event for a couple of retired folks. Sometimes, in brief lulls between visits of groups of children, I will sit on our porch swing, rock back and forth with a cup of tea and listen to our neighborhood. The sounds are absolutely delightful. I can hear happy children, laughing and sharing excited stories. I can hear concerned parents, advising children about street safety and reminding them to say, “Thank you!” I can hear the excited sounds from down the street and around the block. I feel so luck to live where we do.

We have never before lived in one of the neighborhoods where people bring their kids for Halloween trick or treat. In our house in Rapid City at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, near the top of the hill, we rarely saw more than a dozen children, mostly from the homes of our immediate neighbors. There are more children who live on our street here than were in our entire subdivision in Rapid City.

Here is my advice to retired folks seeking a place to live. Consider a neighborhood with a lot of children. Such a neighborhood is a lot more interesting and fun than one of those “seniors only” communities.

One young wizard came onto my front porch, pulled out a wand, and and gave an incantation: “Bibbety, bibbety, bee! Your house belongs to me!” “Great!” I replied. “You need to mow the lawn tomorrow.”

There is a pathway alongside our driveway comprised of eight pavers surrounded by white landscape gravel. The good thing about the path is that it gives additional room for walking up to the house. Sometimes, when there are two cars parked in the driveway, walking alongside the parked cars is a bit tight. Most of the time our car is in our garage, but our pickup doesn’t fit in the garage, so it is in the drive when it isn’t being used. Last night our son’s family car was in our driveway, so having the pavers was nice for all of our guests. The bad thing about the path is that weeds love to grow among the white landscape rocks. To keep the path looking nice it seems like I have to pull weeds all the time. I keep a spray bottle with vinegar, dish soap, and salt in it. That mixture kills the weeds, especially if I spray them when it is hot and sunny. It does not work when it is raining. The rain just washes off the spray mixture.

I learned last night that there are many different ways to walk up that pathway. I don’t think I had thought about it much before. One child, about three years old, counted the pavers as they approached. Yes, there are eight. He got the count right. After greeting me and receiving a candy treat, he counted again on the way back and got the same result. Another, younger than the first carefully jumped from one paver to the next. When he leapt off of the last one onto the sidewalk leading to our porch, he yelled, “I did it!” He then came up onto the porch and greeted me and, after receiving a treat, said, “Thank you.” Both of those interchanges were much quieter and shy than his announcement upon completing his series of jumps up the paver pathway. Then he headed back towards the street, jumping from paver to paver. Again, at the end I could hear the cheery, “I did it!” I think he was way more excited about the pavers than he was about the small candy treats I was handing out. A younger elementary girl came up the pavers jumping on one foot then switching to the other, hopping with only one foot for landing through the series of pavers, hop scotch style. Another child yelled to their parents, “The rocks are lava!” and avoided stepping on any of the white rocks.

I made a mental note to trim the lilac bushes near our front porch early next spring. They’ve gotten too tall and bushy. I want to be able to see the fun on the street while sitting on the porch swing.

Our grandchildren decorated our front porch with cornstalks, gourds, pumpkins, and dried plants from the farm. Many children asked, “Where did you get the tiny pumpkins?” They seemed to be quite surprised that they grow that way. Others were a bit confused that we got them through a process that didn’t involve a store. When I explained to one child that our grandchildren brought them from their farm the response was, “No, I mean what STORE did they come from?” No store was involved in the gathering of those pumpkins.

Our grandchildren returned from walking around the neighborhood and greeting our neighbors with more candy than any child should eat, even if spread over a month’s time. That is except our 12-year-old grandson, who returned without any candy. He said it was a lot of fun walking up to random strangers and giving them candy. We teach our children not to accept candy from strangers, but that rule was suspended in our neighborhood last night. The candy was spread out on our dining room table and sorted, with a few precious items saved and placed in individual bags labeled for each child and each day of the next week. The remainder were placed in the large bowl of treats by the front door. Our youngest granddaughter helped me give them to other children as they came up on our porch to greet us.

Here is my advice to retired folks. Consider keeping a bowl of candy near the front door to offer treats to children who come to greet you. If possible, engage a grandchild (I think you could probably borrow one if yours aren’t handy). Having a young helper to hand out the treats makes the time even more fun.

Today is All Saints Day. As we remember with reverence those who have gone before, may we also give thanks for all of the tiny saints who visited our homes in the year just ended. They add so much to the joy of living.