Dear Editor,
Living as we do at the end of a long driveway on a sparsely populated road, I have never had the pleasure of 300 plus children and their parents trouping by my door on Halloween. This year I got invited by my friends Mai & Gary who live on Melmore to help them hand out treats. They have a tradition of offering fresh cut fruit sprinkled with cinnamon and chocolate powder and stuck with toothpicks to make them easy to pick up. I was delighted to accept, and even more delighted at the reaction of the children and their parents as they walked up to our table by the road and called out “Trick or Treat!” We explained that we didn’t have anything for their treat bags, but they were welcome to have a fresh snack and eat it there. Most of them were only too happy to partake, and they said things like “Best snack ever!” and “Yum!” The parents were also invited to have a snack and were most appreciative. I’m so grateful to live in a place where it’s still okay to offer children food that doesn’t come out of a package and not be greeted with suspicion. On the contrary, the vast majority of people were so happy to see something that was fresh and healthy. And we got to have hundreds of short sweet visits with hundreds of short sweet people (and their parents). It was a win win win situation, and I’m already looking forward to Halloween next year in Deep Bay! Oh, and the fireworks were fabulous. Thanks firefighters!
Shasta Martinuk
