Once upon a time there was a precocious little girl who loved a good party. As Halloween approached during her fifth year of life, there had been no mention of a good party, however. So this little girl simply took matters into her own hands.
She walked up and down the street--because that's what five-year-olds were able to do in the late 1960s (very late in the 1960s, by the way)--and knocked on each door asking for her playmates to come out. As Greg and Mark and Rodney and Sarah Jane and Phil (although I think it was still Philip at the time) came outside of their respective homes, this little girl told them about a magical Halloween party that would be thrown at her house that very weekend. She told them there would be bobbing for apples, hotdogs, games, prizes, and, of course, Halloween cupcakes. She invited each of her friends to come to her party and then told their parents about the festivities, because even though it was the late 1960s kids still had to have their parents' permission to walk down the street to a party at night.
By the time the little girl headed home, she had invited every child on her street (and a few others on the connecting streets) to attend her Halloween party. And their parents had agreed to let them come. Pleased with her accomplishment, the little girl found her mother and told her about the party. She thought she might need to get busy decorating with orange and black crepe paper, baking those cupcakes, and loading apples into a tub.
The mother, a little slow on the draw, just looked at the little girl.
"What do you mean you've invited the whole street to a Halloween party Saturday night? Did they actually say they were coming?" The mother seemed shocked, surprised, even appropriately frightened.
The little girl had not realized that you still needed your parents' permission to host a party. She assumed that at the ripe old age of 5 you could just schedule such things on your own and them "book them" with your parents.
Big mistake.
Still, loving mother that she was, the mom quickly got on the phone and confirmed with the neighborhood moms that she indeed would be hosting a party for their children that weekend. Then she bought apples and crepe paper and candy and Koolaide and prizes. Then she decorated and baked and cooked and planned. Then she threw the best Halloween party in the history of that whole neighborhood--they all showed up. Then she gave that little girl a talking to.
That little girl has never forgotten that magical Halloween party. It was the best ever. If she does say so herself.Labels: memories
