Growing up, October was a feel-good time. I love Fall and it was the only time of year when dad cooked. We didn’t have the extra money to buy candy to hand out to trick or treaters. We almost never had candy, so I thought. With five sisters, if we did have a bag of candy, it would be gobbled up in a minute. We did have sweets. Mom made a lot of baked goods like muffins, bars, and cookies. By accident, I discovered mom and dad had secret candy. I was looking for something in their bedroom and found a half bag of candy. I snuck one piece and got out of there before II got caught. Some time later, mom and dad were both out of the house for some reason. My sisters were in the yard. I figured this was an ideal time to check my parent’s room for a sweet treat, I careful to not leave any sign of my search, I checked the top dresser drawer. Success! I found a colorful box with foil packets. Each one had a picture of birds printed front and back. I snuck one out, stuffed it in my shirt pocket and headed up to my room. I shut my door, sat on my bed and used my teeth to tear open the packet. I double checked the foil. There was no candy. The printing said Peacock Ready Wets. Inside was a rolled up skinny and slimy balloon. I took the balloon and foil out behind the garage and buried them.
The next day I told a couple of friends about the weird candy. One of the older boys heard me and started laughing. “You found a condom,” he said and walked off.
I had to look up what a condom was in the library’s big dictionary. Yikes I thought, what if they miss one? What am I going to do? For days, I was jumpy and nervous whenever mom or dad called for me.About six months later my parents announced us kids were getting a new brother or sister. The girls were excited and jumped up and down. I muttered something and ran outside. I thought, This is all my fault. It’s because they were short one of those condom things.
Caramels and Peanuts
That’s the condom part so what about the onion? I said it was the time of year dad cooked. He’d make peanut brittle and as a family we’d make popcorn balls. We’d break up the brittle and make little packets of peanut brittle and popcorn balls to hand out for Halloween. Of course, we snacked while we packaged.
Another thing we’d make to, both handout ,and to eat was, carmel apples. Dad made caramel syrup and we got the apples ready. We all got to shove a stick in an apple and then dip it in the hot caramel. Mom lined a cookie sheets with wax paper. We’d put the apples on the paper and set the pan out in the porch to cool. When we were done, each of us were allowed an an apple. There was still a little caramel left but no apples. Mom said there were pears in the refrigerator, and I should sue one for the rest of the caramel.
I opened the refrigerator and saw the pears. I also saw a big red onion. You guessed it. I put a stick in the onion and tilted the kettle to swirl the onion until it was fully coated. I took it to the porch and put it on a tray with the apples. I noted it’s position so I wouldn’t be the one who picked it when we had our snack. I went back to the kitchen for something. Back on the porch I froze. Someone had moved the trays. Now I couldn’t tell which treat was the onion.
When all the apples were cool, we each took one. Mom and dad both their apples and headed out to the end of our lot where we had a hammock. They told us to stay on the porch as hand-in-hand, they disappeared into the dark.
It wasn’t long before we heard my dad swearing and mom laughing.
