This week it matters not if you receive your Webb Weekly on Tuesday or Wednesday, we hope you will be in the ‘spirit of the season’ when the various costumed creatures visit your neighborhood.

To some, Halloween is a nuisance time when they choose to turn off their lights to dissuade excited youngsters from knocking on their door seeking treats. Then there are those who use the day to pull less than appreciated pranks on unsuspecting neighbors. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have been guilty of both the former and the latter on some past occasions. But as the years have gone by, Halloween has presented itself as a good time. While there have been years when we have run out of treats before we ran out of Halloweeners, seeing happy kids all dolled up in their favorite costume has always been fun.

Sadly, as our society has become more and more weird, more precautions are necessary to protect innocent youth, but it remains as one of those tradition ‘holidays’ that the government has not messed with by moving to a Monday.

Reflecting back on Halloweens past, two remain as special memories. The first occurred about age seven or eight when I was invited to a kid’s Halloween party. I wanted to go as a baseball player, but my creative interior decorator Mom had different ideas. Somehow she came up with a pumpkin costume that consisted of some bright orange plastic material that included a mask reassembling a pumpkin stem. She fitted me inside the costume and then stuffed the thing with newspapers and packing to make it round and authentic.

Once ‘inside’ the pumpkin, my arms were encased, and my movements were limited to shuffling type footsteps to move forward. The party was only a block from our house and Mom led me down the street, knocked on the front door and quickly made her exit. Once the door opened, I became the hit of the party in more ways than one. The other kids all loved my costume, but they soon found out that it also made a convenient punching bag. I ended up at the bottom of a pile of laughing partygoers. Looking back it was all in good fun, but to be sure I never wore that Halloween costume again!

Fast forward to the 1980s, and the heyday of the Chicago Bears and their larger than life William ‘Refrigerator’ Perry, a 300-plus pound defensive tackle.

Among our circle of friends, I was the tallest one so regardless of what costume might have been chosen for a Halloween party my height usually gave me away. On this particular October evening, Jean and I decided a much different game plan was needed.

Aided by the kindness of Beiter’s Appliance Store, we obtained a discarded refrigerator box, and the plan was hatched. We ‘decorated’ the box with a large poster of Perry along with other Chicago Bears identifiable items. We pulled the box over our bodies, and we were ‘good to go’ — we thought.

The box was too big to fit into our car, so we decided to walk through the streets of South Williamsport the many blocks to the party site inside our unique getup. Once at the party, we banged on the door and vowed to stay quiet. Once again I was standing on a front porch in a costume with limited mobility. It took some pushing from fellow partygoers to get us into the house, but this time the refrigerator did not become a punching bag. It was indeed a much talked about item, and the size of the box served the intended purpose of masking the height of the wearer inside.

These days most of the costumed trick-or-treaters don’t seem to want to take the time to have their identity guessed by those handing out the treats. They just want to get the goodies and move on. But as a dyed-in-the-wool sports fan I have noticed that very few youngsters are presenting themselves in sports-related costumes. To the little ones it is probably more fun to be a princess or some type of scary monster, but we certainly had just as much fun meandering down the street as an oversized appliance.

Which reminds me, did any of you ever engage in that corny old telephone joke? You’d place a call to someone telling them you were from the utility company and were taking a survey. You’d ask them if their refrigerator was running. When they replied yes it was, you’d tell them they had better go catch it. Yes, I know, that’s bad.

In case you’ve not noticed, should this year’s World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox go the full seven games, the deciding game will be played on Halloween night. If that is the case, Halloweeners better get to my house before the first pitch, as by that time I will be hunkered down in front of the TV — with the house lights off!

Enjoy this Halloween. Make it a good day for the little ones.