I’ve hung this sign above our candy bowl on the front porch every Halloween since we were able to take our daughters trick-or-treating. And even though the bowl is usually empty when we return home, this year something different happened.
Just like most years, tonight we were out in the hood for about an hour and a half. When we made the final turn home, our street looked like a parking lot. No way we had any candy left. As we approached our house, a few male teenagers wearing hoodies were huddled around our candy bowl. I feared the worst. Were they pranking us for not having any candy? They scurried away as we walked up the drive, but amazingly–there was candy in the bowl. Only, it wasn’t the same candy we put in the bowl when we left.
The kids were actually replacing the candy in the bowl with candy from their own stash so that the next kid had some. Sure, they took the best of what was left, but they also left some. I was shocked. And embarrassed that I expected otherwise.
Maybe I was wrong about people. Or maybe it was just good copywriting.
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Nichole Brown
Nov 1, 2009
How wonderful. And what a great thing for your girls to witness.
Catalina
Nov 1, 2009
holy crap! that’s awesome!!!
Jim Mitchem
Nov 2, 2009
A few people have asked whether this is a true story, so I feel compelled to state that this story is absolutely true. I don’t write fiction. Yet (hey, I said it blew me away.)
Also, we live in an urban area, and on Halloween night, kids from surrounding streets descend upon our neighborhood. So it’s not like they have anything like loyalty. This just proves that an effective appeal can work both ways. 😉
Stacy Hurt
Nov 5, 2009
I also like to think; no: believe that the teens today; I have one myself; are so vastly different from past generations. Many, many, many parents out there became more enlightend in raising their children but I feel what’s mostly responsible is the net itself. (I can’t believe I just wrote that actually) I have no empirical data; hell I don’t have more than my own observances; but I put those together with stories like yours and many others I read on blogs and the trend I see is a generation (actually, the twenty soemthings too) that is less concerned with what our current over-the-counter media gloss shoves down their throats about appearence, what you should have to be happy; what kind of money you should make etc. Their focus is more on what’s REAL; relationships; emotions; empathy; world wide awareness. Sure, teens will be teens; BUT, due to the net’s ability to let them voice their true selves in relative anonymity (if they wish) they feel HEARD and they LISTEN to others and they can spot (as you have well spotted too Jim) ‘fake’ a mile away. I am heartened. My wish is that this trend continues. There may be hope for our species yet.
Jim Mitchem
Nov 9, 2009
Man, I sure hope you’re right. When I was a teen angster, I had little hope of anything. The best I can do as a parent now is to raise our daughters to be compassionate and honest people who aren’t driven by greed and ego.