Happy Birthday to...BOO!

144 years ago, Nevada was "Battle Born" becoming the 36th state. Lincoln courted the territory because the Union needed the silver from the Silver State, and sent federal troops waaaay out here to guard the railroads and the mines. Apparently the Confederacy attempted to come out here and get that valuable resource, too. Anyway, the main reason for your history lesson today, boys and girls, is that because of this statehood commemoration, schools are closed and I get a day off.

Each year, I go to great lengths to remind my students that, no, really we don't get a day off to celebrate Halloween, honest. But because Nevada statehood day is October 31st, it always seems like we get Halloween off! It is a very serious holiday for many of my students. The trick-or-treat thing is very important. Very. I mean---FREE CANDY. You can go all over the city and get FREE CANDY.

We live on a main-drag type of street and so we get lots of attention tonight. I love Halloween, and so I put up my jack-o-lantern and ghost lights all around the door frame. I hang out my tole painted ghost trailing long white cotton streamers. I dig out the big bowl that looks like a pumpkin and fill it with candy. And through the night here, I fill it and fill it and refill and refill it. When I've gone through all my bags of candy, I unplug my lights, shut off the porch light and lock the door. But it is an hours long event on my street. Kids come from the area south of us, where I used to teach. It's not a prosperous part of town, just six miles away, and so they come up the hill to my part of town where the treating is more generous.

Last year, I opened the door and there stood a whole family. They greeted me with a surprised "Hi!" and they looked familiar, but I couldn't place them. Then, the boy in front pulled off his mask, looked me in the eye and shouted, "Hey! It's Mrs. Frome!" It was fantastic---it was a student I'd had in my previous school. But that wasn't why it was fantastic. This boy has autism, and for him to recognize me, and greet me so gregariously was the fantastic part. He usually was silent and reticent. We had a great mini-reunion. His mom was delighted at his reaction too. It was a really Happy Halloween.