Hi All! Wow, it is November already. It feels like early September. Last week my smile was about enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, so I can’t use that one again. Hmmm… I can write about how well my writing is going, but I will wait until I put “The End” on my WIP ;) I got it, I will write about Halloween!
On Monday we went to help a friend hand out candy for Halloween. He gets over 1000 tick-or-treaters. So we get there and a couple of his other friends are there ahead of us. Music is playing and there are some instruments on the lawn. One of his other friends is going to play sax to prerecorded tracks. I get pulled into playing “drums”, or actually a cajon (look it up). I have never played one before and I am a bit rhythmically impaired, but I did it.
It turned out to be a lot of fun. I did OK for a first time. Nobody would mistake me for a professional percussionist, but some of it was pretty good.
So that was my smile for the week, playing a cajon for an “audience” of around 1500 on Halloween.
What made you smile?
****
Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week. Why don’t you share it? I hope you can join in!
Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas. If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity. Don’t smile about the misfortune of others. Don’t smile in a way to excludes others. Make sure a 12 year old can read it.
To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile. Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ). You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me). Note – I am no longer compiling the smiles into a weekly post as I used to – Sorry, I do not have time.
Trent's World (the Blog) 
Pingback: someone else’s eyes – Touring My Backyard
Pingback: Everyday Moments (#SOL-2022) – Mukhamani
Wowza thats a lot of trick or treaters. I had none. Absolutely 0 knocks on my door. I would love to see 1000, well not at my house but someone else’s place lol. Glad you had a great time.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh and here’s my weekly smile 😃 https://webbblogscom.wordpress.com/2022/11/07/hello-weekly-smile-3/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, I’ll visit in a minute.
LikeLike
It was cool to see that many, but I am with you – not at my house! Thanks.
LikeLike
A Cajon in New England…. Sounds like a good story 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
A Cajon in New England – yeah, it sounds like a horror story. Or a comedy. No, I think it is both ;)
LikeLiked by 2 people
I can’t imagine 1000 pieces of candy. Glad you enjoyed yourself.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is a huge amount of candy – I think we gave away closer to 1500, so…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow I can’t image the huge piles or bowls there must have been or the constant refilling of bowls. Unbelieveable or is it inconceivable?
LikeLiked by 1 person
There was a huge amount of candy, but everything was prepped ahead of time, just had to manipulate the empty and full bowls. Never seen crowds like it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can only imagine.
LikeLiked by 1 person
WOW. 1000 trick or treaters!? ONE THOUSAND!? I don’t think .. I don’t know what to think lol. We had one knock, but by then we were putting our babies to sleep so we could not go down and open the door (I think we secretly did not want to but shhhh, that’s grinchy, lol). PLaying a cajon sounds like good fun, and your day sounds like it was full of people and joy, and that is never a bad thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is a small, quaint village, and it was packed with people like I have never seen… When I am at my house, I pretty much hide. We might get a few, but if I am hiding, I don’t take care of them… It was a fun night.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s funny. Is this village known for its Halloween displays? That’s the only reason I can think for attracting that many visitors. Here in the UK Halloween trick or treating is only a recent tradition, influenced no doubt by the rise in social media use and also regular media, I expect, reflecting how much bigger of a tradition it is in America.The way you describe this makes it feel more like a nice social affair where families can connect with the wider society. Puts it in an entirely new light for me. Thanks for sharing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I was a kid, it was something that was very much a neighborhood activity. People didn’t really decorate. Most of the houses kids would visit were ones they knew. Some people in the country would go into towns and villages. There were always costume parties and such. So much has changed since the Dark Ages, I mean my childhood. Tens of billions of dollars are spent every year/ Some kids still just visit their own neighborhoods, but there are known hot-spots that attract huge crowds. This village does have contests every year for decorations. I am not sure what came first, the decoration frenzy in town or the thousands that descend on it every year. It is a quaint town and does look like what people would think of as the typical New England village from 150 years ago, so that helps. As does the fact that it is very rich – poor people can’t live in that village!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It all sounds pretty wonderful to me. Like a movie, almost, haha. I wonder at its being called ‘New England’ – must look that up. Affluent and quaint areas always attract attention though. There is a charming and delightful little village in the Cotswolds here in the UK called ‘Bibury’ (population: 600-800!) and when you visit, there is always a coach load of tourists toppling about with their cameras. Some signs on house gates (saying not to knock on doors etc) are written in Chinese!! I couldn’t believe my eyes. And when we went, we heard more American/Canadian accents than we did southern English ones, lol!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is pretty cool.
The northeast corner of the US is called New England. The roots go back to the 1620s.
Quaint villages full of tourists and tour buses (couches) is funny.People have an idea of what the ideal town or village in a given area or country is supposed to be, and love having that image verified, even if there are hundreds of others verifying it with them… Yeah, 600 locals and 10,000 tourists ;)
LikeLiked by 1 person
lol! Exactly! :D
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: The Weekly Smile for the 7th of November #weeklysmile – Tessa Dean – Author
Playing a cajón sounds like a lot of fun! 1000 trick or treaters! For us 46 was our world record this year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
People at the center of our village get close to 500, but we only get a handful, so we gave up. it was so different to go to a small village with well over 1000 people strolling around!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Smart to focus your energies, and get a big return on investment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are certain places everyone knows to go, and so those places are hit hard. Our town takes donations for the people living in the area that get the 500 visitors. I don’t know if the town that we visited does the same thing. We brought about 300 pieces of candy and he said he had 1200 that he bought, so the town didn’t help him (all 1500 pieces were gone by the end of the night…)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, I like how you chipped in. That’s a lot of candy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
HI Trent, 1000 visitors would necessitate a lot of candy. Well done with your cajon playing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had never seen crowds like that for Halloween. it was very different! But I did have fun :)
LikeLike