Halloween Night and Good Neighbours

My faith is restored.

We plan an annual halloween bash with some of our close friends with kids every year, inviting them for a simple dinner. Usually we feed the kids early, and the Mommies send the Daddies out trick-or-treating with the kids, while we all sit around and drink wine and answer the door. (it's a nice arrangement!) At eight o'clock, my darling husband gets his inner kid on and fills the wheelbarrow with fireworks. Neighbors from a couple of square blocks gather on our front lawn to sip hot chocolate and marshmallows and watch my husband put on the annual display. It's pretty cool, old-school neighbourhoodly and fun.

This year, in the midst of a global economic crisis, H1N1 and other various crises, we had neighbours from two streets over knocking on our door to both ask if the fireworks would be on this year, and then to offer a small contribution to the display. Now I don't know the neighbours in question, nor do I speak to them, but they nonetheless came around and offered to contribute and also to say thank you for the fun neighbourhood event.

Who ever said community was dead?