About Me

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e. l . wood is a native of birmingham, alabama. he grew up on the urban streets of dallas, texas before attending college at houston baptist university where he earned a b. a. in english and psychology. after a year of teaching high school english in the public schools of houston, e. l. wood attended sam houston state university where he earned a master’s degree in english. after bouncing around the deep south for several years, he finished his ph. d. in american literature before 1900 at the university of southern mississippi. e. l. wood has been teaching in some capacity since 1992 and has taught for a local community college since 1995. in his spare time, e.l. wood enjoys reading, movies, and the outdoors. he is personally acquainted with several search and rescue teams around the southeast. he is married to the lovely and gracious a. c. they have a daughter (special k), and one dog. They reside in h'burg, deep south. in addition to being the sole proprietor of the gandy dancer billiard parlor, e. l. wood dabbles in folk art and the occasional cultivation of a handlebar mustache.

Friday, November 03, 2006

GIMME SOME CANDY!!!


one of the things that undermines the american spirit is the entitlement mentality. every halloween, i am amazed at how this way of thinking creeps more and more into the mainstream. isn’t it in the very fabric of trick or treating to dress up? costumes don’t have to be elaborate or store bought, but come on . . . make an effort. on halloween night more than half of the nocturnal candy seekers who darkened my door made no effort at all to dress up. and often, the parents sans costume as well stood mute, bag in hand, often even glaring. no “trick or treat” no “happy halloween” no “thank you.” one goateed young man wheeled his bike to the curb, hitched his sagging pants, flicked his cigaret into my yard and pulled a wal-mart bag from between his jacket and wife-beater. again, no words, just kinda held the bag out like i should know what comes next. i could not contain myself. “what? are you thirty-eight? you’ve got to be kidding me?” he sorta shrugged and replied, “I’m eighteen, and I’m gettin’ candy for my four month old daughter.” i was is such shock that my brain hiccupped and could not quite remember that four month olds do not even eat hard candy or chocolate. i think next year i’m going to bring back the “trick” spirit of the holiday and hand out brussel sprouts to those who don’t dress appropriately.

4 comments:

Steve Bezner said...

Dude. I saw that all over the place at our Halloween...um...Fall Festival. It was nuts. People that are adults carrying around plastic bags looking for candy. Seems sort of unstable to me.

Eli the Betta said...

Unlike other holidays, Halloween has a demonic oringin. That's why I don't give children candies on Halloween.

e. l. wood said...

hopefully you don't use christmas trees to celbrate christ's birth since they are rooted in the pagan tradition of worshiping deities of the woods.

Cole said...

E-man, I could not agree more. In fact, I think I'll join you by saying, "Are you aware of what Halloween is? Sit down and let me read you this Ray Bradbury story..."