Halloween 1966
by Thomas R. Thomas
That was the year
Mom and Dad were
at a party and
only Sue and I
were home to pass
out the candy.
Mom and Dad forgot
to buy candy
for the kids.
Eleven is still young
enough to go
trick-or-treating,
but we had a
responsibility.
I dressed up as
a cowboy, soldier,
and anything I could
find in the closet,
going up and down
Robin road each time
to fill the bowl
while Sue passed
out candy
to the kids.
It was the only good
memory in the hell
year of sixth grade
until we moved
to La Verne
in the spring,
the first unselfish
grownup thing
I remember doing,
the best
Halloween
I ever had.
Thomas R. Thomas publishes the small press Arroyo Seco Press. Publications include Carnival, Pipe Dream, Bank Heavy Press, Chiron Review, Electric Windmill, Marco Polo, and Silver Birch Press. His books are Scorpio (Carnival) and Five Lines (World Parade Books). The art of invisibility is coming in 2015. His website is thomasrthomas.org.
Silver Birch Press 
I love this –
“the first unselfish
grownup thing
I remember doing”
I remember mine also. It is a pivotal moment that must always stand out in someone’s mind – though I didn’t know if others had that also. Nice remembrance of a good time in a sea of, eeesh, 6th grade.