Trading Candy

WonderBoy and SuperGirl are in the living room, engaged in the time-tested and sanctified ritual of Trading Halloween Candy. Mary Janes are traded for Swedish Fish. Salt-Water Taffy for Bubblicious. Everyone wants the Reese's Cups, including me. I have a very vivid memory of sitting on the rug just inside the front door of the house we grew up in, with my sisters, doing the same thing. We didn't make it but about three steps inside the door before we dumped the loot out and started negotiating. I can't remember all of what I loved back then, but I remember what I didn't like: candy corn and anything sour (hmmm....sounds like SuperGirl.) Actually I am sure that what I wanted back then was still Reese's Cups. When my niece was here this summer on her way home from her first sleepaway camp (at the same camp my sisters and I all went to growing up), I couldn't get her to tell me much of anything about her 3 weeks there. I'm not sure she had a good time. But she was amazed when I said that every night after dinner at camp I bought a Reese's Cup and a Sprite, every year I was there. She had bought the exact same thing, every night, and her eyes lit up to think that someone else understood, maybe just a little, what things were like for her. Our candy choices are one of the things that make us who we are. Thank God there are so many different kinds of candy in the loot bag. I may not understand the licorices of the world, but I am glad they are around to trade with. And thank God there are others who like what we like, and know a little about who we are, even if it means there are fewer Reese's to go around.