Hi rtzienybyt
Readers. Have a great weekend. Here’s to letting our kids go out in the neighborhood.- L.
Dear Free-Range Kids: Well here in N.J., Halloween, as per governor’s orders, is postponed till Monday and on Halloween itself I told my kids, who took the news with amazing grace. Our friends had lost their homes, so losing Halloween was small by comparison. My soon to be 8-year-old  decided that people needed a reason to smile though, and put on her costume convinced her brother to do the same, leashed the dogs (we are hurricane sitting), grabbed the candy bowl and went door to door handing out candy while walking the dogs. So that everyone could at least smile for a few minutes.
I stayed home boiling water to keep the house warm for my elderly father-in-law. By her efforts I soon found my yard full of neighbors (some known, others not known) talking and enjoying coffee. We used our camp coffee maker (no electricity needed) , others supplied creamer or coffee, and cars were left running to charge up phones and catch what ever news we could.
All thanks to an 8-year-old wanting to spread cheer on Halloween. – Janis in Jersey
Post-Sandy smiles, thanks to a kid.
Great story!
That’s wonderful. It takes so little to get good things going sometimes.
+1!
Awwww! Great story, my heart is warmed and my eyes are teary!
Such a sweet story! My eyes are tearing up too.
Thanks for such a positive story!
The best thing to come out of the power being out for a long time has been the chance to feel like a community. In the (relatively brief) 36 h that our lights were off, I met 3 neighbors I’d never spoken to before and spent countless hours with two I already knew. Kids were back and forth freely between houses, going wherever there was something to do or warm food. People were out *talking* to each other and being a neighborhood instead of a bunch of people with houses near one another.
heart warmed.
This just goes to show how strong, and capable children can be.
A special child to bring out the good in people, when they needed it the most.
Reverse Trick-or-Treat! Very good!
Awww! I love it!
In my NJ neighborhood the kids put on their costumes and just walked through the streets together anyway, not asking for candy, but just being out to show off their costumes. We quite enjoyed seeing the kids out and dressed up!
Lyndsay, on November 3rd, 2012 at 1:48 am Said: People were out *talking* to each other and being a neighborhood instead of a bunch of people with houses near one another.
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Excellent description “a bunch of people with houses near one another” is exactly what we have now 🙁
What a heartwarming story, truly. This is surely the best part of any disaster.
Thumbs Up! Both of them! Way High!!!
Update: Yesterday was the rescheduled Halloween and our town decided to postpone/cancel Halloween yet again due to streets being unsafe. I called my town hall and asked if I could organize a trunk or treat at a municipal lot and was informed due to legal liabilities I would need a permit and police and first aid at the location in case something happened. Plus all town lots were being used as staging grounds( I counted in my drive around town 5 empty lots with street lights making them extremely well lit. If I held a trunk or treat then I would be fined and possibly arrested. When I inquired as to a reschedule date I was informed that hello don’t you know that there is another storm coming in on Wens and that hello we are in a state of emergency. So we took our kids 30 mins away to the mall for them to trick or treat in a safe warm location and came home to find a message on my town’s fb page that the decision to reschedule or not a future date for Halloween rests on decisions made by the various homeowner associations. Not the Mayor or the town employees but the homeowner associations. After finding that out I truly wonder if they have found a way to cancel Halloween completely in the future and just have a town party that no one goes to.
Oh this story just warmed my heart! I really needed to hear something encouraging today! It seems the youngest members of our community actually have the most sense these days!
jennsmom / Absolutely adorable, what great shots you got of the Red Ranger and Elephant Boy!The ones with Isaac are raelly spooky how his eyes make the character look so real. Thanks, I want visit this site alot when I need a grandkid fix.