Jill's Journal: A Halloween to remember

I was old enough to know better, but when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.

And, as I clearly remember, I went.

I’m referring to a Halloween sometime back in the 1970s, when my best friend Trisha and I were on the prowl to fill our plastic pumpkins to the brim with sugary goodness. While I was ready to call it a night – actually, it was my bladder that dictating the call – my good pal since were 3 years old, wasn’t.

“Just one more house,” she encouraged.

Although my bladder was beckoning, who was I to say no? There was probably another Hershey bar to be had.

So, down the block we went, one step after another to that “one more house.”

We knocked on the door, offered our usual “Trick-or-Treat” greeting and the homeowners plunked a couple of something into our pumpkins.

Then, Trish got chatty. These were people she knew.

I, on the other hand, began that “I’ve-got-to-go-to-the-bathroom-now” dance, which my friend clearly took no notice of, despite my whispered attempts to get her to say her good-byes.

Then the dancing stopped, and as you may have guessed, a warm trickle started to roll down one leg, then the other. That’s when I jumped off of the doorstep and onto the grass and let it all go.

Trish, of course, giggled in shear delight.

As for the homeowners, I never looked them in the eye. Perhaps, they, too, had a case of the giggles.

I, on the other hand, wore a look of complete embarrassment, that was followed up with a bit of angst for my friend and her campaign for “just one more house.”

With our plastic pumpkins filled to the brim, Trish and I began our walk home that night. I’m sure we exchanged words. Her were most likely voiced in between her laughter; mine were likely on the opposite end of the spectrum.

With every step I took, the cold, wet dress that highlighted my “old lady” costume that Halloween, could be heard sticking to each leg.

My friend Trish and I bring up that story every once in a blue moon. And of course, she still giggles through every word of a “dampened” Halloween sometime in the 1970s.