Halloween is a fantastic night in Westport. I have two small children who look forward to October 31st – and the candy – almost as much as they anticipate Christmas.
This was our first year trick-or-treating at Compo beach. In past years, we’d hit Gault, which is always in the grip of a joyous Halloween frenzy come the last night in October. But Compo did not disappoint. I was surprised to discover that there was even more infectious energy there. Most of the houses were decorated to the hilt. One had a six-foot tall spider complete with an enormous web suspended over their front lawn and another featured a glowing mummy guarding their house. Lights and webs and ghouls and graveyards were everywhere.
We stopped at one home where the owner used a two-and-a-half foot tall bucket – big enough to carry several basketballs – to hold all the candy he gave out that night. And by 7 pm, it was almost empty. That’s a lot of treats. My favorite stop was the house with the sign directing the kids to the candies at the front door and the adults to the table where they were passing out wine to the adults. Whoever you were – brilliant.
It dawned on me that this night, right here -- symbolized the very best of Westport. It’s occasions like this that I’m warmed by the sense of community here. The residents were generous and friendly and welcoming. It’s truly heartening that people are willing to go to so much effort (and expense) to bring a little moment of happiness to someone else’s children. And I love that we can walk around one stunningly beautiful neighborhood and run into so many friends from around town. It was a mini-reunion and a beach block party all rolled into one -- with wine, to boot. What more could we ask for?
But, to be honest, it also encapsulated what I like least about Westport. What shocked me was that even though Soundview and all the little streets behind it were teeming with children -- as everyone knew it would be – many, many people still felt the need to drive through the crowds. Many of them were going way too fast with a snarl on their face, as if exasperated by the two-year-old bumblebees and princesses. This shouldn’t surprise me. We live on a private street with many “Do Not Enter” signs, three sets of gates and several speed bumps. But people ignore all that and cut through anyway, usually speeding in front of our children playing on bikes and scooters and skates. People will do whatever they want.
It was the same last night. I realize that many of the cars could’ve belonged to neighborhood residents coming home or going out for the night. But everyone knows that Compo on Halloween is like downtown Disneyland. If they wanted to, residents could have avoided the area, moved their cars out before trick-or-treating started, and parked at one of the beach lots instead. Halloween happens only for a short time on a single night of the year. It is that much trouble to forgo our SUVs for two hours so that the kids might stay safe? (I realized I’m biased. I’m a mother and therefore pre-programmed to put children ahead of almost all else. Plus, my son was nearly run over on a closed street one Halloween.)
Maybe the cars that drove through carried elderly people who couldn’t walk. Maybe people got lost on the way to a party. (It’s possible, but I doubt it.) Maybe the drivers were neighborhood residents who saw us as intruders who were inconveniencing them.
For now, I’ll enjoy all that was good about Halloween. Thank you to all of you at Compo for hosting a most gracious event. And next year, if they closed off the streets, it would be almost perfect.
