One More Halloween Story
My friend, Elise has a big Halloween party every year. She lives in a neighborhood called “The State Streets” in South Lake Tahoe. It is the home of an annual Halloween event so big it can be seen from space, or at least that is what she says. She invites her all her friends over to help hand out candy, reign in teenage mayhem, and herd small children from the street to the door and back again.
Recently, the local bears, “Tahoe bears” as they are so affectionately known, have decided to get in on the trick-or-treating. What first started as an isolated mama bear and her cubs pulling off their “bear” costumes, quickly turned into a regional event, with bears coming from all over Tahoe to the State streets to cash in one of the biggest candy smorgasbords of the year. One mother bear and her cubs waiting patiently to receive candy from the doorsteps of unsuspecting houses had now become a troublesome affair.
Tahoe bears ambled up and down the pavement sending children and parents screaming as they swiped bags laden with Halloween candy from the children’s hands. The errant bears rough housed with the inflatable skeletons, pumpkins, and billowing ghosts deflating them onto homeowner lawns. They began heading straight for front doors and growled at the owners until they dispelled the bowls of snickers, tootsie rolls, and skittles onto their porches. There the bears devoured the candies, paper, and all.
When the local police were called the bears would suddenly disappear behind fences, into green belts, and inside unlocked RVs. Then when the police left, they’d be back at it again.
Even with the marauding bears, the trick-o-treating humans were undeterred and in fact, the bears presence created a soaring social media trend, hashtag #tahoebears and more children than ever came to trick-or-treat with the bears.
After an event where one child refused to surrender his hard-earned goody bag and was promptly tumbled upon by two bear cubs, the trick-o-treaters started to leave offerings at the forest’s edge, bins of candy, easy to grasp with the hope that they’d take the easy pickings and leave the bags to the children.
The bears, recognizing this as an offering decided to share the night with their costume clad humans, they’d roam from bin to bin, taking their fill and in the interim, they’d roll and tumble, and play sending the children into fits of laughter at their entertaining antics.
Pretty soon, the local children were even dressing up as their local bears, who by then had become known by name, size, and color. One child exclaiming. “I’m Ballou as he shook his big butt and danced in his way down Washington street.
Now Elise even invites the bears over to bob for apples and hand out candy.
Do you know what is really scary? The photo above is AI generated from Adobe Firefly.