Yesterday was Halloween.  You can’t tell it from where we live.  We’re in the vast portion of the country between the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast.  More recently known as Superstorm Sandy’s Playground.  The local officials aren’t eliminating Halloween but they are postponing it.

A lot of postponing went on the past few days here and probably across most of the country.  If you mess around with plane and train schedules on one half of the country, the other half is pretty much going to be in disarray also.  When most retailers have their headquarters in the storm zone, distribution is slowed, sales strategies stay buried on someone’s computer, and ads don’t get approved.   Almost all of our coal is brought to or carried over that eastern U.S. surface, some of which is 14 to 20 feet underwater.  Let’s not even think of how it is below the surface.

Yep, lots is delayed, lots has to be rebuilt, lots is going to be different. 

But what isn’t going to be different is a child’s awe at a pumpkin’s smile glowing from within.  What isn’t different is how many children get their first taste of independence when they pick up their treat bag and get to walk up and down the street on their own.  With an older brother or sister.  And don’t cross the street.  And be back by 6:30.  But still they are on their own.  What can’t be different is a child’s look of amazement as the treat bag is tipped onto the dining room table revealing the kid equivalent of a pirate’s booty and worth even more.  What won’t ever be different is a child’s first laugh when Charlie Brown looks into his bag and says, “I got a rock.”

Yep. Lots is still the same.

Charles Schulz’s little gang is always there to teach us something.  Who else can teach us how to duck a baseball batted back over the pitcher’s mound, how to make a feast out of toast and popcorn, how to decorate a Christmas tree, and how to turn a rock into a Halloween treat?  Those little guys have a lifetime of wisdom to pass on to us youngsters.

Yep, lots is going to be different. 

Here’s hoping that the only thing different for you is that when you went looking for your own Great Pumpkin this morning is that your pumpkin patch was sincere enough last night.

Now, that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you?