Steve Huppert
Columnist
hupps440@aol.com
Well, the two biggest holidays of the fall have come and gone; that being Halloween and Election Day. Both are very similar. One you need to wear a mask and one you should. One of the things that both holidays have in common is the money spent. Halloween candy spending is up in the top three candy occasions of the year. Kids are to blame, as each kid tries to cover are much ground and get as much candy as possible. Mom and dad just hope they have enough before they need to make an emergency trip to the store.
The real big winners are candy companies; they sell as much as they can in a matter of weeks. The mark-up has to be unbelievable.
This year I had some extra money at the beginning of October, so I bought two jumbo bags; on sale of course. I could not believe what it cost me. I thought I was going to need to mortgage my house.
Buying Halloween candy early, even if you promise yourself you are not going to touch the stuff, is not that easy. I tried, I promised you I tried, but when no one was looking and the candy bag was looking me in the face it was not that easy to walk away.
If you don’t watch it, by the time Halloween comes the candy is almost gone, so is your money and you need to buy another bag – or bags.
For me another thing that is bad about Halloween, you have got all this candy and if the kids don’t show up, eating excess Halloween candy becomes a warm-up for Thanksgiving and Christmas candy, which becomes a warm-up for weight watchers.
If you ask me, the big winners for Halloween candy are dentists.
This year I had about 30 kids and parents. It is a nice way to get out and say hi to the neighbors and it only happens once a year, so we should enjoy it and we usually do.
The election is the other big spender event of fall. Radio and TV stations make more than a dollar. Talk about big bucks, even though this year was just a warm-up for 2026, political ads ran freely and the mudslinging was above average.
Wait until next year for the senate and house races. I am sure the media people can’t wait. It really is a terrible waste of money, but I guess there is no way around it.
We are lucky; we get to say what is on our mind and can support the candidates of our choice.
In between Halloween and Election Day is the end of day light saving, it is always the first Sunday in November. This year was November 2nd. To help people remember how it works, the motto is “spring forward, fall back.” I have never been a big fan of daylight saving; several states keep their clocks the same year around. I don’t have any problems with that.
Anyway, we get an extra hour of sleep in the fall.
