I didn’t do anything overtly mean when I was a kid, but like all kids, I did my share of tricks. One of our perennial favorites was knocking on people’s doors and then running away. I don’t know what was so funny about it, but we sure laughed our butts off when the homeowner would come look outside and get mad.
Last night, we had just finished dinner, I had cleaned up the dishes and I had just gotten the boys rounded up and naked for bathtime, when I looked out our front window and saw someone on the front porch. It was an adult woman with blonde hair. My first thought was that it was my adopted mom. She frequently travels back and forth through Atlanta without bothering to stop by, and I figured she might be coming through and leaving something for the boys. But, the vehicle at the top of the driveway was a red SUV, which I know she doesn’t have.
I sort of hovered out of sight to see what this person was doing on my front porch and then watched as she rang the doorbell and then took off running. She hopped in her car and took off.
I was like, “What the hell?”
After telling the naked boys to sit tight, I went down and opened the door to find a trick or treat bucket of goodies on the front porch.
Apparently, we’d been “Ghosted.” This was our first experience with it, but if you have older kids then you’re probably ahead of me. Basically, it’s a combination of a Blog Meme, A Random Act of Kindness, and a childhood prank, all rolled into one.
What you get when you’re ghosted:
- A paper picture of a Ghost. You can print it off the Internet here
- Some Halloween candy, in a trick or treat bucket, or any other kind of container; it’s your choice
- A poem thingy and instructions for carrying on with the “Ghosting”
The rules are as follows:
- You have to post, somewhere on your house, the printed Ghost. This supposedly keeps other “Ghosts” away from your home (and I suspect it keeps others from Ghosting you again).
- You have to give the same “Ghosting” to two others that you know
- You are supposed to sneak up to their house and carry out the ghosting without being seen
It’s pretty simple, and apparently pretty exciting since MLI told everyone he saw this morning about it.
But I’m wondering, how is someone with small children supposed to pull this off? I mean, it’s impossible to quickly run from someone’s house, get the kids strapped back into the car and drive off without being seen. Which I suppose, is exactly why the person I saw, was an adult doing this without her kids! HA!
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Postulates & Pastimes 
If someone left candy before ringing the doorbell and running away, all is forgiven.
Unless it’s candy I don’t like.
RE: Well, perhaps if they’d left Peanut Butter cups, or even M&M’s, but they left what I suspect was the candy they didn’t want: taffy, nerds and those little sweet tart things. YUCK!
wow, that’s such an amazing idea..
are you going to pass the ghost on?
RE: Yeah, only when I dropped by the grocery yesterday evening to pick up what I’d need, they didn’t have any paper bags. I ended up making some little bags and pasting little ghosts on them. Then, I let the boys fill them with candy (while eating some too of course). If it’s warm enough tonight, we might try and deliver them, unseen, to a couple of neighbors. What I expect will happen, is that we’ll ring the doorbell, and as I’m running down the driveway carrying two lil’ fellers, they will come outside and see us and want us stop and talk; which kinda ruins the whole thing. But I’m sure the boys will enjoy it anyway and I kinda get to relive an old childhood prank!
wow…now I am gonna be waiting by the door for someone to come by my house and drop off candy; hopefully it’s a hot male dad without his kids…hahaha… š
RE: I was gonna blog about the reciprocation, but I’m not sure it’s meaty enough, so I’ll just update it here. I bundled the boys up last night and we walked up the street a bit and did the whole ghosting thing to a couple of diff. houses. It was a bit of a letdown though, because neither came to the door. So, I guess they’ll get their candy, but I was really looking forward to reliving the whole chuckle factor that comes from watching their faces. Oh well! Sorry Romi. If I lived near you, we’d have given you candy!
aaaah that sounds like such fun!
I wish Halloween was a big deal in South Africa as well!
RE: Holy Cow! South Africa! You mean, I’m boring people in four countries now! WOW!
Your title makes me crave the slime sundaes Hardees sold as a special movie promotion in 84 (or somewhere near there). The green slime tasted like bubblegum. Yum.
RE: Ah, you were one of “those” kids…the ones whose parents took them out to eat at fast food joints! I don’t think I knew what a whopper tasted like until I was in my late teens. I missed out on a lot of burger-joint movie-crap because of it.
It’s very sad.