A Halloween Tradition

October 31, 2024, at home

Let me take you back to Halloweens in the mid-1960s to early 1970s, when I was a young kid (my age in single digits), and a particular, personal, yet short-lived Halloween tradition.

It's Halloween again, and my friends and I are once again deciding if we are going to go trick-or-treating at Captain Kangaroo's house. Bob Keeshan, who plays the captain, lives a few miles from my home, both in Babylon, Long Island, New York. (For you older folks, he also played Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show.)

And, as we do every Halloween, my friends and I abandon this idea. We would either have to get a parent to drive us there or risk our lives riding our bicycles on a busy two-lane highway with no sidewalks. Besides, there is a rather high fence surrounding his house, so we wouldn't even be able to get to his front door.

Still, my friends and I always enjoy having our traditional discussion about the possibility of meeting Captain Kangaroo every Halloween.

(true story)