Ooohh, scary: Adult worries take the place of youthful fears

We spend much of our time as adults either being frightened or pretending not to be frightened by what we expect whichever political party we oppose will do next to further erode our way of life.

And if that doesn't do it for us, there are other ideas waiting in the wings to send shivers down our spines and keep us up at night, often in cold sweats. Sometimes it only takes a single word or two to strike fear into our hearts: retirement; college tuition; insurance -- health, life, car insurance for our teen drivers -- or the mother of all fear-filled phrases, "Honey, my parents are coming next week."

Ah, to be a kid again. Come each fall, the scariest thing we had to look forward to was the last round of tests before the holiday break. Halloween was one of the best times of year. The weather was cool, the nights came earlier, the candy being offered in all the stores seemed to get better and better the closer it got to the end of the month.

There were Halloween dances, haunted houses, candied apples and scary movies playing all the time on television.

Back then we were worried in the backs of our minds about whether or not there ever really were such things as vampires or werewolves.

Now we know they are real -- but we call them debt collectors and repo men.

Yes, the world is a scary place as a kid. But it can be even scarier as a grownup. At least we still get to snag a few bites of chocolate here and there, just don't let the kids see you reaching into their bags of hard-earned trick-or-treating treasures. Talk about frightening. Have you ever seen a 5-year-old throw a temper tantrum while jacked up on a week's worth of bite-sized Snickers, M&Ms and SweeTarts?

Forget about it.

Published in Editorials on October 28, 2017 8:46 PM