Funny Thing Officer, My Dad Really Likes This Candidate.

Shut up Dave and get back in the car!

As I sit here, I am fondly thinking back roughly 17 years ago in a small town in Western Mass, October 30th. A minimum of 2 weeks of planning went into this night every year, this was bigger than the holiday the night after, this was Cabbage Night.

The plans that were put into play were fantastic, something right out of an Army General's book, checklists, the right garb, gathering the supplies, which route we were going to take, there was less planning in a one week vacation than on Cabbage Night. It's a fond memory that I and a lot of Hilltown kids (and I use the word kids loosely) have to this day.

Our parents must have thought we had a serious bowel problem in the month of October as we had to sneak rolls of toilet paper very carefully from the stock they had. Myself, I would keep them in a garbage bag carefully hidden behind a red pine tree across the road and 50 steps from the tree line. Dave would be more bold and just keep them in his garage until the time was right, I guess he felt that it was easier to hide them in plain sight. Each 30th of October we would be armed with anywhere between 15-20 rolls each, with a backup reserve in a strategically placed location at whichever area we were "tending to" that year. We never hit both sides of town in one year, it was harder for that one police car to trace us and we always had a plan B.

Dressed in camouflage and black clothes, we were not easy to spot...well except for those pesky street lights in the center of town, which is the only area to be hit every year, we had to, it was expected of us. If the tree and sign on the front lawn of the town hall weren't decorated in the morning our class mates were disappointed with us. We ran that town on October 30th every year, or at least we thought we did.

OK now I have a confession, we did not use eggs to damage property. Each year we would buy a dozen eggs each from the little road side farm stand on route 9 (yes I did say buy them, we needed to support local business) and each year we would have a conscience about using them for cars or houses, instead they ended up being chucked at an occasional road sign but mostly at trees.

As the years went on, things changed. We tried to pass the torch to the young up and comers, as the torch was passed to us by our mentors (Thanks Professors Jablonski, Batrano and Verge). I don't think it was our teachings, but something happened and Cabbage Night kind of fell by the wayside. Sure there were a few enthusiasts to fill the void, but it wasn't the same.

Now that I am done reminiscing, you'll have to excuse me, I have a roll of toilet paper which I snuck from my wife last week and a tree in my yard waiting for some attention. Happy Cabbage Night!