Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Nice Is Back

Last night, in the midst of the usual 35-year-old trick-or-treaters with no costumes, was a young man dressed as a skeleton. As BI'75 put a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in the young skeleton's pumpkin, he said "I'm just being nice to everyone." She told him she thought that was great and continued handing out candy to the rest of the kids at the door. As the skeleton turned away, he looked back over his shoulder and repeated "I'm just trying to be nice to everyone tonight."

This incident reminded me of a boy I saw at the library last week. He was pulling a wheeled schoolbag and wearing a white oxford shirt under a green t-shirt that read "Be nice. Work hard." I traced the t-shirt to KIPP Academy, a sort of franchise charter school with almost 50 "branches" in New York, California, Texas, North Carolina (to name a few) and DC.

Now, I've only heard/seen young children talking about being nice. I haven't actually seen any evidence of the niceness. But I'm keeping an eye out.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please don't let these people into your home, E.

healysequoia said...

The kids that came to my door were all very nice. Some even sang nice songs about Halloween in return for their candy.

But then on the news this morning I heard a report about how the kids in the UK are the least nice in Europe. They fight, drink, smoke and cuss more than their continental counterparts. Niceness must be regional.

Mary1975 said...

You were out back smoking and drinking when the bad kids came to our door. They demanded repeat candies and said they had twin brothers, stepped on my fern and were nonplussed when I repeatedly said, Halloween is over for you and I am not coming to your house asking for candy so pay attention.