"And guess what? It's Halloween

tomorrow and I'm going to make a really scary monster."
Yes T.... 
I looked at his mother, a paediatrician. She looked back at me in resignation.
    "We are trying to keep this to a minimum," she told me, "He picked it  up at pre-school."
She was not impressed.
I didn't know what Halloween was when I was T...'s age. It most certainly was not "celebrated".  We didn't dress up as ghosts and monsters or pumpkins or anything else.   We most certainly didn't bother the neighbours for chocolate and sweets we had not managed to earn. 
I can remember being given a single wrapped, boiled sweet by a neighbour for doing some small thing when I was probably not quite four. My mother took it away "for later". I never saw it again. She "forgot" where she had put it. Possibly my mother believed I would not like it. I don't know. Whatever the situation I don't think any child I knew at the time would have asked anyone other than a parent for a sweet.
T....won't be allowed to bother the neighbours and his parents have indicated "no sweets". He's too young to be out alone so it really won't be an issue.
And he has something new to play with. The Senior Cat gave it to him. It's not new in itself. It is a "fire engine" the Senior Cat once used as part of a "magic trick". It hasn't been used for years. The Senior Cat made it himself. Originally it had working parts that a "naughty monkey" could turn on an off. There are doors that open, ladders that go up and down and more. T...'s father is taking the old electronic parts out and T... will have to imagine the rest. 
They came to get it yesterday - and we were told about Halloween at the time. T....stopped talking about Halloween when he saw the engine. He started talking about the engine instead. He eventually went home making "fire engine noises". His mother looked at me again. We smiled at each other.
The "fire engine noises" sound infinitely better than "scary noises".