I'll trade ya

A Halloween tale for you.

I believe it was in the 10th grade, Daisy was having a Halloween party. That girl loves playing hostess. She even had party games set up back in those days.

Have you ever played the game "Bigger and Better?" I hadn't until that party.

So she split us up into, I think, 4 different teams and handed each team one of those itty-bitty chocolate bars you give out to Trick-or-Treaters. You're supposed to take this chocolate bar out into the neighborhood door-to-door and ask them if they have something "bigger and better" they could trade you for the chocolate bar. (Get your minds out of the gutter!) Following that you try and trade in your newly swapped swag for something even "bigger and better." After an hour all the teams meet back at the house to see who managed to get what.

I didn't think it would fly...surely the neighbors would grumble about us "rotten kids" behaving all stupid. You would be surprised how willingly they cooperated!

My team had amazing luck. There was no way we could NOT win with our final item. Somehow during the course of that hour I think (memory's fuzzy, it's been a long time) we swapped the chocolate bar for a big metal spoon, and then we swapped the spoon for a pot lid (better? who knows?). The pot lid for a big stuffed animal (probably won on the midway at the Stampede). We hit the big time with the next swap. We must have had "sucker" written on our bodies somewhere 'cuz these neighbors got the deal of a lifetime. They were getting rid of their old couch hassle-free.

That's right, they swapped us the stuffed animal for a couch. It was one of those older couches that weigh a frigging ton. They opened their garage door and led us to the couch and away we went. Thank goodness we were just around the corner from Daisy's house...even then, we had to put that thing down at least 8 times.

Everyone was waiting for us at her house when we turned the corner. No contest!

Unfortunately for Daisy, nobody wanted the couch and so it stayed in her backyard. Actually, I lie. Ssoberr Girl (remember her?) asked if she could have it. Unluckily for her, it snowed and warmed before she could arrange to come and get it. One damp, dank, old couch coming right up.

I don't even remember if there were prizes involved but starting off with a mini-chocolate bar and ending up with a couch is just plain crazy.