So it Goes

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“Aww, look at the little pilgrims!” I hope that the shock did not show as much on my face as it felt inside. I could feel my ears turning red. After taking my candy and politely saying “thank you,” I walked dejectedly back up the unfamiliar driveway to my father’s confused smile and continued on down the street to another house. I was not a pilgrim that Halloween. I was a colonial. And there is a huge difference between the two: one, a Puritan fleeing religious persecution and the other a citizen in an established city as the tides of revolution rose throughout the thirteen small colonies. I was not dressed up as the former, but the latter, a colonial citizen. However I had to remember, as Kurt Vonnegut inscribed into the immortal pages of American literature, “So it goes.” And so it went and continues to go.
The last day of October is often portrayed as chilly: the frigid winds of winter rolling in and the last, life-giving rays of summer sun fading away. In real life, at least in the micro-universe of Mount Laurel, New Jersey, All Hallows Eve is often a time for sweat...

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