Stahlke Adoption

Acculturation

As I walked the kids to the park yesterday, we passed an apartment building that sparked a vivid memory in me. For Kola's first Halloween, when he was only five years old, I took the younger four kids through our neighborhood to trick-or-treat.

While we mostly stopped at single-family houses, we also entered an apartment building on the next street in our neighborhood. The children ran ahead of me, as I closed the outer door. Just ahead of us was the front door of the first apartment. The whole scene, especially with an inside door off a stairwell, must have looked like the interior of a home to Kola. So rather than knock on the apartment door, Kola just turned the door knob and walked right in.

I thought the older woman inside would go into orbit. She started yelling at Kola very, very loudly. The poor boy had no idea that it's frightening to have someone just enter your home unannounced and without knocking. I apologized profusely, and we all rushed out of the building, with the woman still screaming behind us.

In the two Halloweens since then, we studiously avoid trick-or-treating at apartment buildings.

posted by Stahlkes @ 11:09 AM