The absolute best Nantucket has to offer comes out at Halloween. We decorate our houses and our steps for each other. We wear costumes to the bank, the school, the schools, and the hospital. Free candy is available at every store and office. At the end of the day, we dress up the kids and walk them up Main Street. Then we ferry them to friendπs houses, churches, and the fire station until they finally fall asleep. The high school students race around with eggs and pumpkins. The bars fill with costumes and contests and confusion.

First, Halloween is all about trust. You dress your kids up and send them out after candy only if you trust your neighbors. You disguise yourself as a goblin or Sponge-Bob if you trust that your customers, clients, and employers will get the joke. You decorate the front of your house or yard because you trust that the decorations will stay there. (Although everyone who carves a pumpkin needs to expect that it may get smashed.) At our best, Nantucketers trust each other. We may not like one another, or agree with each other, but we trust that they will do the basic, decent thing when the time comes. No Nantucketer is going to fire an employee because she came to work dressed like a witch.

Dressing in a costume bonds you to your fellow man. A costume says ≥I have a sense of humor about who I am. I am willing to let you laugh at me. I am willing to let you see a side of me that is usually hidden because I trust you.≤ The Chicken Box is filled with secret fantasies on Halloween Night. Schmucks are Batman. Wallflowers join Sex in the City. The Minister becomes a farmer. The pacifist pretends to be a soldier. A good costume reveals more than it hides. We trust our neighbors when we reveal it.

Second, Halloween is about generosity. You have to give out the candy. If you donπt want to give out the candy, the UNICEF still collects the coins (and needs them). It is a hard-hearted and unwelcome shop owner downtown who stays open, but wonπt give out candy at Halloween. One of the proudest things to say on November 1 is that you gave all of your candy away.

Finally, Halloween celebrates individuality and creativity. I live in a house where the kidπs costumes had better be at least one notch above store bought. From the look of the parade on Main Street, our house was not alone. Fire Trucks, Backhoes, bananas, fairies, trash cans and all sorts of creative outfits that never appeared on a TV screen. Even the elementary school, with itπs anti-Halloween ≥Black and Gold Day≤ quirkiness fits. Our Halloween can celebrate people who refuse to celebrate it.

Ordinary Nantucketers, or Peeps, have much to be afraid of these days. We are realizing that our island has spun out of our control and now lies at the mercy of the plutocrats with $500,000 golf memberships. Were we to truly dress up as the things that scare us, we have a long list of costumes in the closet: Raskin and Roessel, A Wastewater treatment plant, an H2, A yacht, a deer tick, ≥sources within the school≤, perma-wave, or giant sandbag. Ghoulies, Ghosties, and Long-Leggedy Beasties look downright comforting next to those menaces.

Deep in the bowels of the Chamber of Commerce, some dark hearted wallet freak is dreaming up a marketing campaign for next yearπs Halloween. Egged on by the Innkeepers and Restauranteurs, he sees articles in the New York Times, Hartford Courant, and Boston Globe. Ghost tours run all weekend. Special Pumpkin Decorating Contests at the NHA. Close Main Street all day and get the ≥Town Crier≤ to lead the kids. Gulfstreams will fly in Witches and Devils, while Koslowski hosts a party with the Accidentals and Naturals singing ≥The Monster Mash.≤

Squash him. Squash the Wallet Freak. He has every other holiday and seems to be moving on the snow storms. There has to be a holiday for the waiters, cleaners, carpenters, tellers, teachers, bartenders, firemen, cops, and counterhelp. Halloween is for everyone who can run a register. If the peeps only get one holiday to themselves, let it be this one. Itπs that good.