December 04, 2007
Tales from Suburbia - You've Been Booed
Posted by Jess in
Day to Day
I've posted tales about my street before, most notably a summation in the Suburban Diary. Anyone who lives in the suburbs has probably heard of a Halloween phenomenon going on called "You've Been Boo'ed".
1. Before Halloween, fill a gift bag with candy, or any treat or goodie.
2. Print out the flyer, which includes a cutesie little poem about what to do, and an "I've Been Boo'ed" sign. Put the flyer in the gift bag.
3. Go up to a neighbor's house, leave the bag on the door, and ring the bell.
4. That neighbor then puts the sign on their door (so they don't get "boo'ed" again), and does it to someone else.
Until this year, our little street had happily escaped this little side project leading up to the holiday, but then one day, a bag showed up at one of the houses. It didn't take long for the good-natured phone calls to start flying around.
(names have been changed to protect the guilty)
Maggie called Sharon: "Who started this shit? I don't have time for this!"
Sharon calls Jess: "Lock your doors, there's a 'boo' thing going around."
Jess calls Kelly:"I think Mary boo'ed me. Her kids love Scooby Doo, and mine contained two packs of Scooby Doo gummy treats. Doesn't she know that's a dead giveaway?"
Maggie to everyone: "OK, this is getting ridiculous! I got boo'ed twice! I put the freakin' sign on my door!"
***
The aftermath...
The girls in my neighborhood meet once a month for "Girl's Night." We plan out our entire year in advance, and each month we're at someone else's house. Since we can all walk there, it's easy. It's a night of eating, gabbing, catching up, and lots of wine drinking (at least for the ones who don't happen to be pregnant that month. Come to think of it, in three years, we've never had a month where everyone can drink).
The girl's night after the "Boo" saga was hysterical. It didn't take long before the stories of each boo came out. It turns out, all the kids really enjoyed it, and pretty much every house got boo'ed. There was a surprising amount of sneakage going on behind the scenes!
Some of the more notable stories:
1. When Matt and I got boo'ed, the outside lights were off and the doorbell rang. It only took Matt about four seconds to get down the stairs and answer it. The bag was there - the person was gone. Turns out, my neighbor's three-year old daughter did it while mom waited in the wings. Sneaky!
2. Matt boo'ed our new neighbors next door. He had it all planned out. Ring the bell, and run behind our house under the deck. I heard Matt run over and ring the bell. Silence. Then, about twenty seconds later, underneath our deck, I heard a loud CRASH BAM BOOM!!, which could only have been a cunning plan foiled by two large garbage cans.
3. Even the older community members had fun getting involved. At girl's night, Carolyn told us her story of ringing the bell, and having no where to hide. The neighbor came out yelling, "who's there? What is this?" Carolyn ran behind a tall bush. The neighbor walked over to the bush, causing Carolyn to sneak around it slowly. It turned into an all-out cartoony-James Bond moment, with Carolyn staying one step ahead of the neighbor. What made it so funny, was the fact that Carolyn is an older woman with no kids living with her, and here she was, having a great time. When she recounted the story, she got up and did the motions sneaking around the bush.
4. Some neighbors met in 'mid-boo'. After ringing the bell, Sharon ran behind one neighbor's house to get back to her own house with her children. On the way, she bumped into Jennifer, who was dressed in black en route to someone else's house!
Oh, and Maggie really did get boo'ed twice. We're still not sure why.
But, the important thing is, we DID find out who started it, and got our retaliation. Stay tuned.
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Comments
that stuff doesn not happen in an apartment building. In downtown chicago, that is more of a way to get shot than anything else ;)
LOL! They most definately are two different worlds. But it's definitely worth it, especially in the spring/summer/fall, when we have daily 4:30pm stroller cocktail happy hour in the cul-de-sac. :-)
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