Rationing Halloween Candy

Throughout my childhood, I ate candy very methodically after Halloween. Upon arriving home from trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for 3-4 hours, I would dump my pillow sack of candy onto the living room floor and begin to sort it. I would pile the candy by type together, and group them based on how delicious they were. I then filled a large metal bowl with the candy, starting with the my favorite candy (Snickers, Milky Way, Baby Ruth) on the bottom and progressing to my least favorite candy on top (Smarties, Skittles).

With the bowl prepared, I would leave it in the dining room on one of the unused chairs. Every morning when making my school lunch, I would grab precisely two pieces of candy from the bowl and put it in my bag. No more, no less. On days I did not have school, I would only eat two pieces of candy. Through this process, my candy lasted typically until early April. Throughout the cold winter, I would live through the least favorite candies and progress onto the better ones. By the time spring was poking its head, I was on to the best candies of all. Every day was a better candy day than the last.

I felt, and still feel, this fully maximizes the potential of Halloween.