Broadcast: October 26, 2003

Duke's Story

Duke the Mouse in:
CANDY IS DANDY

     I love Halloween. What a silly holiday. I once heard someone say: we tell children not to take candy from strangers and then on Halloween we promote it!
    Well, that maybe be true but there’s a lot of fun in decorating and finding just the right costume. And autumn is my favorite time of the year. I would think everybody loves Halloween. Except Duke the Mouse.
    Did you know I have a pet mouse? Yeah, I do! And believe me, he’s just a great big kid at heart—unless its Halloween.
    A couple days ago I was getting my costume ready and Duke woke up from his nap. I could tell he was in a crabby mood because he scowled at his blanket. He took one look at me and said I looked like a vacuum cleaner dressed up for a birthday party.
    Well, I guess that can be kinda scary if you have to be dust bunny.
    So I asked Duke about his costume.
    He told me he was not dressing up for Halloween. He said he had better things to do. He was tried of these forced holidays and forced happiness and he didn’t feel like dressing up for anything
    Well, ok. Have it your way. Halloween isn’t for everybody.
    Then just yesterday I was putting up a few Halloween decorations around the house when Duke looked up from his sandwich. He wanted to know why I was being so jolly about such a boring and dreadful holiday. I decided to recite a poem for Duke about Halloween, just to see if he would lighten up a little. It was the poem called "The Spooky House", the same one I read on the show. My pet mouse looked at me kind of puzzled like and then I could see the old light bulb turning on in his head. Tofu? Candy? What was up with that, he wondered.
    So I had to start from scratch with Duke and explain the whole reason for Halloween. I mean, how could he forget about the candy? Duke said he was confusing Halloween with Thanksgiving and it didn’t take but a few minutes until Duke found himself a costume and he was ready to go. That’s when I told him I was too old to go trick-or-treating. I was dressing up to hand out the candy. Hey, its still fun to hand out candy on Halloween. Well, Halloween came around and Duke went trick-or-treating. And guess who was at the door every time the bell rang. Yep, Duke the Mouse.
     And that’s the way it is with Duke.