Blue Pumpkins???

You know how it is funny, not funny like ha ha, but funny like...I don't know...funny how if you are in a situation you can spot others in that situation from a mile away?

This was the first year that Courtney did not dress up and go trick or treating. (Not that she was ever really into doing it. She would go to a couple of houses, be happy with what she got and want to go home. We used to force her to go farther.) So we all sat on the front porch and she handed out the candy and Scott and I looked at the kids costumes.

Scott carved two pumpkins this year. One of the pumpkins was a white pumpkin.

Up on the porch comes a boy who was about 12 or 13. He says to me, without looking me in the eye and while holding his bag out to Courtney for his treat, "where did you get a white pumpkin?" He was talking loud for where we were sitting and he was very interested in my answer. I went to tell him where we got it but before I could finish he was talking about how he always wanted to get a blue pumpkin. He wanted to know if I knew about blue pumpkins and went on to tell me about them. Kids are coming and going off of the porch all around him, as he hasn't moved away from holding his bag out to Courtney.

Finally his parents got him focused back to what he was doing. They smiled at me nervously, and I grinned real big and waived - because I knew.

That sweet boy had Asperger's Syndrome, the same type of Autism that my daughter has.

When his parents walked away, I turned to Scott and he looked at me and at the same time we just laughed and said "Aspergers".

And we know as they were walking away, they were telling their son to just go up and get your candy and come back down to go to the next house.

And we know the minute he got on the next persons porch, he forgot what his parents had told him.

I looked over at Courtney, happy to be giving candy to little kids, pointing out the obvious to us like we are not there, and I hope that boy finds a blue pumpkin next year.

And I hope that someone takes the time to listen to him talk all about it over and over again.