Boo-ing Ninjas!

Day 19

Boo-ing (is that even a word?) seems to be something unique to Cincinnati. 

I’ve lived in a lot of places.  Nowhere have I ever encountered this Halloween tradition.        

For those unfamiliar, boo-ing involves someone secretly delivering a bag of goodies to your door.  Inside the bag is a photocopied ghost and poem (explaining the tradition of ‘boo-ing’). 

If you have been boo-ed, you must display the paper ghost near your front door to indicate that your house has been hit.  You should then boo someone else within two days 

To put it into simpler terms, think chain letters but way cooler and with candy. 

As I’ve previously stated, my family stinks at sneaky.  The whole concept of drop and dash is lost.  We are as unassuming as a blow horn. 

That’s why we opted for the cover of darkness. 

After dinner, the boys and I snuck out of our house as quietly as possible.  I convinced them they needed to embrace this approach if we didn’t want to be caught.  (Honestly, they’d been fighting since getting off the bus at four.  I would have said anything.)

Dressed in black, we dashed from tree to tree.  F. acted as our scout riding his bike ahead.  A flashlight mounted to his forehead lit the way.   

“We are the Booing Ninjas!”  A’s yells were met with a round of “shhhs!” before we all busted out laughing.  In whispers we repeated our mantra, “We are the Booing Ninjas!  We are the Booing Ninjas!”   

Angus crawled on his belly in the grass Army-style. 

“What are you doing?” I asked. 

“Be the grass!”  He froze and threw his arms and legs out like a cardboard cutout. 

Uh, OK?  “Be the grass!” I repeated. 

The first house!  Success!!  (In fairness, we knew they were out to dinner.)  Bolstered by our boo-i-ness (hey, we’re making up words left and right!), we continued on down the street. 

Our next target in sight, we reconvened behind a neighbor’s bush to strategize. 

We sent A.  He darted to the front door, knocked and immediately ran back to the cover of the bush. 

Now, here is where our plan fell apart. 

“Do you think they heard that?” I asked.  We decided another ninja should follow-up with a doorbell ring.  As soon as I. jumped up from the protection of the bush, our neighbor opened the front door.  In very unlike ninja-style, I. screamed, waved his arms around in the air like he was batting a mosquito and dove behind the bush. 

At this point we were laughing so hard it was difficult to maintain our cover.  My neighbor said the shaking bush tipped her off. 

Sound like fun?  Visit www.beenbooed.com.