I am planning to visit my son at the end of the month, and because I didn’t want to miss out on being home for Halloween – knowing my grandsons would be ringing the doorbell for treats – I reached out to Sheriff Martin Pace.

For me, Pace is the go-to on county goings-on, so I rang him up to see when trick-or-treating would be observed. The sheriff would never laugh in my face, but if he could, I am sure he would have when I asked, “When will we be observing trick-or-treating?’”

His rhetorical response to me was, “On Oct. 31, Halloween.”

So, I am no igmo. I know Halloween is on Oct. 31, but for the past several years folks seem to think we could be observing it on an alternate day — especially when it falls on a weekday as it does this year.

The reason why dates back years, and I had vaguely remembered a time when trick-or-treating got moved from Oct. 31. But it wasn’t until my call to the sheriff that he reminded me of when and why it had happened.

Both Vicksburg and Warren Central High Schools had home games scheduled that year on Halloween. Undoubtedly, just that alone was going to be a mess. I mean, between the traffic and the crowd challenge, the sheriff’s office and police department were going to have their hands full.

And then if you were to add in trick-or-treaters, it would have been a calamity just waiting to happen.

Of course, there was also the dilemma for parents of both little ones and high schoolers. They would have to figure out how to manage both.

Fortunately, all was saved when trick-or-treating got kicked back to Oct. 30.

And it is now, because of that freaky Friday, each year, we ask those in charge, “When are we observing trick-or-treating.”

Well just for the record, I refuse to put myself in a nightmarish situation like that again. There is no way I will be making a call to Martin or anyone else for that matter in local law enforcement as to when trick-or-treating will commence.

From here on out, I am going to presume it will be held on Oct. 31, Halloween night. And if for some reason I get tricked and it gets changed, just know for anyone who comes knocking on my door, they won’t get treats.