Smith: Views of the gift of trick/treat candy

Perhaps you saw Windsor resident Cathy Brooks’ letter to the editor positing that because Halloween candy is a gift, a child should eat or save or share it but not impolitely sell it to a dentist.

Oh yes, Dr. Steve Berger saw the letter. He’s the Santa Rosa pediatric dentist who will, for the 30th Halloween, pay a buck-a-pound for candy, offer kids prizes and oral-hygiene encouragement and throw the sweets away.

He does find it interesting, this question of what one can properly do with a gift. Contrary to Brooks’ view that it is rude to sell any gift, the dentist said he’s always held that once you present a gift, you relinquish control of it - the recipient is entirely free to do with it what he or she wishes.

Berger argues that a child who receives a bag of candy on Halloween and the next day sells some or all it of it violates no social decree. “These kids are merely trading that gift for something that is of value to them,” he said.

Anyway, he maintains that the buy-back he conducts with his daughter, Shana Berger Van Cleave (a Halloween baby, by the way) is merely the device that creates an opportunity to engage with children in a teaching moment on the crucial matter of teeth-and-gums health.

The parking-lot carnival and candy sale at the Bergers’ practice on Hoen Avenue happens from noon to 4 p.m. on Nov. 1.

There is one matter of trick-or-treat etiquette on which Brooks, Berger and we can likely agree: It’s good to teach the little goblins to say thank you.

LIFE AND DEATH: Analy High junior Sean Arden might not mention what happened in his life one day last week.

His mother, Marianne, thinks it bears sharing, especially in light of our recent story of the Forestville boy who learned CPR at school and a short while later leapt to action when his dad’s heart stopped.

At 17, Sean is an outdoorsman who last summer learned survival and lifesaving skills at a camp in Southern California.

A week ago, Sean and his mom and his 15-year-old sister, Claire, were driving home from Oregon after saying goodbye to Marianne’s mother, who was dying. They were on Interstate 5 near Medford when, just ahead of them, an 18-wheel truck veered right and hurtled down a wooded embankment.

“Before I could even get the car turned off, Sean jumped out and started running,” his mom said. He reached the truck, which had begun to burn, and took charge of an effort by passers-by to free the driver. The man was saved.

Sean was still digesting all of that when word came that his grandmother had died. While he was glad to get home, back into a regular routine and school, certainly not all education happens there.

A WORLD RECORD now belongs - officially! - to Randy Ricci of Santa Rosa, a pool cleaner, 1972 Montgomery High alum and fan of NASCAR.

It was Randy who displayed, along the Sonoma Raceway START/FINISH line last May, 324 unopened and nonduplicated cereal boxes bearing images of NASCAR drivers, cars or logos. He began collecting them when they appeared on grocery shelves nearly 25 years ago.

What to do with them now? In Randy’s dreams, race fans examine and shoot selfies with the boxes at a major race track or at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

In nightmares, he eats the cereal.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.