It's Sweetest & Grouch Day!

By Diane Forrest,

Do you ever wonder when you wake up what kind of day you will have?  Will it be a good day or a bad day?  Will you be sweet or grouchy?  Maybe start off bad and end up good?  Well have I got the perfect day for you!  Today is Sweetest day and National Grouch day!

Sweetest Day was concocted in 1921 by a group of confectioners to distribute candy.  That year they distributed 20,000 boxes of candy to orphans, the elderly, the sick and poor.  They wanted to bring happiness to orphans, shut-ins and under-privileged. His intent was to show these people that they were not forgotten.  Sweetest day in normally just recognized in the Great Lakes Region, and parts of the Northeast United States, on the third Saturday in October. It is described by Retail Confectioners International as an "occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember husbands, boyfriends, the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed." Sweetest Day has also been referred to as a "concocted promotion" created by the candy industry solely to increase sales of sweets.

While the origin of this day was to be a charitable event, it has been termed a Hallmark holiday, in attempts to just sell more greeting cards.  I’m sticking with the original reason for the day and buying chocolate!   I can't think of anything sweeter than to pass out chocolate to friends, family, anyone.  When my husband was able to get around in his wheelchair he enjoyed riding around in the mall or Wal-Mart, the only places he could ride.  When he saw kids, many would be afraid of him and his chair.  I bought him a little back pack for the back of his chair that looked like a monkey.  He would put a bag of tootsie roll pops in there and pass them out to the kids, with their parents’ permission.  He would celebrate Sweetest day on many days.

Of course if you don't feel like being sweet today, you can be a grouch.  A Grouch's mission in life is to be as miserable and grouchy as possible, and pass that feeling on to everyone else. Only then will a Grouch feel in touch with his or her world and be happy. Yet, even though a Grouch may show happiness at anyone's misfortune (including his or her own), a Grouch would never admit to being happy.

I have known many grouches, and grinches!  For Christmas one year I gave my son a Grinch ornament, hoping that it would make him realize how grouchy he was during the holidays.  Of course he didn’t care, and continued to be a grouch.  Today would be a perfect day for him.

Another good grouch is Maxine, the colorful old cartoon matron who tells it like it is.  My father loves Maxine.  Each year I give him the Maxine desk calendar with a new grouchy saying for each day of the year.

So today, no matter how it starts, I hope it will end up being the Sweetest Day for you.