I rather sheepishly held out the shopping bag. Er, I've got some apples here. Then came the surprise. In unison, their faces lit up, and the skeleton declared. I figured it was a fluke, until the second set of visitors had much the same reaction.
Pesticides are dangerous.
I grew bolder. With the exception of a cowboy and his posse and one or two other disappointed archetypes, the youngsters all seemed amazingly pleased with the gift. Now, I know it's a bad idea to try and generalize about the state of the world from a couple dozen 30-second interactions some local kids. But somebody out there is getting an important message across, is getting their job done. I can only hope that what I experienced is typical, not just a bizarre anomaly.