Many thanks to the City of Natchez for wisely taking the lead on moving the official date of Halloween trick or treating to today in order to potentially avoid nasty weather on Saturday.

The city was smart to do so as having lots of small children running the streets on a wet, windy night would have made an already dangerous night downright scary.

Fortunately, the City of Vidalia saw the wisdom of changing the date around and followed Natchez’s lead and announced it, too, would change the official Halloween trick-or-treating times to be tonight between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Many people fuss and fume over such details, some crying foul and suggesting the city has no business monkeying around with such a thing.

We think they do, however, since the city’s police force and other emergency crews will be called out to any accidents that might happen if the winds and rains made visibility difficult and small costumed children were running to and fro.

Let’s have a safe, happy (and dry) Halloween night tonight. Motorists are asked to use caution and watch out for small children.

Parents, use common sense and go trick-or-treating with your child, don’t cross streets in the middle of the street and look carefully before entering a roadway.

Happy Halloween and be safe.