My Halloween 🎃

     When I was a child, halloween was so different! And I’m gonna tell you why! (Now I’m going to wait for the groaning and eye-rolling to subside. Remember when your parents and grandparents made statement like that when you were younger? I know you groaned, even if only on the inside.) I recall once telling my father I was bored. I was about sixteen and wanted to use the car. He then told me “when he was My age, he and his friends would go down to the river and skip rocks”. I’m not sure what I was supposed to glean from that statement other than I couldn’t have the car and to find someone to take me to the river to skip rocks. Whatever, I’m sure I rolled my eyes… in my bedroom… where he couldn’t see me.

     I didn’t go trick or treating until I was in kindergarten, so 5. My parents had one of my sisters take me around the neighborhood, probably twenty two houses tops. It wasn’t until I was probably in third or fourth grade that I went with friends from school or from the neighborhood. When I did go with my friends, I was allowed to go further than my own block. We could “hit” as many as sixty + houses which is a lot of candy. (I’m not sure I understand why parents today take their infants trick or treating with a treat bag. Take them to show them off in their adorable little costumes. I get that, I applaud that, I love that. It isn’t the taking I don’t understand, it’s the holding out their treat bag expecting to get candy for a child who obviously can’t eat candy yet. It just seems like the parents could buy their own candy, couldn’t they? Am I being too penny pinch-y?)

     My costumes were either homemade hand-me-downs or what I could pull together from old clothes of my parents. I recall a lot of dressing as a scarecrow or old lady or a hobo clown. One year, though, my mother made me a Raggedy Ann costume. It was so cute. She even made me a red yarn wig. There are no pictures, unfortunately. After Halloween I wore the dress part as a nightgown because my mother used flannel material to make it. I loved that costume. Mom made it just for me. Since I grew up with bedtime stories of  Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, I loved being Raggedy Ann. It was a dream come true for me.

     There was a sweet shop at the end of my block where for a quarter, one could cash in on a whole bag of treats like pixie-sticks, suckers, bubble gum and licorice. But Halloween candy was special because you might get a full-sized Snickers or Milky Way or Three Musketeers, Tootsie Rolls or Tootsie Pops. If you were really lucky you could get a homemade caramel apple or a popcorn ball or any variety of yummy homemade goodies. My parents didn’t worry about razor blades or needles or drugged candy. There was no reason to worry. It was my neighborhood. The families had lived there forever. You knew everyone and were safe. One of my neighbors gave out cotton candy because they had a cotton candy machine in their garage. Another gave little bottles of Seven-up because they were the local distributor. Oh, for sure I got boxes of raisins and a penny or nickel sometimes. There was a year when the weather was not only cold but wet too and I lost the bottom of my paper trick or treat bag. (From then on I used a pillowcase.) Mostly my memories are great.

     I stopped going out on Halloween in the sixth grade. That year I went with a group of friends. We didn’t trick or treat, we TP’d and slathered each other with shaving cream. No costumes, we were way too old for that. I’m glad I can look back on that time and have happy memories. Today’s kids seem too competitive about costumes (or maybe it’s their parents). The costumes seem very elaborate and expensive.  Halloween was one day, not a full month celebration. We made pumpkins at school out of construction paper. When we got home we taped them to the front door or window. We didn’t put up twelve foot inflatable Frankensteins or circles of witches and ghosts. (Guilty.) Nor all the bloody tombstones and graveyards. (Again, guilty.) My parents never dressed up or had a party. Halloween was a children’s event. Today, adults spend a lot of money on costumes, makeup and parties. The more risqué the costume, it seems, the better. The more alcohol consumed, the better. I think maybe adults are living out their fantasies.

     In future, Halloween may become something we celebrated in the past. The weather doesn’t always cooperate, there are too many bad things to consider: pedophiles, marijuana infused candy, drunk drivers. I heard there’s a movement to try and move Halloween to the last Saturday in October. Maybe that is a good thing but in my opinion, the past really was better 👻.

     My experiences weren’t unique. I’m sure there are many of us of a certain age who have similar remembrances. I plan to write about other old stuff because I don’t want those memories to disappear when I do. I ask you to indulge me and, I promise, I won’t mind if you roll your eyes and groan.