In the world of my youth, Halloween was a huge production. We (as in all the neighborhood kids) would plan our costumes down to the tiniest details. I can't remember any of my costumes that I ever wore, but I do remember one of the neighbor boys going as a mummy, drifting gauze and all. As soon as it was dark outside we would be in our costumes and waiting at the door for our friends to show up, so we could go Trick or Treating in the 10 block radius around our houses. Our parents didn't have to come to protect us from the roaming pedophiles, because at that time we were mostly innocent, and trusted our neighbors. We would Trick or Treat until we couldn't take another step or until our bag got too heavy to carry.
We would ask the other kids which houses had the best treats and which ones were too scary to walk up to. I specifically remember one house that had cedar trees across the front of the porch, and the other Trick or Treaters telling us there was a man in a gorilla suit hiding behind the trees. I bypassed that house. I may have been a greedy kid, but I was definitely not stupid. The kids would warn each other.. Don't go to THAT house, she's giving out popcorn balls! I always went because I liked popcorn balls, and because it was usually a little tiny old lady who was having as much fun handing them out as we were having roaming the neighborhood.
Today the kids have no idea what they are missing. The innocence is gone. The kids are afraid to go Trick or Treating, and the sad thing is, they have reason to be.
5 comments:
Figures you'd like popcorn balls...
Peace
Thanks for reminding me of one of the best aspects of my childhood. Tonight we took my daughter out for her first Halloween at the mall. Fun, but not quite the same...
I loved Halloween as a kid, too. And one of the things that I like about living in such a small town is that we do walk around our neighborhood for trick or treat and we're not afraid to go to the houses of people we don't know. (I do walk with my kids, but hey, the little one is only THREE!!)
My kids are older now but I used to offer to buy them lots of bags of candy if they'd skip the whole costume / trick or treating thing. You would have thought they'd go for it - easy candy and all - but they never did. The real fun was the trick or treating part and the candy was just like a bonus. Too bad today's kids often miss out on that.
Halloween was a highlight of the year for me when I was a kid. There was usually a full harvest moon and the air smelled like woodsmoke. No parents were in attendance.
When my children were little, I took them trick or treatiing, but waited respectfully at the road while they did their thing at every house. I examined their loot at home, and only individually wrapped candies were consumed.
This year, I was at the mall and watched parades of children WITH parents go from store to store. The kids were mostly kind of blase, and much of the charm was missing, although there were some adorable costumes.
It's really sad the world has changed to such an unsafe place for children. They don't even know what they're missing.
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