Need I say that when I was growing up, Halloween was a relatively safe occasion—I mean, would I be dating myself?
But those were the good ole days—truly!
I so well remember the Halloween parties in grade school where all the kids came in costume. One little girl in my second grade class came in a gypsy costume: long skirt, large earrings, lots of costume jewelry and a half-mask over her eyes. When she began to cry, the teacher asked her why. She said it was because everyone recognized her. She was forgetting she had long red hair and freckles, both of which were clearly exposed.
Outside on the way home, dry leaves crunched under our feet and the smell of fall was clearly in the air. There was an excitement about walking home after school through the brisk air on Halloween because it meant getting home and donning a costume for trick-or-treating; something a bit more resistant to cool weather than the flimsier costume one may have worn in the classroom.
Most of the time, we were hobos. We didn't have a lot of money to spend on excessive things like Halloween costumes and we could still remain completely anonymous. Also, it allowed us to wear heavier and warmer clothes under our outfits. Our attire consisted of some of Dad's old work clothes with perhaps a rope holding the pants on our small frames. I remember Mom often times putting a big paper bag over our head after cutting generous eye holes and drawing some sort of a silly face on it. Other times, when we did have a store-bought mask, colored, molded and starched into whatever scary or cute face the manufacturer wanted. It was made of a stiff gauzy-type material with holes for eyes, nose and mouth. I can still remember the medicinal smell it had. It wasn’t a bad smell and I’d like to smell it again because it would bring me right back to those childhood Halloweens. I can almost smell it right now. But the gauze always got rather wet and ruined around the mouth after an evening of talking and also trying to eat candy through it along the way, and it was only good for the one Halloween.
It was safe to go out walking around after dark then, and unescorted by someone older. The very worst that happened was when some bully of a kid stole one's candy. That was an unspeakably scary thought and a travesty that never happened to us. There would go a whole night's work of treasures. We could scarcely imagine the horror of someone stealing our stash! The only other thing that we heard of mean kids doing once-in-a while was decorating someone’s windows with a bar of soap or throwing raw eggs at something someone possessed; usually a house or car. But with the price of things now, at least that practice has diminished.
I never went out totally alone, but always with my older sister. The two younger ones were too young to go, but she and I hit the streets as soon as it was dark since the time had always changed by then. One doesn't want to go before that, as it lessens the intrigue of one's costume. By the time we got home from school, ate supper and donned our costumes, we could hit the streets under the cloak of darkness.
There were certain houses that had a reputation for giving good stuff every year. We were always sure to hit those. Other houses had very long driveways, and those were a waste of precious time, considering two or three houses could be gotten to in the amount of minutes it took to get down one long driveway. We skipped those. We also skipped ones with no lights on. Why take a chance? If they really weren't home, that would be another wasted trip—time we couldn’t afford. We were looking for efficiency here.
But truly, one of the things I liked most about trick-or-treating was the opportunity to knock on the doors of strangers and see who lived in the houses I passed every day on the walk to and from school, as well as see a little past them and take a gander at what their houses looked like inside. And when else could a person knock on a strangers door and not only be expected and welcomed, but receive something nice?
We stayed out until it got too late to trick-or-treat and people started turning their lights off. We had big large, brown paper shopping bags of candy that Mom was going to confiscate and divvy out as she deemed appropriate (a far cry from when we did.)
Some people had the nerve to give us apples: something healthy. Who wants something healthy on Halloween?
When it got late enough, my sister and I would split up: one on each side of the street. It made the most sense. We would each ask the people that answered their doors if they would mind giving us something for our sister too, who was across the street. They always did.
Then when we got home, we did what every kid does after a trick-or-treating session. We sat on the floor where we dumped all our candy in two piles and started trading. Neither of us liked the peanut butter taffy kisses wrapped in orange or black wax paper. I vowed that I would never buy those to give away when I grew up.
How times have changed! There are designated trick-or-treat times during daylight hours, usually a few days before Halloween. Kids are escorted by adults, which I realize is for their safety because monsters have become real. Most kids have tiny plastic pumpkins or something of similar small size, indicating they aren’t staying out long. This would never have done for us. Hats off to the kids with pillow cases. Now there’s smart and optimistic trick-or-treater!
Still, one thing hasn’t changed. I’ve stuck with my vow. I don’t give out those peanut butter kisses with orange or black wrappers!
|
