Happy Halloween!

As a child, I loved Halloween.  Get dressed up, get lots of candy - what's not to love? We made our own costumes out of old clothes, paper bags, and anything else that we could find.  Each Halloween, my mother made big sugar cookies with each child's name on one to give out to trick or treaters.  When the neighborhood got too big to know all of the children, she made cupcakes with jack o'lantern faces made out of candy corn.  The best part was going out after dark.  Because it was the late 50's, we got to go by ourselves with a few friends.  The  road across the street from my house was a curving road that was lined with houses where our friends lived.  The road actually ran through a grouping of homes, through some land that had not been built up yet and into another group of houses.  Along the wooded stretch of road was the Frog Pond, which was one of our favorite places.  It was not really a pond; it was a swampy place with some open water.  In the summer we caught frogs there and in the winter we spent the day skating.  On Halloween night it was dark and spooky with - best of all - bats flying overhead.  Our wild times consisted of yelling "boo" at each other and screaming, but they were great times.

When my children were young, they dressed up and we walked them around the neighborhood.  They usually wore costumes that were made at home, and they charged from one house to another.  Gone were the days of cupcakes, popcorn balls, and molasses cookies that were made by mothers in the neighborhood.  Candy bars, nickels, and pencils were the treats.  When they got home they counted their loot and compared notes.  It was not yet time to check treats for booby traps, although it might have been a good idea.  When my oldest child was a toddler, I discovered that the bag of candy that she was helping to hand out had a bite on the side of each piece that went through the paper and the chocolate and I wondered if I should check my children's bags for used candy.  Even though I was not dressed up and receiving treats, I loved walking through the dark with all of the children.

Now I spend my Halloween evenings staying at home and handing out treats.  It is a time that I look forward to every year.  The children change as families move into and out of the neighborhood or as children become too old to trick or treat, but every year there are new princesses and fairies to admire and new ghosts and goblins to make me scream in fright.  There are young children who are not sure what they are doing, and the 7 or 8 year old pros who have trick or treating down to a science.  (Knock on the door, yell "Trick or Treat" while opening the stash bag, insert the treat, call "Thank You!" while closing the treat bag and heading down the steps to the next house.  A pro can do this all in 45 seconds or less!)  I have tried wearing my rubber dinosaur nose to answer the door, but some children were afraid of me.

By the time Halloween is over and I turn out the light, I am ready to put my feet up and relax until bedtime.  I have had fun with the children who come to may door, but I still feel the tug of that dark night waiting for me to outside and play.  Maybe next year I can borrow a child to come with me.