Halloween - Then vs. Now
We are winding down on our trick or treater's tonight. I bet we've only had 30 or 40 kids with parents tagging along. We'll be eating left over candy for weeks! Wal-mart probably got rich off the candy and costumes. I read someplace that Halloween is second in holiday spending only to Christmas. Crazy!!! But mega-churches and the malls have sucked the life out of real Halloween with Kid Safe/Parent Friendly Activities. When I was a kid you got candy one way - door to door. There was a risk to take - and you made your own fun. When I was a kid:
- You made a costume. The scarier or bloodier the better. Hopefully your mom didn't make you dress like a peanuts character, something from the 100 acre wood, or anything else that would get you beat up at school. If worst came to worse - you got a sheet and cut holes in it and went as a ghost.
- You went out after dark. Whats the fun of trick or treating when the lights are on? Its supposed to be scary! They started an hour before dark here.
- You stayed out a long time. Trick or Treating was a marathon - not a sprint. And you had to hit every house at least once. The good ones twice. And there was always another subdivision to hit.
- You went a long way. Today's kids are driven around in mini-vans through upscale subdivisions, and to malls and churches, by packs of flashlight toting parents that are like a neighborhood watch on patrol. When I was a kid once you were old enough to ride the bus by yourself, you left the house and mom and dad told you what time to be home. Then you had that much time to fill up the biggest sack you could get.
- You went by yourself. Yes, we lived in the 60's and 70's and believe it or not there were all kinds of dangers back then - but we went anyway. Heck - we had scary costumes, who was going to bother us?
- You ate on the run. Rumors abounded about candy apples filled with razor blades and home baked goods laced with LSD - so you had to eat a lot of your bounty before you got home and mom tossed it out because it might not be safe. Home made cakes, popcorn balls and candy apples were big scores!
- You carried a big sack. We carried pillow cases - not 6" plastic pumpkins or decorator plastic bags with handles and a pumpkin theme. The goal was to have enough candy to last till easter after mom took her cut to weed out all the candy that might contain glass or dope.
- You gave a few tricks. As we got older and (not so) wiser we realized there was some "fun" to be had so there was an occasional smashed pumpkin in the street, an house that got egged, a burning bag of dog crap on the porch, or toilet paper rolling that had to be done as well.
I miss the old Halloween. I think Wal-Mart, mega-churches, and people raised in the era of the consumer product safety commission ruined a great holiday for kids!
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