Halloween Memories

I was the youngest of four children, and it was safe when trick or treating. We had boundaries (and generally went further). There were a couple of apartment buildings, but it was mostly houses. We all knew where the best candy was. It was before crazy people put razor blades into candy or drugs or anything to cause harm.

Halloween was something we looked forward to in the Midwest, although the weather would usually not cooperate. Sometimes it was cold and windy and sometimes very rainy and cold, but none of that stopped us, nor would our parents think to keep us in. We didn't get driven to "rich" neighborhoods or driven anywhere due to the weather. If we wanted to go, we toughed out any weather conditions.

An older childless couple we all called Aunt Sarah and Uncle Sam (I don't remember for sure what his name was) always gave out regular-size Hershey bars.

One of my best friend's mother took her large bag of collected goodies and sorted it when she arrived home. She froze half of it and let her eat the rest gradually. In our house, none of that happened; heck, a lot of the candy was consumed while trick or treating!

One year, my brother, two years older than I (another was seven years older, and one was twelve years older - they were not out to trick or treat) went together. He was a ghost with a sheet that had holes cut so he could see, and it was flipped over his head and went to the ground. I don't remember my costume that year. I do remember climbing the stairs in a fourplex apartment building behind him. I accidentally stepped on his ghostly garb, and we heard it tear. He was furious, thinking I had done it deliberately, and he started in on me: "I'm telling Mom when we get home..." blah blah. I truly felt bad since I had not done it on purpose. Remembering it still makes me laugh.

***

My mother was very artistic; she did beautiful ceramics, taught herself oil painting, and she sewed. She was a fabulous seamstress making slipcovers for the furniture, draperies, and clothes for me. When I was older, we figured out how to make men's ties, and that was fun to do it with her because I am horrible at sewing.

There is a photo of my Halloween costume one year where it was a red-checkered tablecloth, rolled and tucked at the waist into a skirt. I could stick my knee out of the side slit and be a sexy woman. I wore a black turtleneck and had a little purse to twirl. I was a French woman wearing a black beret, trick or treating on Halloween.

Another year, Mom turned me into AUTUMN. That was who I was, Autumn. She sewed me a dress with a shining brown material, put orange netting around it, and set Autumn colored leaves into the netting. She was very creative, and I was proud of the costume she had lovingly created.

***

When she passed on, there were piles of fabric in her sewing room, boxes of buttons (most still on tiny cardboard from the store with the price), thread, and unfinished projects.

***

When my kids were little, since I was not good at sewing, it had to be simple costumes or store-bought ones. ** Side note - I did make my son a costume for a play he was in - he was the Rat King in The Nutcracker, and I managed to make him a mouse costume with a tail. There is a photo somewhere in an old album of that.**

Oh, how I remember the year I took my daughter to a mall - it was a newer idea then to have the kids getting treats from stores guaranteed to be safe. She became ill, and I had to shout out near the mall doors, "Look out, get out of the way!" while I tried to get her outside before she heaved up all the candy she must have chowed down on in school that day! yuck.

Memories.

I make it a habit to only buy candy for the trick-or-treaters that I don't like. C'Mon, you all know why! If I bought what I liked, I'd have to buy more the day before Halloween because I would have already gobbled it all up. No, I don't buy icky candy, I mix it up and let them reach into the bowl to take what they want.

There used to be high schoolers sometimes ringing the bell, and then, of course, the inevitable comment would splurt out from my lips: "You're kind of old for this, aren't you?"

We have lived in neighborhoods where kids are driven in - obviously unfamiliar cars and not from our street.

Parents walk up with flashlights so the kids are safe from vehicles while collecting goodies.

A few years ago, I left a bowl out with a note that said, "Please just take one," and came home to find candy still in the bowl.

Happy Halloween.

Savor the memories: good or bad.