Better than Christmas?

Monster Mash - Bobby Pickett

Hallowe'en 2011
Heard on the news that Hallowe'en is second only to Christmas on the amount of money that Canadians spend on "gifts" and decorations. As a kid, back in the early 1970's we would go out for hours. There wasn't a house we didn't go to we came back with pillow cases full of goodies. Some years we would dump and go back out. I remember four mounds of sugary treats spilled onto the living room floor. We all went to the same houses but what fun it was to sit there at the end of the night holding up a special treat and excitedly shouting "Hey I got a ...!" And everyone else would dig through their mounds to see if they got one too. And Mom would stand just to the outskirts of the ring and smile. Waiting for the clamour to die down so she could hustle us off to bed.

In some ways, maybe it is better than Christmas. Everyone can get the same treats and amount of treats with no favourtism to family finances or status. Homemade costumes, costumes created from bits and pieces of items found at home or store-bought...it doesn't matter. They can all get the same reaction. In fact sometime the bought ones are not near as "cool" as the homemade ones. Plastic masks are shoved on top of the head while home done make up is proudly displayed. I don't know what the cost of store bought costumes was back in my day, but I do know that we never had them. Either Mom made our costumes or we made them from what we had or a mixture of both. Having to dress the four of us was a chore and quite often the younger ones wore what the older one had previous years. But it didn't matter...because you wouldn't even think about going out without a costume. And we started pestering and considering what those costumes would be in mid-September.

But in the early 1970's, the celebrations became tainted when news broke that some people were putting razor blades in apples. All of a sudden all candy and treats became suspect and dangerous. It was no longer safe to eat what you collected and with theft of the entire loot by older groups of kids, it wasn't safe to even collect. Hallowe'en parties became the new norm. Maybe we didn't get as much candy but at least we didn't get any of those Hallowe'en Kisses. Nobody in the house liked them and they were the only thing to still be at the bottom of the candy bag when the new year changed.

And yes it often took us till almost Christmas to eat all the loot! Gotta feel sorry for the kids today...a bag of chips today might contain 8-10 (often broken) pieces. We used to get a bag similar to what we pay $1+ for at the corner store. And don't get me started on the chocolate "bars". I've seen Smarties bigger than some of the Fun Sized bars lol! And the cost for shelling out these teasers is astronomical! Rockets and lollipops - they seem to be the same size. More and more people are heading to places like Costco and handing out full-sized chocolate bars. And it doesn't take long for the kids to find out what houses are doing that and they all head there, sometimes multiple times. Kids have gotten very critical. I have had kids complain, blatantly ask for more or just turn their nose up. But most are grateful and appreciative and are really enjoying themselves. And with a good attitude if not a well thought out costume, I enjoy the teenagers coming by later in the night so I can get rid of all the leftovers...

Although these days the whole family seems to get involved in Hallowe'en festivities, something is missing. The preparation for weeks in advance, the creativity, the innocence, the joy of running across the lawns while you kicked up the leaves arm in arm with your bestest. A parent would only be seen if they were accompanying a pre-schooler that they couldn't pawn off on an older sibling. Last night, not a child came to the door without a parent keeping a watchful eye from the sidewalk. All except for those two teenagers with bandanas across their mouth and nose, dark clothing, no treat bag...I think I would have been less intimidated if they weren't in "costume".