Tricks or Treats, or Both...

 

As usual, I am behind on my blogging and even though I had plans on writing a big Halloween blog with jokes and quizzes and as many bad puns as I could find, it never quite materialized. Today it is already mid-November and another holiday, Veteran's Day today. I scrapped all plans of my original Halloween blog but still felt like blogging on the past holiday. I guess it's better late than never, but it is changed a bit in it's original idea.

Halloween was a bust this year.

Nine little trick or treaters...wow, only nine. When I turned off my light late that night, I could only shake my head and wonder what had happened to all of the trick or treaters? What had happened to Halloween? Was it because it was on a Sunday? Was it because tomorrow was a school day? Was it because Halloween is no longer the holiday I remembered as a kid?

Of the nine trick or treaters that came knocking on my door, they all had something in common. No the costumes weren't the same, and come to think of it, they all didn't really yell trick or treat, some did. Some just knocked on the door and stood there with their arms outstretched with their little plastic pumpkin containers. All of the trick or treaters had arrived at my doorstep via their parent's cars. I was surprised to see all of their parents drive up to the front door as close as possible and wait with the engine running for them to walk back down the steps and then be whisked off in their vehicles to the next house. I tried to rationalize their reasons...maybe they thought it was too cold, maybe they are afraid of the dark, maybe they were all in a hurry. But I think the biggest reason was our advances in transportation and mobility have made us immobile.

I grumbled....and whined... Noooo, you aren't doing it right. You are messing up the holiday. Halloween is about dressing up in your costumes, homemade or boughten, and getting your big paper bag (okay I know they don't make those any more, but every kid has to have at least one trick or treating experience with a big grocery store paper bag) and your trusty flashlight. Then when it is completely dark outside you are allowed to shuffle along in your dragging costume in small groups, giggling and stumbling in the dark, and hitting all of the good places that hand out the best candy first....sometimes twice, if you think you can get away with it. Down the road you see other small groups of witches, ghosts, and pirates with their small beams of light. Sometimes there would be an extra tall shadow which meant an adult was tagging along. It took awhile, going from house to house, and even though at some houses you only got a stick of gum  or a lonely tootsie roll, you made sure you didn't miss a single dwelling with it's porch light on. This driving around stuff is for sissies.

I moaned for my old Halloween. I longed for my old Halloween. I fear it's gone by the wayside, my old Halloween. The lure of candy isn't there, too commonplace in homes now. The idea of walking in the dark at night, too dangerous most parents will say now. Going to every home on the block a big no-no, because a sex offender lives at such and such address now. It was already hard enough that Halloween had to compete with Christmas on the store shelves now...

It makes me a bit sad that so much of every holiday that I know and celebrate keeps getting streamlined. Less about the process and more about the end product. It loses something in that abbreviated translation.

Haunted houses were big when I was a kid. I didn't even see one advertised this year. Too much work, too much effort, too scary? I don't know, I imagine most would think not scary enough with today's movies. I think most holidays, especially Halloween are about the experience. There is something about Halloween being bad, our last naughty hurrah, before we all have to be good because Santa will be watching.

I never was that bad though on Halloween. A few soaped windows was about the extent of being naughty. I didn't egg or toilet paper anyone's residence. I didn't play any practical jokes or cause my parents to worry that the police would be bringing me home with a stern lecture.

There was one Halloween that my twin brother and I and his girlfriend who was also a friend of mine were out driving around. For some reason we decided to drive way out in the country and soap a friend's windows. We snuck out there in the quiet darkness, parking my brothers car at the bottom of a very steep hill and climbed up that hill to keep from being heard on our mission. We giggled and soaped their car, their pick-up, their front door on their house, all the while they were in the living room watching tv. We would peek in a window to keep an eye on them and continue on our soaping spree. My brother spied a parked grain truck and he went to soap it's windows while us girls ran down the hill giggling all the way.

We hadn't brought a flashlight but there was enough of a moon to guide our steps. We hopped in the car and expected to see my brother coming shortly. As we chatted away we heard a big "thump" on the roof of the small car. We shrieked, we jumped, we had the bejeezus scared out of us. We expected the driver's door to open and my brother to hop in. He didn't. We quickly locked all the doors and peered into the darkness....nothing. We saw nothing. At that moment, every horror/slasher movie we had ever seen ran thru our minds... Two young girls, out in the middle of nowhere. Late at night, deserted country road....yep, we were goners. Any minute I expected to see that creepy hand that always crawls up the outside of the window to appear. We waited, our hearts beating out of our chests. Our eyes darting around the car, peering into the darkness.

Maybe he was hiding under the car, my brother. He was just waiting to jump out and scare us we thought. Soon we heard steps, the crunch of gravel as a figure running down the hill came closer. It was my brother finally. He yelled at us, "why do you have the door locked, unlock the door". We let him in and told him about the thump on the roof of the car. We thought it was him. He laughed and said there was a big cat back in the middle of the road, it must have followed us and jumped on the roof. We sighed with relief but still were a bit doubtful. We hadn't heard the cat jump off the car or seen it walk away. We kept the doors locked all the way home. Our night of trick or treating had the trick played on us. We were spooked by something that grew bigger in our imaginations. We learned that things really do go bump in the night...

Tricks..and treats included, how can you not love Halloween?