Halloween has changed so much through the years. Not the concept, but definitely the treats and sometimes the tricks. I woke up last Saturday morning to find that half of our yard (the neighbor's half) had been "forked". About 200 white plastic forks were sticking up in the yard. Forget the toilet paper, we got forks!
Today, I am reminded of my Halloweens of the past, when I was a young girl. Our costumes were always homemade, well not always, but I remember the homemade ones the best. It was usually mayhem down in the basement laundry room, with my brothers, getting dressed and putting on our faces for a spooky night of Trick or Treating on the streets of Delton, MI. We lived on the edge of town, so it was a veritable gold mine of candy on the way to town. We always walked (even in the rain). One year, I was Cinderella's Fairy God Mother, right down to the magic wand. Somewhere between our house and town I lost the star, which was a cardboard cutout star wrapped in tin foil. I was quite proud of it and equally upset when I noticed it was missing from the wooden dowel it was thumb tacked to. Oh for some Krazy glue.
Then there was the year I dressed up as a Hobo. I borrowed my little brother's striped railroad engineer hat, under protest, wore bib overalls, and put some things in a handkerchief and tied it to a stick. A pretty convincing hobo, I thought. Well that year evidently there were a lot hobo's. When we got to Ila Francisco's house, she accused me of being there before and would not give me any candy. I was heart-broken.
We'd get home and go through our loot. The good stuff was always the candy bars (full size back then), there were always popcorn balls and apples too. That was before we worried about what sickos do nowadays. There would be a candy swap and we would eat a few choice morsels and go to bed.
I remember looking forward to Halloween. There was something almost magical about walking the streets in the dark, under the stars, trying to guess who was who in their costumes.
If this post causes some of you to go down memory lane and talk about those memories with your friends or loved-ones, then I have accomplished my goal. For you see, I don't think any of us do that enough. We are too busy worrying about things that we cannot change or doing mundane tasks that do not make any memories.
2 comments:
I'm happy to report that last night I saw the same excitement and fun with my boys that I remember as a child. They couldn't wait to put on their Mario and Luigi costumes and meet up with our friends. We have a great neighborhood where we know a lot of the families, which made it even nicer. Afterwards those remaining met at a neighbors fire pit and we enjoyed eachother's company. I'm constantly standing back and looking at this wonderful life that I have been blessed with. I remember as a child thinking how boring it must be to be the Mom and stay back at home and hand out the candy. But now I know, it is such a joy to see these children dressing up and enjoying some of the simple things in life. I couldn't wait to hand out handfuls of candy to these smiling kids. Then even more fun when your own kids return home, dump their bags, and start making their deals.
Although I don't get to read many of your blogs, it gives me joy to see you express your thoughts and words. Thanks for giving me a chance to tell you about my halloween.
This is too funny......I really don't think that Ila Fransisco has changed much since this incident! Oh, some things/people never change.
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