4 posts tagged “halloween”

While out driving on Halloween the other night, I drove through a neighborhood in full trick or treat mode.  Though a minority of older kids walked from house to house, most kids were driven by their parents to each house, getting in and out of the vehicle (mostly ubiquitous minivans) ever 25 feet or so.

This meant that the road was clogged with pausing and slow moving vehicles, which made it very difficult for through traffic to drive down the street.  It also made it more dangerous for drivers like me because it made it harder to see kids on foot, and made it more dangerous for the kids, as it made it harder for them to see through traffic, and because of the unpredictable movements of the minivan parade.

I don't know why the parents of small children just didn't park their vehicles and get off their lazy asses and walk with their kids to each house.  And the parents of older children should have been home giving out candy and let those kids travel in groups to trick or treat on their own.  It seems to me that if you're ten or eleven, having to spend the night getting in and out of a car with your parents there the whole time would suck all the joy right out of Halloween.

Halloween is totally different now for kids than it was when I was a kid trick or treating back in the sixties and early seventies.  For one thing, only the smallest children had parents going with them to trick or treat, and even then the parents walked with their kids, they didn't drive them from house to house.  And from about the second grade onwards (age 8), kids trick or treated on their own in groups in their own neighborhoods and the parents stayed home to hand out candy to other kids. 

I lived in a huge subdivision where nearly every house participated.   My mother would give me a king size pillow case and I'd fill that up, then return to get another one to fill.  Trick or treating typically began at dusk, and continued for a few hours. 

It was a lot more fun for us than it is for kids nowadays and I kind of feel sorry for kids now because they won't experience Halloween like most Baby Boom era kids did.

I've always greatly enjoyed Halloween. And Halloween was a lot more fun for those of us of the Baby Boom generation than it is for kids nowadays. For one thing, nearly every neighborhood participated in trick or treating. Those of us who had the good fortune to live in subdivisions or other areas of high population density made out like bandits on Halloween.

Another factor is that most kids were considered old enough to go trick or treating on their own in groups of other children from about age eight or so. Even though our parents warned us about not eating candy not in its original packaging until they'd checked it and about razor blades in apples, there wasn't the widespread worry about children being safe on Halloween back then.

I can remember when my son went trick or treating with a friend when he was ten, his friend's parents drove them to each and every house in their minivan, and the kids spent most of the night getting in and out of the van.

That would have taken all the enjoyment out of it for me, as part of the attraction of Halloween was the air of mischief and being out on our own having fun, as well as getting good exercise walking around the subdivision going from house to house. There were enough people out on foot back then that this was a safe thing for older children to do.

Also, the fundamentalists had not yet deemed Halloween an eeeeevil holiday, so all kids were free to participate and the schools were able to openly celebrate Halloween without worrying about wet blankets trying to rain on everyone's parade.

I remember one good Halloween for my son and I. The local mall sponsored a costume contest, and he wanted to participate. I was determined he'd have an original costume; not something fifty other kids were wearing. I was working for the PD then, so he and I decided he would be a police officer that year.

I bought him a blue shirt styled like a police shirt, along with navy blue pants. I brought the shirt to the police uniform supply store, where the lady there offered to sew our town's police logo patch on each on each upper sleeve. He wore my actual badge pinned in the proper place on his shirt, plus my hat, even though it was miles too big for him. He had my cuffs in their leather case attached to his belt, plus my PR-24 baton suspended on its ring holder. At eight, he was just barely tall enough to hang the PR-24 on his belt without it dragging the floor. The only thing that wasn't real was his gun, of course, though the realistic looking toy gun I bought him was placed in a real leather holster.

While we waited at the costume contest, I noticed that most of the other kids were in typical, unoriginal costumes, such as devils, ghosts, witches, and the like. There were several categories for costumes, with "Most Original" being the category we were gunning for.

We saw only one other truly original costume, a little boy dressed up as the Titanic! The hull and superstructure of the ship was constructed of painted cardboard, extending in front and in back of him. On top of his head was a painted cardboard funnel. I remember my son telling me that this kid's costume was so good, that he'd not mind losing to him.

But it was not to be. The winner of the "Most Original" costume was a kid in a generic devil's costume, with several other kids in the audience dressed just like him. This child, while cute, was in no way original, and the Titanic kid's parents and I concluded that this child had to be a relative of one of the judges.

My son lost quite a bit of faith in humanity that day, particularly in the idea that people can be fair and impartial. I was sorry that he had to learn this at such a young age.

Feel free to share your Halloween memories in the comment box.

In certain parts of the country, the night before Halloween is known as Mischief Night. This is essentially extending "trick or treat" to two nights, with "trick" on Mischief Night, and "treat" following on Halloween.

I first heard of Mischief Night when I moved to southern New Jersey in 1967, as it was "celebrated" in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. So far as I know, the practice continues to this day.

My initial experience with Mischief Night came in the fifth grade, and that first time out was relatively tame. My friends and I did little more than throwing toilet paper in trees, soaping/egging windows, and ringing people's doorbells and running. Nevertheless, we had a great time, looking forward to doing it again the next year.

The following August, at around that time when summer was getting boring and we were actually looking forward to going back to school, a buddy and I got a notebook and began planning the coming Mischief Night in detail. Here's a few of the tricks we came up with and carried out:

• Instead of just throwing toilet paper in trees, we decided to toilet paper an entire car, We chose a car parked on the street in a dark cul-de-sac in our subdivision. In preparation for this, we'd gone to the market and bought the mega-pack of toilet paper, sixteen rolls in all. This trick took both of us to accomplish. I rolled the TP over the top of the car where my friend caught it on the other side, carefully brought it down and rolled it under the car where I caught it on my side and brought it back up to roll over the top again. We did this until the car looked like a big TP package. Took awhile to accomplish, but the results were worth it.

• Instead of merely ringing doorbells and running, we got a long clothesline rope and tied one end to the front door. Stretching it tightly around the house to the back, we tied the other end to the back door. Then he rang the front bell, while I simultaneously rang the back. We both ran to a neighbor's yard to hide behind a large bush to watch as they struggled to get the doors open.

• About two weeks ahead of Mischief Night, my buddy and I each took a bucket and began saving our dogs' shit. You have to remember that this was before the days of pooper scoopers, so we had to be rather sneaky about doing this. The purpose of the shit was to put some in paper bags, then put it on someone's front doorstep, light it, ring the doorbell and run. It was great fun watching people from a prearranged hiding place, as they stomped on the flaming bag, getting shit all over their shoes. Other uses included smearing it on car door handles (while wearing rubber gloves we'd borrowed from our kitchens) and throwing it on the seats of unlocked cars. At one address, we filled one guy's mailbox to the brim with dog shit, then superglued it shut.

• Fun with signs. Our neighborhood had the typical green street signs everyone is familiar with. We chose intersections where two signs were mounted on the same pole for this trick. More often than not, these signs were loosely attached, so we shinnied up the poles and turned the signs to indicate the wrong streets. It was usually days or weeks before this one was discovered and we got a kick out of imagining people driving around lost. Another trick was uprooting a realtor's "For Sale" sign in front of a house that was for sale, then carrying it to the other side of the neighborhood and replanting it in someone else's front yard.

• My favorite trick of all took several kids to accomplish quickly. For this trick, we collected several short lengths of rope, plus about ten aluminum garbage cans, as were common in the late 1960s. First thing we did was to tie all the cans togther in a long line. Then we carried the cans out in the middle of the street where there were two trees on either side. We then took two longer pieces of rope and tied each end of the garbage can snake to each tree. Anyone in a car coming along would have to get out and untie at least two cans, then move the cans out of the way.

About ten years ago, the fundamentalist complaint du jour in my town was Halloween.   They asserted that Halloween was an evil, Satanic holiday designed  to turn children into godless demons.   At that time, they made a lot of trouble for local public schools, harassing them about school Halloween decorations and celebrations.

In reaction, many fundie churches began sponsoring what they called "fall festivals".  These were children's parties at the church with pumpkins and other harvest/autumn decorations, but no witches, devils, ghosts or goblins.  Most of the churches allowed the kids to dress up in non-spooky costumes, but a few of the more extreme ones banned all sorts of costumes.

While driving around this fall, I've noticed for the first time that many homes are extensively decorated for Halloween.   And it's not just pumpkins anymore.   People now have elaborate illuminated ghosts and witches, with orange candles in the windows and orange lights outlining their homes.   It's every bit as elaborate as some people's Christmas decorations are. 

What's most interesting is that many of these decorated homes also sport those tacky metal Ten Commandments signs in their yards as well.  And, although I still see church signs advertising "fall festivals", I don't hear fundies railing against Halloween much anymore.

Could it be?  Could many of them be reconsidering Halloween?

It would be nice to think so -- and that they could start reconsidering a lot of things while they're at it.

Thoughts?