Halloween

Who else remembers when Halloween was a two- or three-hour holiday? Kids might have thought about it a few days before, but adults never gave it a thought ahead of time. Perhaps the day before (or after school - a regular school day - on Halloween day) Mama'd say, "Tonight you get to go trick-or-treating; what do want to dress up as? We could smudge your face and tie a hanky onto the end of a stick so you can be a hobo. Or we could put a scarf around your head and let you wear one of my dresses and some big loop earrings so you could be a gypsy. How about we make a eye-patch and make you into a pirate?" After supper, which was just a normal day's activity, we'd put on our "costume", Mama'd say, something like, "Don't go any farther than Elm Street and be back in an hour or so."

We'd take off with a group of our friends and go door to door on a couple of streets, gathering a few treats in some kind of small container. We'd come home and dump our treats (a few apples, some small boxes of raisins, maybe a popcorn ball made by some childless lady who had time to think and plan ahead, and a few pieces of homemade or occasionally commercially-made candy or cookies.) We were thrilled with the rare opportunity to have a choice of sweets - and not just after a meal; and life went on.

Halloween was celebrated in a few hours from start to finish, nobody went broke buying costumes and candy, it was a blip on the screen for most adults, and kids enjoyed a couple of hours with friends and few days' worth of edible treats to look forward to.