Happy Halloween
It’s Halloween. In a few hours the “trick-or-treaters” will be stopping by the house and I will be handing out treats. An annual tradition that I happily participate in, partly out of gratitude for all of the goodies I received as a costumed child many years ago. In truth I look forward to the excitement-turned to duty that the kids have.
As the evening begins the kids run up the steps to the front door and yell “trick or treat” and are excited that you drop a piece of candy into the opened container (usually, but not always, some sort of sack). However, an hour and a half later they just sort of wander up the sidewalk, saunter up the stairs, and dutifully mutter “trick or treat”. When I offer a piece of candy they don’t hardly notice. They simply open their sack as if to say, “just put it in here with the rest of them.” Their enthusiasm has waned and become something like their parents daily enthusiasm about fifteen minutes before quitting time.
Old people like me inevitably make comparisons between the way it was when we were children and the way it is today. It’s not our fault that we remember stuff but I hate it when these words dribble from my lips…..(fill in the blank) “back in my day” or “when I was your age” or any other variation that you can imagine. But dribble they do. Things today are very different of course. The big differences for me is the presence of adults accompanying the kids. It’s sadly necessary. It wasn’t when I was a kid. We would roam the neighborhood like pint-sized marauders rushing from house to house. However, once we had been to every house the evening was done. We went home ate treats.
Another difference is the treats themselves. We would often get home-made treats like fudge, brownies, cookies, and popcorn balls. I honestly didn’t care for popcorn balls but my Mom loved them. So I happily gave them to her as a bribe to keep her out of the good stuff. Unfortunately those days will never return. It’s the one night of the year where it’s okay to accept candy from strangers as long as it’s store-bought and the wrapper hasn’t been tampered with. Today’s kids will never know the joy of choking down a popcorn ball or a peanut butter cookie that was left in the oven too long…..about a week ago. But you did find out which of your neighbors could bake….or couldn’t. You also found out which ones cared enough to actually take the time to make things instead of simply buying a bag of root beer barrels or rock hard bubble gum.
So yes, things today are a bit different than they were. But the important things still remain. Luckily no one has figured out a way to do it virtually. It is still a brief opportunity to socially interact with real people. It’s a very brief opportunity for me to meet my neighbors and their children. We can choose to be either those nice old people who live on the corner or those grumpy, mean old people that no one likes.
And we give out the good stuff. We give it out to anyone who rings the bell. Little kids, teenagers, and one old lady holding her infant grandchild claiming she was trick-or-treating for the baby. (Yeah, right. I wanna see that kid chow down a Snickers bar) Age doesn’t matter…it’s just a piece of candy. It’s more important, in my opinion, that the kids have a safe night on the town.
Even though it’s an international event it’s still very local. A celebration of Barbies, ninjas, superheroes, and things that go bump in the night. A “hall pass”, if you will, for children of all ages to extort a small treat from their neighbors. A tradition that most of us willfully participate in….some gleefully and some begrudgingly. But I’m grateful that we still carry on this peculiar tradition. So Happy Halloween to all.
Oh….and I’m also grateful for the demise of the dreaded popcorn ball.
