It’s a given that the Covid 19 Pandemic has turned this year’s Halloween fun upside down like a pack of bats in a cave. So instead of bemoaning all that’s different now, I thought I’d take a nostalgic hayride down to the Halloweens I had as a kid. Trick or Treat!
Looking back, yeah the free candy (which I’ll get to in a bit) was nice but landing sweet treats wasn’t that hard for me as a child. I earned my candy money by mowing neighbor’s lawns and doing odd jobs.
No, for me it was all about the costumes and dressing up as someone who wasn’t me. Seeing my friends and neighbors do the same was equally fun. Recalling my costume get-ups, I had a store bought Devil outfit and mask, then Spiderman, then a pretty genuine Cubs road uniform that wasn’t just a Halloween get-up. One year my mom fashioned a ‘Great Pumpkin’ outfit for me. But then in fourth grade I wanted to be Dracula. Not a vampire, I wanted to be THE guy, the Count from Transylvania.
Two weeks before Halloween, my mother was in the hospital for back surgery so my father designed a Dracula cape and his mother, my grandma, sewed it together. The cape was black velvet with red satin on the inside and a bent coat hanger positioned upside down and sewn inside provided the winged look behind my head. It was beautiful and very authentic. Then all I needed was black slacks, a white shirt, fake fangs and my dad applying ghoulish make-up with the fake vampire blood dripping from my mouth.
I loved this costume so much I wore it for the next five Halloweens. In sixth grade, thanks to growth spurts, my mom had to lengthen the cape by adding more velvet and satin. Still looked great.
TRICK OR TREAT On the day of our town’s annual candy hunt, I’d bolt out of school at 3:15, get home to jump into my costume, slap on the needed mask or make-up then meet up with pals to hit the door to door sweets solicits. Up until my Dracula outfit years, me and my sister Marianne and several neighbors all went door to door together. I don’t recall my parents ever going out with us. You rarely saw parents escorting their children. Older brothers and sisters did the looking out as the streets and times were safer back then. My mom and dad were always busy at home handing out treats to the kids ringing our doorbell.
From age nine on, it was me and my friend from across the street, Pete Hassler pairing up in search of fun size Milky Ways and Snickers bars. Pete opted for different costumes each year, one time he was dressed as a hippie woman which was funny and a little weird. I think he also had some military get-ups.
Most of us gathered our treats in a pillow case which could hold loads of snacks with no worry about breakage or springing leaks. From four in the afternoon until six we’d systematically hit the homes in the four or five blocks around our houses. Next it was time for a quick dinner at home, usually some soup or chili and a sandwich plus the unloading of our first filled bag of diabetes infusing stash into large metal bowls my mom laid out.
After dinner, Pete and I would meet up again and work our way east to York road and close to Butterfield Park. Then around nine-thirty it was time to work our last snack grabs on the way back home. Two cool things I recall from those days. One, I don’t remember any snow or pouring rains on Trick or Treat night. Also, back then it was rare to come across a home with nobody home. At least one adult would be at the door to admire kids’ get-ups and drop a popcorn ball, mini-box of raisins or an awful orange peanut shaped marshmallow into our pillowcases. No matter what the treat, we always said “Thank You’ then would be on our way to the next set of steps and the next doorbell.
At the close of the night we’d go home and empty out one more pillowcase stuffed with sweets. The one safety rule we obeyed was to not eat any of our candy until mom and dad checked everything out for razor blades, needles, poisons and other items that never ever appeared.
Those full bowls of candy would last a few weeks with all family members snacking on the sweets I worked so hard to happily gather. Those were grand times, not just because we were so young, they were great because of the innocence and the joy of homes happily surrendering some sweet eats for the kids in costumes.
Happy Hallloween!
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