As anyone with a few years on the old tires would tell you, Halloween is so different now then when we were kids some 40 years ago or so. It is one of those childhood memories that always brings smiles as we raise our eyes and struggle to remember what it was like way back then...
My first memories of Halloween we when we lived in the first house on 215th street, sometime between the ages of 6 and 12. I can remember being in our front room, by the front door, waiting for the costumed kids to make an appearance. At the younger age, we went out and trick-or-treated on our block with Halloween bags made of orange and black paper in costumes with masks that had been purchased at a local store. I do not remember specific costumes at that time, but think they were pretty generic – police man, cowboy, ghost. I do not remember ever trick-or-treating in a costume I had made.
When we were older in the 10 – 14 year age bracket, the fun became seeing just how much candy we could accumulate. We traveled blocks and blocks from our home and on at least one occasion went home, dumped our sacks – no more Halloween bags, now just pillow cases – and then went back out. At the end of the evening there was the “Big Trading Day” as each of my siblings and I sat on the floor behind a large pile of candy and traded to each other for the things we liked the best. After age 14, it was all about creating mischief, which for me included some shaving cream, toilet paper and a very occasionally an egg or two.
I only made a costume one time and that was as a adult for a party with many of the guys I went to college with at one of their homes. There was well over a hundred people there, many that I knew. I went as a Arab businessman with a briefcase and a kaffiyeh on my head and full robe. This was before the terrorists won. My girlfriend at the time (not the fabulous mrsfabp) was going to go as my interpreter, dressed in a woman’s business suit but chickened out and went as the Fruit of the Loom Grapes, purple balloons stuck onto a purple body suit. We got very drunk and had a great time.
In retrospect, Halloween was a fun then but not huge holiday like it has become today. Between Walmart and Hallmark, billions are spent on this holiday now every year.
My kids went out every year and I can remember taking MillieJupiter out at about 2 years old to watch the parade in town and hit up a couple of people we knew. I think she wore a bunny suit but I am sure someone will correct me on this. CollegeBoy did the same at that age but by then MJ was already 7 years old and hanging with some friends. We live in a rural area so we would drive to a nearby town where we lived first because it had a neighborhood to walk in and a “Parade of the Horribles” to watch.
One final note is that my favorite costumes my kids wore were ones we made with them. MJ was a hot air balloon and CB was a most incredible Waldo. I think we might have the pictures around. If I run across them, I will scan and post them.
(These are stories about things that actually happened with plenty of witnesses. It has passed from the apocryphal to canonical in nature. Wiki says of canon –“material that is considered to be "genuine", "something that actually happened", or can be directly referenced as material produced by the original author or creator.”)
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