Halloween

On the first day of November, I'm going to write about the last day of October.  Halloween! Once I grew out of trick-or-treating as a child, the night has never held much interest to me. I don't like dressing up in costumes and don't particularly enjoy costume parties. I'm just not one of the many, many adults who have embraced the date as opportunity for cosumed revelry.

I do enjoy giving out candy to trick-or-treaters though. When I lived with my parents, I used to thrill at being the one to answer the door and give out the candy. When I moved out and lived on my own, I still thrilled in spending the evening with them.  When I moved back in with them to raise my niece and nephew, I was the one who had the energy to take them to the streets in pursuit of treats.  My parents would stay behind and dole out candy to their visitors.  Always when the kids and I returned, we would ring the doorbell and my parents would go over the top pretending that they could not figure out who it was in those costumes.

Halloween was wholesome in my memories. When I wore costumes, I was Casper or a princess or Snow White. It was family and children and neighbors.  Then at some point, it became dangerous for children and when that happened, adults embraced it and it became sleezy. Costumes reeked of sex or were highly inappropriate either through the news or dressing as an another ethnicity.  Not many children were out trick-or-treating.  It seemed that the holiday was taken over by adults.  I wondered if it would ever return.

Last night it returned.  Last night I spent the evening at my friends' house.  They decorated their porch with lit pumpkins and witches hats and a big owl.  They did not give out candy but instead tiny Play-Dohs in a variety of colors. There we so many children that walked up that sidewalk last night!  And the costumes?  Back to the old days of wholesome. There were princesses, a Snow White, a Raggedy Ann, a Whoopie Cushion, lots of cartoon characters, a builder, a Houston Oilers football player, twin wearwolves and some ghosts.  Without fail, there were Thank yous and even one, I love you from a young boy who apparently loves Play-Doh. There were neighbors introducing themselves and parents waiting by the street asking, Did you say thank you? And we would holler, yes they did! 

Last night, Halloween was fun again.  It was for children again.  And it brought out that childish delight in each of us as we oohed and aahed over the costumes and the cuteness. Definitely, the night was a treat.