Remembering Halloweens Past

*This post was originally written in 2015 when I first started my blog. It was lost whenever my blog was redesigned, so I rewrote it from the old rough draft. *

As the air becomes chilly and the leaves turn fiery colors, I’m reminded of my forever love for fall. Fall brings sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, and memories of Halloweens past.

In my very first memory of Halloween, I am a ghost, wrapped in a sheet that is tied tightly around my plump little face. I am stumbling to get out of the backseat of our old Pontiac. As I eagerly rush to my grandmother’s front door, I am toting a paper grocery sack that is nearly as large as myself. I can still feel the thrill of shouting “trick-or-treat” as candy is generously dropped into my sack.

That memory will stay with me forever. Holidays were so exciting when I was a child!

As children growing up with a stay-at-home mother, my sister and I didn’t have extravagant luxuries. My father worked hard as a mechanic to provide for us. My mother worked equally as hard to provide a loving and memorable family life. Because we didn’t have the money to purchase store-bought costumes, my mother carefully crafted our homemade costumes. My sister and I were usually either sheet ghosts, as seen above, or witches. The witch costumes (my favorites) consisted of a store-bought cardboard hat, and a black trash bag cape and skirt. My mother actually sewed elastic onto the trash bag to create the skirt. She artfully applied makeup to our little-kid faces to add the finishing touch. Back then, there was no thrill like green eye shadow and lipstick.

During our younger elementary school years, Halloween was an all-day affair. The party started as soon as we arrived at school, with some kids even wearing their costumes. As I look back, I cringe thinking how difficult that day must have been for teachers. These days, even hat-day can cause a disruption like no other! These festive classroom parties weren’t neutrally named “fall parties” as they are now. They were straight-up Halloween parties, complete with homemade treats, decorated in the scariest ways. Nearly always, someone in the class got sick from gorging themselves with sweets, even before trick-or-treating.

In those awkward hours between school and trick-or-treating, to keep up the party momentum, we decorated our plain brown grocery bags with markers and crayons. Drawing on a bag was such a treat!

The darkness (and Daddy coming home from work) signaled that it was finally time! Usually, by then, I’d been too excited about trick-or-treating to eat one of my favorite meals…Mom’s homemade macaroni and cheese casserole. Back then, mac and cheese didn’t come from a box.

Once we were safely loaded into the car (sans seatbelts), Mom and Dad hauled us to a few different houses. Because we didn’t live in a subdivision, we had to stop at each individual house. There were no mega-subdivisions of today. Trick-or-treating took much longer and was much less productive. If the bottom of our enormous grocery bag was covered, we were thrilled. Are there even any kids these days who eat the entire bag-full they collect?

Once we were home, Daddy always insisted on “checking” our candy. Looking back, I realize that “checking” the candy meant eating all of his favorite pieces. Candy was always a treat. My parents didn’t buy it often.

Then, there was that one Halloween I’ll never forget. The most horrid thing happened. I woke up with a stomach virus on that very day. I thought the world would end because I couldn’t trick-or-treat! And because I couldn’t trick-or-treat, neither could my sister. We were heartbroken. Understanding our disappointment, my parents rescheduled our Halloween. The stops were all prearranged so that the hosts would be prepared with candy.  I remember being so amazed that Halloween hadn’t been ruined after all. In my eyes, my parents were heroes.

No wonder Halloween has such a place in my heart. I’m so grateful for the memories.

In those days, Halloween wasn’t about having a fancy costume. It wasn’t about mountains of candy. There was no cloud of negativity that overshadowed the holiday. Halloween was scary and we loved it! Halloween was about fun, tradition, and time spent together as a family.

Sometimes, I wonder if the kids wearing elaborate costumes and collecting volumes of candy (that probably won’t be appreciated) are missing out on the simple thrills…

 Then I realize that, although times have changed and will always change, today’s kids will look back on Halloween with the same fond memories that we older kids-at-heart have today.

To all of my readers, have a safe and fun-filled Halloween. Remember to treasure the memories of yesterday as you make new ones today!