I grew up in a small town, but there were a lot of tick-or-treaters roaming around and it didn’t look far off from what you see from Hollywood. They didn’t close down our streets, but traffic was slow and close to non-existent in the residential areas; for example, the street I grew up on was short and had a dead-end. The officials of our town also threw a little outdoor party in the parking lot of the local grocery store! Every year they’d sell hot dogs and have a small “parade” to choose best costumes in different age groups. My cheap store-bought costumes never won, lol … random, but I must have been 6 or 7 the year I dressed up as
ET.
Anyway, the tradition of my family and practically all of my classmates was to go to the outdoor party to get our hot dog for dinner, participate in the parade to not only hope for a prize, but to check out everyone else’s costumes. After that we’d go trick-or treating to as many houses as we could until long after dark and we were either exhausted or out of houses to visit. Oh, and our fire department always put up a haunted house as well, built from the ground up and set up in the space of one of their huge garages. Always had a blast visiting that once I was a little older and was socially outgrowing trick or treating. Our junior high would also host a Halloween dance in our school’s gym for the junior high students, around the age when most kids “graduated” away from trick or treating.
That was in the 80s, and things have since changed. Not that it has anything to do with it, but I clearly remember when the first Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode was airing, as I’d set my VCR to record it so I could experience the haunted house the same night (was a few days before the 31st though, if I’m remembering correctly). Anyway, that was probably the last year I celebrated Halloween as a “kid.”
I continued to live in the same house up until 2002, and watched the trick or treating dwindle down over the years. Less costumed crowds in the streets, smaller parties at the store parking lot, fewer decorations at the neighbors’, less visitors at our door. I think part of that was because they’d changed the trick or treating hours to only 5:00pm until 7:00pm, so no one was even allowed to go out after dark anymore for “safety reasons.” That really destroyed the fun and spooky atmosphere. That was also around the time parents and businesses starting shifting away from traditional trick or treating to easier and “safer” options, like collecting candy from all the stores of the local mall, and people organizing trunk or treats instead.
We did a trunk or treat with Little Dude at his school this year. It was kind of fun to see the teachers “dress up” their trunks and to see what all the kids were wearing (
Little Dude was Mario!), but it was also … well, lame. Such a short walk through a tiny parking lot, staying in a single-file line while the school blasted
Kidz Bop versions of classic Halloween songs. No adventure or sense of exploring your neighborhood under the unfamiliar, spooky veil of darkness, with genuinely creepy music pouring out of garages and front doors meticulously decorated with tombstones, spiderwebs, and talking skulls. It’s all become so … sanitized. The school doesn’t even technically celebrate Halloween anymore because it’s considered too controversial these days. Instead, they ask that you “dress up as your favorite character from a book” on a day that just
happens to fall on Halloween. It’s a bit ridiculous if you ask me, but what do I know?
Can you tell I love Halloween?
I made the mistake of telling my aunt a month or so back how I enjoy going to the stores just for the Halloween decorations (I especially love home decor with skulls year-round), and I got a lecture about how Halloween is “evil with its pagan roots.” Ugh, I won’t make that mistake again!
Anyway, when it comes to kids walking the streets in costumes, Hollywood’s depiction is relatively accurate for decades past, if a bit more romanticized, but the traditions and methods of celebrating have definitely been shifting into more contained spaces. But we still have fun in our own way, and I make sure we watch
Garfield’s Halloween Adventure.
Well, Halloween is long over at this point and we’re facing Thanksgiving. Which means … ?
Little Dude is eager to switch to Christmas mode with his favorite movie:
Yep, he’s definitely my kid!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
I mean ... isn't that a little too grim, even for Halloween? 
Are you men, or are you lovely, sweet grannies knitting in your rocking chairs? 
