Ok, I did the parent-thing and braved the pouring rain, drove to a different neighborhood so that Maddie could walk with her friends and basically allocated the entire evening to this "holiday". Much to my surprise (ok, I really wasn't that shocked), kids just don't have the "salt" my generation had when it came to trick or treating.
Not only are costumes bought or basically "stage-quality" these days, but kids just don't have the passion that we had to fill their bags to the brim and to run full-on from house to house before "quittin' time". Maddie's costume was hand-made by my mother-in-law at Maddie's request and let me tell you, it was such a nice costume that I told Maddie it may very well be her Christmas dress or at least be donated to the Little Theatre. Tongue in cheek, maybe, but it definitely was nicer than some of the holiday dresses I owned growing up.
I digress...We arrived at 5:30 across town to enjoy chili with school friends and then as soon as we stepped out of the door into the rain, the complaints began in a cacophony from the 6+ kids in the group. They ranged from:
"I don't want to carry the umbrella will you hold it for me?"..."I don't want to carry my candy bucket, it's too heavy!"..."My feet are wet!"...."My feet are cold!"..."I don't like that candy!"..."I'll just wait here, that driveway is too steep, too far, too dark, too wet"...."I hate this wig"..."Can we go back home?" (this was after two houses!)
Now, all of these did not come from only one kid or even my Maddie (of course not) but let's just say, we left after only an hour of trick or treating. We made our way home in relative silence and decided that we would do some door to door in our 'hood--which we did. Just me and the kid...I'll show her how it's done. Well, Maddie lucked up, we hit over 20 houses in under 15 minutes and because she was on the end of our neighborhood Halloween curfew (something else I have NEVER heard of-who imposes a CURFEW on Halloween?!?!), she got tons of candy because of folks trying to get rid of it. It's all about strategy--SCORE!
I don't know what happened to Halloween in the past 30+ years, but I do know that we only got these kinds of candy ONCE a year and it lasted forever, sometimes we rationed 1-2 pieces a day to make it last. Halloweens of yesteryear (circa 1977-87), were so cold, I had to wear layers of clothes that included long johns, gloves and multiple pairs of socks. It always rained that was a given! The houses were at least a quarter mile apart, not a few feet! My costume was usually thrown together out of my closet but if I was lucky enough to talk my mom into a mask from Roses, it didn't breathe at all and it would be totally wet and gross when I took it off. We started when it got dark and stayed out until the last porch light went out...our parents didn't go with us to each house and we ran until we were drenched in sweat from house to house, shedding layers at will! We walked three miles up hill and back with 20 lbs sacks of candy...Our bags were overflowing and our energy spent...when we got in, we sorted the candy by category, looked for razor blades and drugs (some of us, even took our candy to the hospital to have it x-rayed) and then we gorged! We ate what we wanted and our parents did too, always helping us by eating the Bit-O-Honey's and those black and orange candies that no one knew what they were. A scary movie was always on, like The Howling or Twilight Zone and we curled up and winded down...Come on kids! Next year step it up, train early, let's bring it back old school!!
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