The good ol' days

Halloween is not what it used to be. I hate to use these words, but back in my day, Halloween was so much more fun.

Kids would trick-or-treat for hours, people would open up their homes or garages and make mini haunted houses, adults dressed up to give out candy and we would have costume parades at school.

Now, it is considered late if you come by a house at 8 p.m. and people prefer malls, zoos and other play places instead of the traditional trick-or-treating.

Somehow, I don’t think standing in line after line for a few pieces of candy is comparable to going home to home and seeing different decorations or costumes and receiving a variety of candy.
I remember when I was a child; my neighbor would always decorate his house elaborately. I remember a giant fuzzy spider he had hanging from his porch that he would drop down to surprise and scare all of the kids. We loved it.

There were several homes that did things similar to my neighbor, and I remember being excited every year to visit these homes again.

My goal every year was to fill my candy bag all the way to the top.

I also looked forward to showing off whatever creative costume I had for the year at school. Most of the kids at school would dress up on Halloween and it was so much fun to admire all of the other costumes while we had treats in the classroom.

Now costumes are not allowed at most schools.

It was also fun to play with the flash lights we would take with us when we went trick-or-treating. It was the whole experience of it that created so many happy memories for me.
It seems every year there are fewer trick-or-treaters and many of them are older kids who really have no business going around asking for candy anyway.

I think it is so sad how just a few people could ruin a fun tradition for so many children. Fears of poisoned candy, predators and bag snatchers has forced people to celebrate in different ways.

Families flock to malls and churches instead of going from home to home. People who fear criminal action turn off their porch lights and lock their doors instead of decorating and passing out candy.

Stupid people vandalize homes that don’t give out candy or smash pumpkins that people spend hours carving and just ruin the whole occasion.

So now I have joined the trend of people who avoid the streets on Halloween and usually opt to take my children to church for a “safe zone.”

This annual tradition has changed so much in the “short time” from my childhood to now. But I guess it’s not about trick-or-treating and more about making happy memories, which we will definitely work on.