A long, long time ago on a dark scary night, creatures of all shapes and sizes would arise and walk the streets in search of one thing and one thing only. This same ritual had taken place for many, many years along the same day each year.These creatures of good and evil would walk the earth hand in hand with one goal in mind and one goal only. To see who could get the most candy of them all. Yeah I'm talking about the act of Trick or Treat on Halloween.
It's somewhat sad to think back upon this time and how things have changed. In my day... (Starting to sound like the typical Dad now) all the kids would rush home from school and eat dinner. We would watch the Charlie Brown Halloween show and keep an eye on the clock and one on a window for the Sun to go down. Then at that perfect moment in time as it begins to get darker, we would throw our costumes on and grab the pillow case & flash light and look at Mom or Dad to walk us around the neighborhood.
Trick or Treating was the one time a year we could dress up as that little ghost, vampire, cowboy, and/or Super Hero to name just a very few. These were the classic one piece jump suits with graphics on the front and the tiny little plastic mask to cover the face in most cases. Times have changed so much since those days.
The strangest site to be seen as long lines, one after the other, would form down the blocks and leading up to doors. You really did not even have to walk away or shut your door because the next person would already be a few steps behind the last. This would go for block after block as well and if you can imagine the pillow case getting heavier and heavier as the night went on.
As we started out at a young age we kept to the block we lived on and as we grew older this would expand to the next block over and soon the blocks on both sides and more. Times were quite different back then and yes we had to be careful and Mom & Dad had to inspect each piece of candy with a fine eye to check for tampering. Later that would turn into services that would scan your candy for you. Sad that the world changed like this and as I grew older and stopped the ritual of Trick or Treating, I also noticed that most of the younger kids would stop coming each year.
Now we buy candy for Trick or Treaters and wonder how much will be left over. This was the second year to take my daughter to the Halloween Camp out, a place for them to decorate the tent and go trick or treating from tent to tent. We have a pretty safe neighborhood and know most of the kids and families and will take her door to door. We'll load her in the car and take her to Oma & Opa, Grandma & Grandpa, and even some Aunts and Uncles for candy. She'll get more than her fair share for sure.
I'll always look back and remember the times I went and when I never imagined so many kids existed in my neighborhood and how we formed a huge parade, almost touching the person in front of us as we went from door to door and the never ending supply of Candy for that night. Times have changed and people be safe and have a happy Halloween.
