Happy Halloween

 "Growing up" Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. Though, in the kid world, Xmas reigned supreme.  i don't remember us getting a ton of candy growing up, so Easter and Halloween were welcomed occasions.

i vaguely remember going out trick or treating with my alleged younger brother.  Going door to door asking for and getting candy.  Though there would be some joker out there who would give out wax lips, cheap "toys", Dum Dums, or toothbrushes.  We put candy in pillowcases (in a good year, over 50% full).  i would learn later, but the variety i got would have cost more than $50 today.  Buying your own candy kind of sucks.

There were always urban legends about razor blades or drugs in Halloween candy, but i never believed them.  i probably would have accepted caramel (no extraneous "A" in my pronunciation) apples and homemade treats too, but you can't do that anyplace but a high trust society.

i identify as a trick or treat age kid on Halloween.  Isn't that the way it works in the modern age?

The costumes: have you ever seen 80s and 90s store bought costumes?  The ones i got were mostly flimsy masks with a plastic smock that had a picture of what you were supposed to be (probably bough at Sprouse-Reitz or Giant T).  Kind of lame.  i know one year my brother was Gary Gnu. There was one year we had inflatable heads (didn't work well in the rainy, breezy days i remember Halloween being).  The head almost blew off and went down the street.

School: Then, there were the costume parades in elementary school.  We would go to different classrooms seeing what other students were wearing.  Pretty sure that doesn't exist today.  Mrs. Croaker (might be a little off here), the choir teacher would have us "sing" stuff like "Witches Brew" by Hap Palmer or the "H A double L O W double E N spells Halloween" by Kay Lande and Wade Denning - which still pops into my head these days.

Halloween - the one day of the year where you pretend to be something else, while actually letting your usual disguise slip.  Contrary to Lucy in Charlie Brown, you don't dress contrary to your true self.  Well, i guess many females dress as slutty X (where X could be anything from nurse to mortician.  i've always been partial to the librarian or geek types).

PSA: Giving a kid rocks on Halloween in lieu of candy is probably not a good idea, unless you would like to have them returned through your house of car window.  i don't think i ever TPed a house.  Though i did help someone else fill up an RA's room with balloons in college.