What sort of memories do you have of Halloween? When we grew up in St. Louis just before and during WW2, we dressed up in costumes and went to neighborhood houses. I don't remember "Trick or Treat", though. As I remember, the kids got up skits or small performances - singing, reciting, dancing, whatever - and the folks of the house gave out treats for those. The first time I remember hearing Trick or Treat was when we had children in Tennessee and they got old enough to make the rounds on Halloween.
We lived in a neighborhood where every house had a bunch of young children, so our streets were full that night, with kids going door to door, begging for candy. We lived in a split-foyer house, so we spent a lot of time running up and down the stairs, getting to the door.
Our girls were grown and gone when things started getting crazy, and this innocent fun and evening of gorging on sweets became dangerous. Hospitals started offering free x-rays of candy, so that parents could be sure no metallic substances had been injected into the items. Then all candy was individually packaged in single servings. Parents followed their kids all around the neighborhoods.
Another glitch was then Halloween fell on a Sunday. Was it "proper" to do this on a Sunday???? A "natural" outcome from that was - well, golly, maybe Halloween is devil-worship and maybe kids shouldn't be doing it at all. Holy cow!!
And now, this fun night for children has become totally organized and sanitized. Kids are taken to church parking lots for "Trunk or Treat"; or to the mall to walk to various stores for treats. And I've read that adults spend more money on Halloween than on any other holiday except for Christmas.
Tonight, we had one 12-year-old girl, accompanied by her dad, come to our door. And we have a lot of left-over candy.
Today's photo is of some children running and playing in Budapest.
No comments:
Post a Comment