Halloween is one of my favorite holidays...although I hate being scared. I have many memories of Halloween so I figured this would be a good time to share them :)
When I was little we used to go trick or treating in the country. Mom would drive us around to all the neighbor's house and they gave us candy. Nowdays no one does that, only people who live in town have little ghosts and goblins knocking on their doors.
I remember the vinyl costumes we wore and the plastic masks. The costumes were always worn over our heavy winter coats so we looked two sizes bigger than we were. The masks had eye holes and a small hole for the mouth...so you could breathe and just big enough to stick the tip of your tongue through.
There were two houses in town that I always was slightly apprehensive to go to. One was the Dukes house...Mama D would dress up as a witch and scare the daylights out of me! She did the same thing to my kids years later. The other house was the home of my first grade teacher, Mrs. Lehman. She would always demand we do a trick before we could get a treat...I had no tricks!
In junior high I went with a bunch of my friends to a haunted house. Just so happens this particular haunted house was in the barn of the house at Marathon were Dan and I moved after we got married. The barn was gone by the time we moved there, but I still remember how scared I was to go through it. Lucky for me I had friends who were just as scared so we basically ran through!
Back in the day we would also go trick or treating for Unicef. Basically we went door to door begging for money...but it was for a good cause...or at least that is what we were told!
One year, I think Brian was probably almost 3, we couldn't take him out because we had a huge ice storm. I think I was more disappointed than Brian was.
All three of my kids wore a pumpkin costume that I made for their first Halloween. I made it for Brian when he was almost a year old. Becky wore it when she was 6 months old and poor Kayla was only 2 months old when she wore it...so with each kid the costume swallowed them up more and more :)
I remember walking down the main street of Marathon one year with some friends. We weren't doing anything or causing any trouble, but we happened to be in front of the bank. The banker's daughter lived across the street above the post office and she sat at her window all night watching for people who might do something to the bank. Apparently we looked guilty because she yelled at us to stay away from there.
I must say, my favorite Halloween memory doesn't even involve me. One year Brian and Becky and some friends went to the haunted house in Schaller. Brian was trying to impress a girl so he wasn't afraid at all...or so he thought. They came to a room and a man dressed in a gorilla suit jumped out with a running chain saw (with no chain on it of course) and Brian screamed like a girl and yelled "ahhhh...girl pants!" Girl pants was the word of choice when you are scared and can't get the word gorilla out :)
Halloween may be the devil's holiday, but I don't think anyone really thinks of it like that anymore. It is just a day of fun and black cats and ghosts and goblins. Kids are too lazy these days to cause any trouble and little ones in costumes begging for candy are adorable. BOO!
October 20, 2010