The question for many kids at the end of October might be: “Is it more fun to give or to receive?” The object of the question is, or course, candy or other treats. Is it more fun to dress up in a costume and seek goodies door-to-door in your neighborhood or is there greater merriment in answering a knock on the door and hearing screams and laughter, along with the demand trick or treat. For toddlers, the answer might well be – open the door and be surprised by the ghosts and goblins waiting there, along with an occasional princess or hobo. Once toddlers stop toddling, it is probably time for them to join the receiving end of the line. This may have been the case for me in my younger days.
I recall how the porch light was turned on so that it could function like a candle drawing moths to a flame. A darkened porch meant you weren’t really welcomed and would probably knock and clamor without any reward. Although this lack of a response might call for a trick, one was seldom forthcoming. Toilet-papering a tree took too much time and effort that could be better spent moving onward to a porch-lit house.
I personally recall only a single Halloween when I dressed up and went seeking treats. I was about seven years old. My homemade costume consisted of an old dress, reluctantly donated by my mother. It came all the way down to my feet, encased, somewhat, in low-heeled shoes which seemed as cumbersome as trying to walk on stilts. Underneath the flowing dress, a stuffed pillow was tied around my waist in an attempt to take up some of the slack. My mother had also located some lipstick and rouge, items she seldom used, to add to my otherwise unmasked face, topped by some kind of silly, flowering hat, also seldom used for real occasions. Unfortunately, the major memory I have of that evening is the teasing by other kids in my neighborhood, especially the boys, who insisted I was really a girl dressed like an old woman. I never went trick-or-treating again.
At least not as an active participant. Years later, like most parents, I did join the small packs of mothers and fathers waiting patiently near the curb while my own three kids made their cheerful way up the sidewalk to a well-lite, open door. Rockville, Maryland, was one of the better places for their holiday begging, since the homes were close together and populated with young children.
Occasionally, our three beggars wore store-bought costumes, which turned into yearly hand-me-downs. A favorite was a skeleton printed on a black suit for Deb, a berserk-faced clown in a golden outfit with a tremendously wide tie for Ken, and a prankish, red-suited Indian uniform for Chris. With our move from Rockville to Amherst, they outgrew this wandering tradition, which may have been due, in part, to there being only four houses on our street.
Ponderosa Forest, our neighborhood development along FM 1960 in suburban Houston, was more populated with treaters of an appropriate age, as well as with trickers who were not, but would arrive without any costume long after the porch lights had been extinguished.
It became an annual challenge to predetermine how many bags of candy should be purchased in the days before the 31st. Buying them too early, led to a decreased supply-on-hand comes the night for distribution. Buying too many, lead to an oversupply for the days of early November. An under-supply could be augmented, if necessary, with pennies saved for just such a purpose. Another decision had to be made about allowing a small fist direct access to the candy bowl, itself. Each year a determination was required sometime during the dole, about whether the hand of the getter went into the bowl or the hand of the giver limited the number of items each received.
Unfortunately, there also came the era during which one had to reconsider what treats would be given and what treats would be allowed to be consumed. In the good-ol-days, folks gave out individual penny candy, or fruit for the more nutritionally conscious parents. But once razor blades and other obnoxious additions became part of the scene, both givers and getters preferred pre-wrapped items, even if an adult survey had to be made before anything could be tasted by the impatient beggars. Amazingly, some emergency clinics volunteered to x-ray the offerings to assure that their full services would not be demanded hours later.
Although the history of Halloween often indicates that the custom originated in Medieval Europe, as being All Hallow’s Eve in association with the following All Saints’ Day, my own experience has been that this is really an American celebration. In late September, once the back-to-school sales have been completed, our shopping malls become orange and black arenas populated by skeletons, ghosts, and huge spider webs. These creatures also appear on neighborhood lawns. Even the doorway shelves at Eagle’s Trace have their share of spirited decorations equal in number to those of elves and Santas found later for Christmas, which was once the major time for neighborhood holiday extravagances. On the other hand, in 2013, when we visited the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary during late October, I saw few, if any, spooky items in their otherwise Americanized shopping malls. No doubt they were keeping all of their costumes hidden until Mardi Gras.
My favorite Halloween memory as an adult is a result of another vacation trip in October 2014, to Sandusky, Ohio. Since Karen’s hometown is a tourist haven for the nearby vacation attraction of Cedar Point, we made early reservations to stay at the local Wolf’s Inn Family Resort. We were greatly surprised, upon our arrival, to learn that only one other couple had booked a room. The desk manager, the only employee we met during our five-day visit, told us that the resort was officially closed for week-long maintenance during this low-visit season between the end of summer and Christmas. Nevertheless, the entire resort, even though it had neither staff nor guests, had been decorated for Halloween. Dracula stood guard over the huge fireplace in the lobby that also exhibited the usual skeletons, spider webs, scarecrows and other creepy things in orange and black. During the day and early evening, the empty lobby with its still-life inhabitants was a marvelously spooky place to spend time by the fire, which the manager kept burning to ward off the October chill in the air of this deserted inn. It was the best place, ever, to experience the mystery of a nostalgic Halloween.