Today is Halloween. It’s an evening of taking your kids trick-or-treating. It’s also a time of going to haunted houses and getting scared by the craziness of what happens there.
Halloween is also referred to as All Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve. It’s a day to remember the dead.
Whatever Halloween means to you, be safe and have respect for the others around you.
My younger days
Halloween isn’t a holiday I remember very well. But I do remember dressing up and parading through the elementary schools I attended. I say “schools” because I attended two during those years.
I remember buying a costume in a box — one of which was an ape from Planet of the Apes. In that box there was usually a costume I wore over my clothes. The box also had a plastic mask with two little eye holes a holes for my nose so I could breathe. The mask had elastic to hold it on my face.
During our parties, the whole school took turns parading through the school. As I reached fifth and sixth grade, I didn’t dress up, but it was still fun watching the younger students parade through our room.
Then I remember my mom walking me to a few of the neighbors to go trick-or-treating. But I was never big on going up to the door and saying trick-or-treat so I never got much candy.
My own kids
Once I had kids of my own and they were old enough, I took them into the nearest small town so they could trick-or-treat in their costumes. We sure enjoyed that evening walking around the town seeing everyone in their costumes.
When I was divorced, I only had the kids every other Halloween. We didn’t do much when they were younger because we lived in a townhouse where trick-or-treating was harder.
But once we moved into our house in a subdivision, I took them trick-or-treating. We walked around all of the streets, and the kids brought home their trick-or-treat bags full of candy.
As the kids got older, they went trick-or-treating with their friends. While I was sad I didn’t get to see them trick-or-treat, I stayed home and handed out candy at our house. I had just as much fun seeing all of the kids and handing them candy seeing the joy on their faces as I did watching my own kids go with their friends.
Halloween today
To this day, I’m still handing out candy even though my kids no longer trick-or-treat they’re too old. And I still enjoy watching the little ones get candy from me and seeing their their eyes light up.
I hope someday I can take my own grandkids trick-or-treating and see their faces light up the way their parents did. Until then, I will remember my own memories of Halloween and hold them closely tight to me.