Saturday Soliloquy: October is so Beautiful!

I could post hundreds of pictures showing the glories of October. Today we have, once again, that gorgeous autumn blue sky, mild temperature and freedom from the haze, humidity and BUGS that hover all summer!

I’m always sorry to see this month come to an end, although it can last well into November, too.

Right now, I’m thinking about Halloween. I’m not going to dwell on the negatives. There are plenty of them, but we’ve heard it all before and I just don’t feel like going there today.

Memory takes me back to a more innocent time when we were kids. We made our own costumes out of old bedsheets or whatever else came to hand. We got creative without spending money. I don’t remember anyone going to a costume store just to go trick-or-treating. I’m sure it happened, but not in the neighborhoods where I grew up. Halloween was not high on the profit list back then, with lots of orange lights and yard decorations, never mind the theme parties and costumes–and masks! My word! I understand that today, Halloween is second only to Christmas in retail success. Amazing.

We were lucky to live in neighborhoods where the houses were close enough and numerous enough that we could walk to go trick-or-treating. NO PARENTS EVER took their kids from house to house! We’d have died of embarrassment! Best of all was the apartment buildings, where older folks looked forward to the little urchins invading their hallways and ringing their doorbells. Some of the best treats came from there–fresh-baked cookies and brownies, fruit, and loads of candy. And popcorn balls! Boy, did I love those things!

Half the fun was trudging back home with our loot, sorting it out, sometimes trading for candy we weren’t crazy about, like licorice. I like the red, but not the black. There was always someone who was more than willing to give me their red for my black 🙂

Back then, a regular-sized candy bar was only 5 cents. It was candy heaven for those of us who rarely got such a treat. Snickers, Three Musketeers, Milky Way, Hershey bars–all were plentiful, and I carefully preserved them to last for a long time.

In those days–roughly the early 1950s to early 60s–that’s all Halloween was about for young kids. It was fun, harmless, and innocent. Adults welcomed us, even looked forward to figuring out who was hidden behind the costumes and goofy masks. It never occurred to us to be afraid. There were so many of us out that night, and we all tended to stay in groups. It’s entirely possible that there were parents watching from a distance, but they never intruded or insisted on staying right with us.

It seems to me that we were allowed to cross streets on Halloween night, something that was not encouraged any other time. And we were expected to be back home when there were still lots of other kids out and about, heading back to their own houses. I don’t remember a specific curfew, but none of us had watches anyway. We just had a sense about when it was time to go home–probably when we couldn’t stuff any more treats into our bags or pillowcases!

We won’t have any little kids ringing our doorbell this year. We’ve lived here for over 28 years, and never had any trick-or-treaters. Parents drive their kids into town where there are developments with hundreds of houses; there are apartment buildings and blocks of older homes where people our age look forward to little kids yelling “Trick or treat!”

Stores are full of seasonal candy, bags of it with separately-wrapped pieces. I doubt anyone gives out home-baked goodies–too risky. And even if they did, parents would examine each child’s loot and toss out anything that could easily be tampered with.

It’s so sad. I hear stories every year about someone’s black cat disappearing. Worst-case scenarios do take place.

I’m very glad that I have nothing but good memories of Halloween. It was fun, innocent, a rare venture to beg for treats we would never ordinarily see.

It was just a lot of fun.