Sunday, October 24, 2010

It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

I am without a scanner at the moment so I can't put pictures from past Halloween's as a post, so instead I will share childhood Halloween memories........

First memory, is not my memory but I find the story funny. Once when my father was young he and his younger brother went trick or treating and someone threw some stuff in his trick or treat bag and claimed it was rare Chinese candy. When he arrived home he realized his Chinese candy was in fact plain ol' white rice. I wonder how many kids received special Chinese candy that night?...What I learned from this story; if someone puts something in my trick or treat bag and claims it something special from a foreign land I am double checking before I leave your front door.

Second memory, is one that children of the late seventies and early eighties can relate to. To be any kind of commercialized character such as my beloved Smurfette you had to buy those plastic hospital gown looking outfits. They tied around the neck and usually had a couple ties in the back and had the characters clothing painted on the front. The masks had a couple holes for the eyes and the nasal area had two teeny tiny holes to breath through. The cold air outside and the warm air being expelled inside the mask produced vast amounts of condensation that made you have to remove the mask so you could...breath...and also to wipe away the pool of water that had collected in the nose of your mask.

Third memory is the houses that you tag as a child as being, the must go to houses, because they always gave out the best candy. First was an elderly couple that lived at the end of the street, the Johnson's, they gave out packs of gum, and I mean a full pack of Wrigley's gum. The house across the street, a doctor, gave out full candy bars. Over to the next block, Idaho Street, the Blacker's and Wolf's were successful business owners in the area and also had a good selection of candy available. In my trick or treating territory there were several other doctors and dentists and they gave everything from new toothbrushes to full candy bars also. A trick my father taught me was to empty your bag half way through because people see an empty bag and have pity on you and give you extra candy. AAHHH...the wisdom that our parents pass on.

Fourth memory, hardly eating any of that Halloween candy. I am not much of a candy eater and picky with the kind of candy bars that I like. I would pick out what I liked (Reese's, Snickers, M&M's) and my mom and sister picked out what they liked and the rest got shoved under my bed for the family dog to find six months later.

Fifth memory. Halloween at school. YES we were able to dress up at school! After lunch we got to change into our costumes and do a parade through the school in our costumes and give out awards for the best costumes. We had tons of treats and bobbed for apples and had LOTS of fun. Kids cannot dress up for Halloween in school anymore because they have taken the FUN out of school!......yup I said it...NO FUN!

Sixth memory, people who actually put signs outside their door banning any solicitation of trick or treater's at their door. REALLY! I saw the first one of these when I was trick or treating with my cousin by my Aunt Jackie's house. Fine, don't want to give out candy than turn out the lights go hide in your room and be the Halloween Grinch but this person had all the lights on including front porch light, inviting trick or treaters to come to their door, and then they post a huge sign basically saying, "I hate children, now go away!" Those kindof people are going to go to hell and their helll is going to be 365 days of Halloween and trick or treater's ringing their doorbell 24 hours a day....AH HA...you can suck it Halloween Grinches!!!

Alright I quess I will stop now...Hope you all have a great Halloween and don't ever be that Halloween Grinch!!!

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