Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I have never been opposed to Halloween, especially when I was a child and my own kids were children. I love the joy this day gives to the little ones and for the past many years, adults as well.

When I was twelve years old in 1966 I was told by more than one home owner on my "Trick or Treat" run that I was getting a bit too old for this, devastated I never did it again. In those days there were no inflatable pumpkins, colored lights or faux cemeteries adorning yards. You were lucky if someone had carved a pumpkin and put a candle in it. I can’t remember ever seeing a single adult dressed up for the occasion. There were no LBJ (the President then) masks and morning news show anchors did not dress up. Of course there were three TV channels and no Internet. We didn’t know what we were missing.

Halloween today is amazing. I think it is the second biggest commercial holiday. The one above it God created. It is a world wide event which puts it ahead of the 4th of July or Thanksgiving. Even though I am a bit of a Halloween scrooge. My decorations are minimal and it has been years since I dressed up. I complain about the cost of candy and don’t necessarily want to answer the door for hours on said day. I do, however, go along with it because I do remember the excitement of my childhood and that of my children because of this special night.

In the past few years I have had one major gripe with the night of tricks and treats. It is not the fact that some trick or treaters shave and don’t say thank-you or carry pillowcases with enough candy to feed the less fortunate in another nation. My problem is with the car riders.

In our neighborhood of almost twenty years, the houses, about fifty of them, are spaced far apart and sit back from the road. When my children were younger they along with either my husband, myself or friends walked to every single house. October 31st’s weather where I live can be delightful, dismal or freezing. It never stopped us. As my kids and the neighborhood kids grew past trick or treating I noticed an influx of children I had never seen come to my door and in the spirit of the holiday went along with it.

Car after car pulls down our driveway and those of my neighbors, unload the kids to get their treats to drive to the next house. In a time where the media tells us there is a epidemic of childhood obesity and of adults as well; I have a problem with this. If you are too lazy to park your car to walk through a development with your children or you, as you should, fear for their safety there are Trunk or Treat opportunities everywhere. No child should go to bed on Halloween night without at least 5,000 calories worth of candy in his or her possession. Please make them walk to get it.