What's happened to Halloween?
So here we are on November 1st having survived Halloween. However, there wasn't much to survive. In a neighbourhood that is two blocks from an elementary school we expected to be inundated with children. We expected our two children (age 3 and 6) to be hitting the houses big time and come back with a haul (you know the kind we had when we were kids). But no. Only 1 in 8 houses were giving out candy. My husband tells me that some opened the doors and looked at them like they were nuts - ummm hellooo it's Halloween??? Trick or Treat?? Ugh. At our door it was so quiet that I started giving out fistfuls of candy to the few trick or treaters who dared come to our door.We had decorated with big pumpkin leaf bags and three lit pumpkins and some jolly skeletons hanging around just to announce that yes, we were participating in Halloween, come on by. Unfortunately I guess when kids looked up our block they didn't see many lights on and just skipped it alltogether. We also got some kids that weren't even dressed up - what is that all about? Just hold out a bag and expect candy just because. C'mon where's the fun in that?
One Dad told us that this neighbourhood is historically bad for trick or treaters and that they just drive to another one. What? I mean we are by an elementary school and surrounded by children in a good neighbourhood but we have to get in our car and drive our kids to some other neighbourhood because ours is cranky? Cripes.
On the plus side to this is the fact that the kids did get good candy. They ended up with about 1/3 of what they got last year but probably 90% of it was chocolate bars. Last year that was only about 50% with the rest being made up of suckers and gum and various other candies. Now of course to some the other candies are great but my kids love chocolate (must get that from their Father! LOL) so this was just the perfect "haul" for them.
I think my husband and I were more disappointed than they were. They walked so far to actually only get a few houses worth of stuff. We remember running excitedly from house to house with streets packed with kids doing the same. Houses decorated with all sorts of things designed to scare us and usually they had the best candy if you "braved" going to the door.
As I reread this blog I think I must be getting old because I swear this tale reeks of "when I was young..." and all the other tales I heard from my parents and grandparents. Ah yes, when I was young Halloween was magical and half the fun was seeing everyone all dressed up, running around in your costume covered by your ski jacket and under an umbrella. You gotta love getting older (and honestly I'm not that old)! Memories are sure to be better than the real thing. :-)
posted @ 10:03 AM
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