Halloween, generally observed on October 31, has evolved over the years, but today is associated with dressing up in disguise, trick-or-treating, and displaying jack-o'-lanterns during the evening. Americans are expected to spend more than 5.8 billion dollars on Halloween this year on such things as candy, costumes, and outdoor decorations. It doesn't seem that long ago, but when we went trick-or-treating, most of us pulled some old clothes out of the dress up bureau, or we made our costumes from a whatever we could scavenge from around the house.
One year, my older brother spent several days prior to Halloween making a square box that he used as his head for a Frankenstein look alike. His influence was significant in that years later my friend and I put together a costume with two heads that we had made out of papier mache' that we fashioned around some very large balloons. We then painted them with whatever leftover paint we could find, and our costumes were good enough to win us a prize at the town's Halloween costume "ball". My younger brother was a tube of Colgate toothpaste in college and was rewarded a case of toothpaste from the parent company. However, the one we never created was the "human bean", a person dressed up as a green bean. I thought that was particularly clever. There were lots of others too, pirates, hobos, sailors, princesses, witches, cowboys, Indians, to name a few. However, what made it so fun to me then was that we used our imagination when we created those costumes; and after the "haul", we would sit on the living room floor and organize our booty to start trading for those must have candy bars.
Halloween was and still is about being a kid, pretending, dressing up in disguise, gathering a few sugary treats, and having fun; however, when it is all over, and the costumes come off, the question becomes, "which witch was the real one"? Let me think about that one for a minute while I sink my teeth into this Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Mm Mm ghoul!
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I have eaten my share of reese's cups tonight - very tasty and the most popular!! Not as many ghosts and goblins as last year - weather is colder and the Patriots were playing! J
ReplyDeleteHad 30 Plus here. We give the big bars and got compliments from one large group saying we were the best house yet for candy and decorations- about 8 lit jack-o lanterns in the garden with orange lights in the trees. However, we can't compete with the family down the street. They turn their 3 story house into a giant haunted house. Everyone can go through- my 2 neighbors came to get me but the Pats were still playing and so I went up myself after the game. 3 large creatures (Mr Planters peanut, a giraffe and a very large creature in black encouraged you to enter. It usually takes about 15 min and the only way out is a giant slide off the 2nd floor deck- a real hit in this town. I've gone thru before but this night only watched the crowds. I miss having the kids home - going out- having fun and giving me all their Good N Plenty (I bought my own). Also miss being a kid and going myself- Days before. besides planning a costume we would walk the street getting the best route to hit the most houses in the 2 hours allowed- Or was there a cut off time when we were young? - maybe only Mom's curfue.
ReplyDeleteWell anyway- Happy Halloween to all.
S