My family didn’t celebrate Halloween. We had candy and tracts to give the kids at our door, but we never dressed up or went trick-or-treating. At least, almost never…
Today Linda asks… What was Halloween like when you were growing up? Did your family participate? If not, was there a substitute activity? If you went trick-or-treating, what were the rules, both for trick-or-treating and for candy consumption? What types of costumes did you wear? Were they store-bought or homemade? Did you carve a jack-o-lantern?….
The year in question was the year my family was at Grandma and Grandpa’s farm over Halloween. Grandma seemed scandalized that we hadn’t ever gone trick-or-treating and she determined to remedy the situation.
We went digging through the dress-up boxes and scrounged ourselves up some costumes. My sister and I wore some old dresses that used to belong to our twin aunts. I’m not sure precisely what Anna was, but I was a princess-crowned with great-grandma Pierce’s Bicentennial Queen tiara.
Once our costumes were assembled, we loaded into the van for trick-or-treating. With the nearest neighbors a half a mile (ish) away, we didn’t have the option of walking from door to door. Instead we drove to one great aunt and uncle’s house to another. At each house, we stopped and chatted while drinking cider and enjoying homemade popcorn balls or other such treats.
In all, we probably visited a half dozen houses–and ate most of our booty at those same houses. It was pretty much the ideal Halloween’s trick-or-treating outing.
For all of our not celebrating Halloween when I was young, I sure managed to learn to enjoy dressing up in costumes. Now, I jump at every opportunity to wear a costume. I’ve been Richard Simmons at a birthday party. I’ve been a superhero during a “spirit week” the dining services staff held at Harper. I’ve been a biker chick for a youth group “Sponsor Hunt”. I’ve been a Nebraska football player (in their off the field uniform of wife-beaters and baggy sweats worn below the buttocks.) And, in my coup de etat, I’ve been an old woman.
I’ve blogged about a few of those costumes–click on the picture to hear the story.
Hear other people’s Halloween stories at Mocha with Linda’s Flashback Friday Meme