Friday, November 9, 2007

How It Once Was - I Remember Halloween

The joy. The anticipation. The delight. As a child, Hallowe'En was one of my favourite things. Better even than Christmastide which was always acrimonious sweet for me because we were not well to make and my small sister always wanted everything that I got as well as her ain presents. My parents always urged me to just allow her play.

But Halloween, now there was something! I had my ain paper bag that had my name printed on it. Anything in that bag was mine and mine alone. No pilfering, playing with or "borrowing" allowed. But more than than that, I got to be anything I wanted to be (well, within pecuniary limits). Usually, it was something merriment like Sleeping Beauty or Annie Oakley. I wasn't much into the chilling material like lamias or witches. If I could have got got dressed up as Annie Annie Oakley every day, I would have.

And it was fun! Our vicinity was nice. There was the police officer down the street who never gave out candy, but he gave out cunning small playthings or coin banks. Then there were his adjacent door neighbours who went all out with the ornaments and tried to frighten the trousers off of you. It was usually on the manner out of their house after you had received your candy. You ran screaming and that was portion of the fun.

There was a hubby and married woman who had no children of their own. They set on a political party every twelvemonth that you could come up and travel from as you wished. There was hot cyder and hot chocolate. There were cookies and caramel apples and Zea mays everta balls. There was this large thorax just chocking full of all kinds of candies and you could take whatever you wanted.

All of this merriment was free and freely given. You didn't have got to work for it. You didn't have got to ran into someone's outlooks of you to be worthy of it. You got it for simply being who you were. It was a most fantastic thing. And you did not have got to worry about what was in the home-made things.

My parents allow us eat anything we wanted on that 1 night, but not anything that went into our bags. The bags went onto a very high shelf in a closet in the kitchen. After Hallowe'En night, we were allowed one piece of candy each day. The consequence was that we had candy almost all the manner to Easter. Candy...for which I didn't have got to make chores, in order to gain money to purchase it.

In my opinion, Hallowe'En today is a sad affair. Some people decry it as an observation of a Heathen rite and desire to make away with it. As a child, I had no thought that Hallowe'En was supposedly borrowed from All Hallow's Eve, the last nighttime of quiet liquor and an effort to pacify them until sometime adjacent May, when they would acquire quiet again. I surmise that today's children still believe that it's just about dressing up and getting free candy. There were no fearfulnesses of poisonous substance or razor leaf blades or being abducted. I wish that today's children could have got what I had. I wish that we could bury all the contention and hole all the fearfulness and just allow them have got fun. Pure and simple fun.

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