Halloween Plans
29 October 2003, 1:45 PM

Everybody keeps asking me what my plans are for Halloween/Samhain.

They're pretty much the same as I've done years before, I'm going to dress up as a witch, put some decorations out on the front porch hand out candy at the door. This year I live in a neighborhood where kids might actually come to the door!

My previous apartment was in a very college-student area of town, and before that I lived in a very rural area. Before *that* it was a neighborhood that was slowly going downhill, and each year there were less and less trick-or-treaters, which was infinitely disappointing to me.

I love to get dressed up and give out candy, because that's what I did as a kid. It didn't start that way. I vaguely remember a couple of seasons of trick-our-treating door-to-door in those old mid-70's plastic hospital-gown types costumes and the funky paper masks. I think I was 5 or 6 at the time. Unfortunately that was just about the time that we started hearing about needles, glass, and poison in Halloween candy, kids being sent to the hospital and the beginning of candy inspections.

My parents were concerned of course, and trick-or-treating door-to-door to get candy from strangers was soon out of the question. You'd think that would have ruined it for us kids, but it didn't. My sis and I just started giving out candy, and it turned out to be a lot more fun. I was a shy kid and probably would have had a harder and harder time going up to doors, knocking and asking for treats. Walking around in the cold or heat (this is Texas, remember) in itchy costumes, carrying increasingly heavy plastic pails, only to discover that half the candy we got was stuff we don't like very much? Nah.

I think both my sister and I liked the new arrangement way better. We still got to dress up in costume which was always fun. (And we could get out of costume anytime the construction paper masks started to get annoying.) The candy was ALWAYS stuff we liked. (Of course our parents knew what we liked and bought plenty of it so we'd have lots leftover and could dip into it all night.)

But the best part was answering the door - we'd scramble over ourselves to do it. Part of the enjoyment came from having other people see and react to our costumes, but a lot of it came from seeing and reacting to their costumes. Sometimes it'd be a small group with a 6 year old in a Batman suit and an infant in a bunny suit. Other times it'd be about 10 to 15 kids, traveling in a group with costumes ranging from princesses to Freddy Kruger, all loudly calling out "Trick-or-Treat" and getting very disorganized as we handed out the candy. (Some of them coming up for seconds.) It was all very funny and entertaining.

As I got older I started getting invites to costume parties - the "adult" version of Halloween. But for some reason that just never appealed to me. Maybe it's because I'm just not a party-person. (I'm too introverted. I find parties exhausting work, not invigorating fun.) Maybe it's because I still get a major kick out of seeing wide-eyed kids just thrust bags out in front of them, unable to say trick-or-treat. :-) Maybe I just don't want to grow up that much when it comes to Halloween traditions.

Jeff's not really the costume type, although he'd probably do a simple peasant outfit for a RenFest or another Halloween. If our neighborhood does turn out to be a good trick-or-treating area however, I have a feeling he'll be the behind-the-scenes decorating guy. He already offered to install his black-light on the front porch for me. :-)

We're having munchies at work tomorrow of course and though I'm avoiding all the sweets until this weekend (I'll indulge for a day) I am going to contribute a sweet-potato pie.