Halloween Thoughts

I've always greatly enjoyed Halloween. And Halloween was a lot more fun for those of us of the Baby Boom generation than it is for kids nowadays. For one thing, nearly every neighborhood participated in trick or treating. Those of us who had the good fortune to live in subdivisions or other areas of high population density made out like bandits on Halloween.

Another factor is that most kids were considered old enough to go trick or treating on their own in groups of other children from about age eight or so. Even though our parents warned us about not eating candy not in its original packaging until they'd checked it and about razor blades in apples, there wasn't the widespread worry about children being safe on Halloween back then.

I can remember when my son went trick or treating with a friend when he was ten, his friend's parents drove them to each and every house in their minivan, and the kids spent most of the night getting in and out of the van.

That would have taken all the enjoyment out of it for me, as part of the attraction of Halloween was the air of mischief and being out on our own having fun, as well as getting good exercise walking around the subdivision going from house to house. There were enough people out on foot back then that this was a safe thing for older children to do.

Also, the fundamentalists had not yet deemed Halloween an eeeeevil holiday, so all kids were free to participate and the schools were able to openly celebrate Halloween without worrying about wet blankets trying to rain on everyone's parade.

I remember one good Halloween for my son and I. The local mall sponsored a costume contest, and he wanted to participate. I was determined he'd have an original costume; not something fifty other kids were wearing. I was working for the PD then, so he and I decided he would be a police officer that year.

I bought him a blue shirt styled like a police shirt, along with navy blue pants. I brought the shirt to the police uniform supply store, where the lady there offered to sew our town's police logo patch on each on each upper sleeve. He wore my actual badge pinned in the proper place on his shirt, plus my hat, even though it was miles too big for him. He had my cuffs in their leather case attached to his belt, plus my PR-24 baton suspended on its ring holder. At eight, he was just barely tall enough to hang the PR-24 on his belt without it dragging the floor. The only thing that wasn't real was his gun, of course, though the realistic looking toy gun I bought him was placed in a real leather holster.

While we waited at the costume contest, I noticed that most of the other kids were in typical, unoriginal costumes, such as devils, ghosts, witches, and the like. There were several categories for costumes, with "Most Original" being the category we were gunning for.

We saw only one other truly original costume, a little boy dressed up as the Titanic! The hull and superstructure of the ship was constructed of painted cardboard, extending in front and in back of him. On top of his head was a painted cardboard funnel. I remember my son telling me that this kid's costume was so good, that he'd not mind losing to him.

But it was not to be. The winner of the "Most Original" costume was a kid in a generic devil's costume, with several other kids in the audience dressed just like him. This child, while cute, was in no way original, and the Titanic kid's parents and I concluded that this child had to be a relative of one of the judges.

My son lost quite a bit of faith in humanity that day, particularly in the idea that people can be fair and impartial. I was sorry that he had to learn this at such a young age.

Feel free to share your Halloween memories in the comment box.