Can't help it! It's Halloween and my mind is back to the days of the old jacket of my dad's, the eyebrow pencil of my mother's for a beard and the pillowcase over my shoulder. Armed with the same costume I wore every year as long as I can remember, I went with a pack of friends to every neighbor's house we could possibly get to. We were not technologically advanced, but we had reconnaissance teams and we got word about who had good candy, who's streets were poor providers and woe unto the one neighbor in a great section who was a nonparticipant. You could get by if no one was playing on your street, but if you were the one hold out, you were going down.
We walked until we could either not walk further or our bags were so heavy we couldn't carry them anymore. We wasted little time in small talk, we stuck to the script. 'Trick or Treat' and then 'Thank You' were required and all we gave willingly. I simply hated the houses of neighbors I hadn't seen since the previous Halloween who wanted to discuss with me how much I had grown. I can remember debating skipping those houses but they usually gave away such good candy we were hooked. My cheeks were pinched, I had to report on what grade I was in and I had to hear about who it was they thought I looked like. They asked about my stupid sister and brothers. What a nightmare. Still the candy was good and I must have thought it was worth the price.
Once we got home, we dumped our candy out of the bags onto the floor in very well defined piles. We were not the slightest bit interested in community sharing and all for all. I then sorted my candy by kinds, counted it and began an inventory. This is the proper way to inspect and store Halloween plunder. My brother was not from this school. He dumped his and dug through instantly to grab and devour all the candy he liked best. He was very foolish because it allowed for the parental pilfering that always happens when kids go to school. Not so with my inventory. Though not even that system was foolproof. I can remember coming home to find my numbers had been changed.
We then began the negotiation process. This is where you take the candy you like least and offer it in exchange with your sibling for candy you like more. I discovered that you got little return on a Clark bar because everyone had 100, but Mallow Cups were worth a lot, so few people gave them out. Unfortunately, I liked Mallow Cups so parting with them was difficult. Today we would call this learning to prioritize and barter. I don't remember any adult checking my candy, though they may have done so. Nor do I remember one of them telling me that eating all that would make me hyper, though no doubt it did. I do remember being told that I had to stop eating candy, brush my teeth and go to bed. And I did more than half of that so I think we could consider me quasi obedient.
I remember that sad sort of feeling when you were in the house for good on Halloween night. A let down knowing that it would be another whole year before I got to do it again. The grief was diffused over several days as the candy diminished and the memory slowly faded. My friend Lynn horded her candy. She always wanted to make it last until the next Halloween so it would never really be over. I think she might have made it, if I hadn't kept finding her stash. Hey, no inventory control and this is what happens.
I know we are concerned about dark and ugly things at Halloween. We don't want to glorify evil and we don't want to scare children, but gosh they are great memories. Why do we want to give up stuff that made us that happy? I remember a long time ago in early contemporary music Larry Norman asking in the lyrics of one of his songs, 'Why should the devil have all the good music'. Lots of people got up in arms about it then, and probably still do now,but the point was why abdicate something just because there are folks who pervert it? In fact isn't it true that the candy tradition grew out of taking something not so good and making it so? What's so bad about that???
Maybe I just want my pillow case, my dad's old jacket and my mothers eyebrow pencil back. Or maybe I just like the idea of giving those memories to my children. Or maybe I just feel the need to get some Mallow bars and start an inventory. See you at the day after candy sales.
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