Halloween

Well, it's Halloween, and just another day to me. It's not that I hate Halloween or anything, but there was just some point in my life that it became on of those "meh" days. Yeah my mom used to go to great lengths to make creative outfits for us, and we lived in a small town so the trick or treating was great! Then in the 80's some stupid people had to start putting razor blades in the chocolate bars and from there on, it was not the same.

I can remember dumping out all of our candy so mom and dad could make sure there were no opened ones, and no popcorn balls. Popcorn balls, or anything 'homemade' was prohibited. Because let's face it, Larry, the crazy bachelor next door, probably coated his with Jack Daniels caramel sauce, and that is not good for little kids.

So for the next year after the famed razor blade incident, instead of trick or treating, the parents took us to Bakers Square in Joliet for dinner. I was in Jr. High, so I was outgrowing the whole trick or treating scene anyway. But since then, it just seems like you have to be extra careful, because there are a lot of weirdos out there. And sadly, a lot of people that like to harm children.

Then when you reach that age of being too old, you have to improvise. So, living in a small town, and being a teenager, we transitioned to terrorizing little kids. My friends and I would dress up in something scary and hide in the shadows of our dark street and try to scare as many kids as possible. It worked, too well at times. I remember one time the mother of the kids we scared let out this horrible scream, and started to chase us! Then she realized she was going to leave her scared kids in the dark, so she stopped.

Then, as we got older..it became criminal activity; pumpkin smashing. This is a staple of Halloween. If you had a pumpkin, we smashed it. Even smashed a clay one once. By the time I realized it was clay, I was already in the throwing motion. Was fun had by all, except for the owners of the pumpkins.

So I do have some good memories of Halloween, and it is getting fun now that the kids are old enough to understand it. So hopefully my kids will enjoy Halloween for years to come, until some stupid idiot decides to put something harmful in the candy.

*** pics of Little Slingers to come later today