The Return of Childhood and the Ghosts of Halloween Past

After graduating college, my daughter’s finally home for Halloween. After a long time, we celebrate the holiday together. While she revisits childhood days, I go back several years in time, to the days of early parenting days and the days of being chaperone.

It’s been a long time since I went Trick-or-Treating and being part of the candy crowd I remember doling out umpteen warnings, strictly issuing and enforcing the candy scrutiny orders, and extracting promises of delayed gratification throughout those years. I’m proud the children always kept their word. Never once did they eat candy midway.

We enjoyed costume creation, Then it was a lot easier and more fun for them to pick out their own stuff. We’ve tried several routes. Making our own, scouring thrift stores, special Halloween stores, mail order, gluing, sewing, stapling our own stuff, and buying stuff off the rack.

The joy of collecting candy tops everything. For a couple of (early) years, I could convince the kids to graph their candy haul.Bar, Lists, and pie charts showed the popularity of Snickers, M & Ms, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Juicy Fruit, and Sweet Tarts.The first year it was fun for them, and then it became a chore, and finally, as my authority waned, it became for them, a total bore.

As a family, we would read scary stories, retell some very scary ones, and watch Goosebumps. Our favorite source of inspiration during early elementary years of kids was a book called Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. I would love to hear the children read and retell the same. They were a little scary I must admit.

Jack O’ Lanterns, variegated, colorful, and falling leaves, dark evenings, apple cider, candy, more candy and crisp fall air make this time so special. We had a huge liquidambar tree in the backyard that turned brilliant auburn in fall. The Chinese Pistache foliage in front looked like bleeding digits.

I remember one year in particular. Those were idealistic parent days, when I became the unpopular mom with neighborhood kids. My crime? I substituted mini apples for candy. While some treaters politely refused what they thought a trick, the parents seemed quite pleased! The next year I almost managed to get away with it again, but my kids would not allow that to happen. So I caved in to the pressure just for Halloween and doled out the right candy with all the wholesome ingredients of sugar, fructose, and corn syrup. Sometimes, traditions are not meant to be broken…

Then the years rolled by where the kids felt confident to do away with several chaperones to having absolutely none. For them it was an independent statement. Routine candy stock up and dispensing was what Halloween came down to be for us parents. After that, their interest in Halloween tapered off with all the pressures of high school and such. Occasionally we saw flashes of costume innovation. Candy no longer held its allure. Quite frankly, we the Halloweened-out parents were secretly relieved.

This year, my now grown-up daughter had an early (day before) Halloween Fest. She and her friends went to a party on the pier in the big city, resulting in her late rising the following morning. Thus, we decided to spend Halloween night quietly. Living in a more secluded part of town now, we don’t get many trick-or-treaters. So at her suggestion, we decided to go to the big mall nearby to enjoy the holiday. Almost every store dispensed candy, and eager costumed little’uns grasped them, as their parents lovingly documented their every move on video with wonder. Tweens and teens thronged the place in costumes, and it’s always fun to see the costumes up close and in well-lit surroundings. It did not stop me from picking out a couple of favorite candy as well. We then went to a gourmet chocolatier and picked out our favorites to munch on. Our choices included raspberry and milk chocolate truffle, chili pepper and chocolate, ginger and chocolate, and macadamia nut buttercream flavors. Each piece of chocolate is tiny, looks artisanal, although some of the chocolate coverings have printed out edible designs. We had to do this, as it’s Halloween tradition to enjoy a treat. The chocolates look so beautiful in several shapes, colors, and designs, and the price and calories of course were the trick in the treat.

http://www.cocoabella.com/chocolates.php

We had a sudden urge to revisit our old neighborhood. Slowly, we cruised around, enjoying the decorated homes, the children, their parents, and it was fun briefly to return to earlier days.

We drank the last dregs of Halloween not with Witches’ Brew, but with a hot cup of cider. Then we cozily finished off our night unscathed in the elite company of Lizzie Borden and Alfred Hitchcock. Good night!