Halloween

So we’re three days into November, and I’m sure everyone’s tired of hearing about Halloween, but I’m just getting around to it.

I’m not a big Halloween person. I’m sure this stems from being excluded from Halloween as a child. I have pictures of myself in Halloween costumes when I was a preschooler. I remember carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds. I even remember trick-or-treating with my cousins in the town where our grandparents lived. I remember not being able to touch the candy until my parents went through it looking for needle marks and glass.

I also remember the time our neighbors got me a special treat for Halloween…one of those big, round, flat lollipops the size of one’s hand, or face, if you’re a small child. This memory sticks out for me because I was given this special treat in lieu of the candy they had for other children, and I wanted the regular candy, whether I wanted it in addition to or instead of the lollipop, I’m not sure. Either way, you can rest assured that I was thoroughly reprimanded for my greediness, ungratefulness, and poor manners. I was 4 years old.

By the time I was in 3rd grade, however, we no longer participated in Halloween. My mom said that it was because witches, etc., really do exist, and it wasn’t something to joke around about or take lightly. In 2nd grade, our music teacher had dressed up as a witch for Halloween. I thought it was so cool, and I told my mom about it. She promptly called the school to complain. I think this was the catalyst.

We would buy a bag of candy (to stand in for what we were missing) and sit in our darkened house watching a rented movie. The first couple of years were the worst. I was still in public school, and the other students couldn’t fathom the possibility of not trick-or-treating. Then I transferred to a Christian school, and Halloween wasn’t mentioned by the teachers or the school. Everyone else’s parents were more on the same wavelength as my parents there.

Now I have children, and I do not wish to be the “Halloween Scrooge Mommy.” We did not dress Gogo up for her first two Halloweens, as I did not see the point. When she was 2, we dressed her up and took her to a few houses, but she wasn’t all that thrilled. Last year, she started preschool, and it was as if they talked about nothing else for the entire month of October. She was hooked. In August, she declared her intent to be Tinkerbell this year.

So Gogo was Tinkerbell, and Zuzu was Minnie Mouse. We did not collect candy for Zuzu, as that is one of my pet peeves, but somewhere along the way, someone gave her a small box of Nerds. I thought it was cute and figured she’d just shake the box and have fun with the noise. Of course not…she chewed on it and managed to eat some. She spent the rest of the night trying to get into the candy stash. I believe Halloween has a new fan.